Winter commute Advice needed!

Cycling-mad

Hello all im new to the forum so i hope iv posted in the correct section - Heres my questions
I live in West Norway and have been commuting to work for the past three months and so far have been enjoying myself apart from the occasional being cold / cold hands and brake problems :P The commute is approx 20km each way adding upto around 200km monday to friday!
I currently own a Felt F1x Cyclocross - its the older model with v-brakes? And a Specialized rockhopper comp 2009 with disc brakes!

With the snow already starting and the temperatures becoming pretty cold in the mornings i am wondering which bike you would suggest to be using for a "Winter" commuter! I use my cyclocross daily but i do hate the brakes! The specialized feels "Safer" but thats purely a mixture of im not a road racer and the disc brakes work

Any ideas or advice would be much apreciated (Yes if i had the money i would own a Felt f3x or Specialized Crux 2013 - unfortunatly i dont)

Thanks in advance!

passout

I'd improve the brakes on the cross bike - perhaps a new (better) set of brakes but very often just changing the pads is enough - look at Kool Stop products. Alternatively get some disc forks & put an Avid BB7 cable disc brake up front with cantilevers (with new pads) on the rear.

MTB will be slower & more fustrating but obviously you 'could' use it. You could but some snow /ice tyres on it and save it for the 'really' bad weather.

Cycling-mad

Thats brilliant thank you! Iv changed all the cables and pads on the cross recently - ill be honest its not made a noticiable difference! Instead of spending a fortune upgrading all the parts mentioned on the cross would it be better to look at a solid fork peice to upgrade the hardtail? Snow can be "bad" alot along with solid ice and freezing temperatures - This will be the first winter i try and hopefully sucseed to carry on commuting via bicycle! Thanks for your time and advice .

passout

Yeah you could put some rigid forks on the MTB & upgrading like that is never cheap. I guess you know about these tyres: http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php ... 0s142p1942

corshamjim

The Guardian ran this feature recently..

http://m.guardian.co.uk/environment/bik ... pe=article

Where I am in the UK we don't see anything like enough snow for these fat bikes to be useful, although doubtless they're a lot of fun!

I use the Marathon Winter tyres as well - they're great when the roads are icy, but also work okay on relatively light snow.

asprilla

I thought the F1x came with cantilever brakes?

Bordersroadie

I also do a 20km each way commute (in Scotland) and have a 2007 Rockhopper which I've converted into an ice/snow commuting bike with the fitment of a rigid (carbon) fork and studded ice tyres (Marathon Winter). Mine has v-brakes which I find are excellent with decent brake pads, and are lighter than a disc setup.

jimmypippa

Bordersroadie wrote:

I also do a 20km each way commute (in Scotland) and have a 2007 Rockhopper which I've converted into an ice/snow commuting bike with the fitment of a rigid (carbon) fork and studded ice tyres (Marathon Winter). Mine has v-brakes which I find are excellent with decent brake pads, and are lighter than a disc setup.

Watch out for slush sticking to the rims though - not good to find that the tyre grips the road OK but the brakes have stopped gripping the rim.

Cycling-mad

Some fantastic feedback from you all thank you!! Tried the rockhopper today with the current setup and oh boy its heavy and slow compared with the F1x ended up with three punctures and a skinned knee / leg :S Either i shall go with the option of a solid for on the rockhopper because i just feel that much safer on the bike or i will upgrade the brakes and hopefully find some of these marathon winter tyres for the f1x on the subject of punctures - anybody know what the marathon winters are like for "deflecting" anything similar to a kevlar tyre? Thanks again!!

corshamjim

Unfortunately I don't think the Marathon Winter tyres have substantial puncture protection. Certainly I suffered a slow puncture on mine last year from a hawthorn.

Initialised

I clocked 51.1 mph on a Rockhopper so I wouldn't call it slow, best I managed on the same descent on my rigid was 47mph, so depending on the terrain and weather I'd be putting Ice Spikers on the hopper and locking the fork for climbs and maybe find some of road routes.