Winter bike?

louthepoo

When I did a bit of road riding I had 2 bikes, the good, well kitted out bike for the summer and a workhorse for the winter.

Do many mtb riders do this? I was wondering because I bought a nice carbon bike with pretty good kit and wondered if riding it through the winter will do it much damage? Or does a good clean down after riding protect it enough?

nicklouse

Nope.

What is the difference between a good ride and a winter ride?

The winter on may be drier.

bails87

Nope.

It's a mountain bike, it's built for mud.

Northwind

Some people get very precious about full suss bearings and expensive drivetrains. I say never buy a tool you're afraid to use, personally.

matt@theforce

Nope. I used my Cube AMS to commute on through the summer then through the winter last year and kept using it on my days off. Chain/Brake pads needed changing after the winter though as some nights it would get put into the garage covered in salt/slush etc around 8pm after work and I'd be back on it again at 4:30am commuting back to work the next day

cooldad

Northwind wrote:

Some people get very precious about full suss bearings and expensive drivetrains. I say never buy a focuszing you're afraid to use, personally.

Wrong I know but irresistible.

Raymondavalon

bails87 wrote:

Nope.

It's a mountain bike, it's built for mud.

QOTD! Well said Bails...

Although.... I do find fat bikes sort of appealing for winter..

cooldad

I quite fancy those fat bikes as well, but they generally cost a fortune - not exactly cheap winter hack. Especially the Jeff Jones.

Chinley Churner

I convert mine to single-speed for the winter as the Dark Peak gloop eats components and I'm a masochist.

paulbox

louthepoo wrote:

When I did a bit of road riding I had 2 bikes, the good, well kitted out bike for the summer and a workhorse for the winter.

Do many mtb riders do this? I was wondering because I bought a nice carbon bike with pretty good kit and wondered if riding it through the winter will do it much damage? Or does a good clean down after riding protect it enough?

One of the benefits of higher end kit is that they work better in poor conditions, why would you want to put up with worse shifting when the going gets gloopy?

On road bikes, the main issue is the wheels and braking surfaces, I can understand why people have winter wheels if they’re running £2k sets in the summer…

.blitz

Yes - not so much a winter bike because we have good days in winter and bad days in summer but more of a 'shite conditions' bike.

Worth its weight in gold it's great to have a bike that is low maintenance, 100% reliable and not special enough to care about.

mkf

.blitz wrote:

Worth its weight in gold it's great to have a bike that is low maintenance, 100% reliable and not special enough to care about.

that would be the best bike ever.
why would you need to swap?

mountain bikes are all about that

.blitz

When you ride as often as I do owning one bike is simply not an option

Kaise

Chinley Churner wrote:

I convert mine to single-speed for the winter as the Dark Peak gloop eats components and I'm a masochist.

i know your pain, im from glossop and the mud has a high sand/grit content, it ate my bike pretty much!

i have never really seen the point of a single speed in winter and not in summer, rear mechs are that much maintenance to be fair!

Markmjh

I can understand the need for a winter bike in road terms due to the salt all over the road from December through to April, but Mountain bikes tend to be built to take a bit more crap and spend far less time on the road exposed to the salt. As long as you clean it after each ride them it should wear not much differently to the summer.

mrmonkfinger

I have winter tyres. Does that count?

Anonymous

Some just don't like to get their bling muddy. I see the "winter" hard tails come out or statements that they need a hard tail for the winter. Huh?

Okay I've just built a hard tail, but it's not a substitute for the full sus. If anything I got that more for dry dusty XC in the summer and general fun. If the conditions are bad the big rig comes out for sure.

Anyway, down south winter can just be a couple of days. It's like people who buy winter tyres for their cars down here. A waste aside from a few cold days and maybe snow but certainty the place has shut down after 1mm of snow anyway so they won't bother going out.

cooldad

Snow = a bit of holiday. My company doesn't take it off leave so it's a bonus.

mrmonkfinger

deadkenny wrote:

It's like people who buy winter tyres for their cars down here. A waste aside from a few cold days and maybe snow but certainty the place has shut down after 1mm of snow anyway so they won't bother going out.

Think you might misunderstand what winter tyres do? They're just more effective (braking distance and all that) at low temperatures - they have sod all benefit in snow. They're not such a daft idea. Have a look at: http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N50W001+1202+0003769G2 - 5 months a year where winter tyres make sense (about 7 deg or below). Don't get much more South than Southampton...

Anonymous

mrmonkfinger wrote:

Think you might misunderstand what winter tyres do? They're just more effective (braking distance and all that) at low temperatures - they have sod all benefit in snow. They're not such a daft idea. Have a look at: http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N50W001+1202+0003769G2 - 5 months a year where winter tyres make sense (about 7 deg or below). Don't get much more South than Southampton...

Yeah, I know they're intended for the cold and people bang on about the 7 degree cut off a lot on various forums. Thing is, round this way lower than 7 degrees is not that common. Yes there may be more of such days over a 5 month period and we get unusual years like last year, but more often than not it's mild especially during the day (24 hour averages are likely to be lower as it's cold in the night!). Over 7 degrees and they're not so good and really you should be swapping tyres to summer every time it hits 7

Ultimately our summer tyres aren't slicks, they're all weather summer tyres. They cope fine in the cold and wet also (typical British winter), just not so amazing performance when it gets very cold. Unless you're racing and want performance there's no real reason for winter tyres in the south of the UK.

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/sa ... he-uk.html

mrmonkfinger

All true, it's definitely borderline down South - we just have some snow chains for the odd emergency scenario.

Northwind

mrmonkfinger wrote:

they have sod all benefit in snow.

This is total bobbins, M+S rated tyres are far better in snow than most standard tyres

Anonymous

As for bikes. There are crud tyres and there are snow tyres. If there were loads of snow days I'd consider snow tyres but at £50ish a tyre, not worth it for a couple of days. It's fun on regular tyres anyway.

Other than that just regular chunky tyres for the mud and crud in the winter, pretty much the same ones I use in the summer as it rains any time of year in this country. High Rollers and Minions will do for most stuff and I prefer roots and rocks any time of year.

nicklouse

Northwind wrote:

mrmonkfinger wrote:

they have sod all benefit in snow.

This is total bobbins, M+S rated tyres are far better in snow than most standard tyres

he is partly correct.

but only if you are the only car with suitable tyres on and the rest of the cars on the road cant go any where as they are not on suitable tyres.

Northwind

Now that's a fair point... They're equally good at standing still behind stuck cars.

nicklouse

Guess what I will be fitting this week end.

Northwind

nicklouse wrote:

Guess what I will be fitting this week end.

New motor bearings for your Fleshlight?

nicklouse

that was last weekends job.

Northwind

For me it's an every weekend job, damn things just don't stand up to the mileage.

diy

I just bought a road bike as my winter bike. The thinking being that when it pees it down all week, the trails will turn to poo and you just don't get the same exercise from sliding around in mud that you do in the summer.

My hr seems to drop 10bpm avg when riding with my winter tyres on compared to my summer tyres.

bails87

diy wrote:

I just bought a road bike as my winter bike.

#
That'll be fun on the ice