Winter Hack or Cleaning Decent Bike

Bullet1

After being somewhat of a fair weather cyclist of the past year i've decided to MTFU and get out a fair bit more in winter come rain or shine.

My current bike with upgrades etc would be worth £1,400 new - probably a much better bike than I am a cyclist!

Given the weather I'm faced with two options if I still wish to get out
1. Buy a winter bike (Triban 3 or Carrera Virtuoso or TdF) for £300
2. Spend a significant more time cleaning my current bike after each wet ride.

So thoughts?

If I take option 2 based on 2 to 3 rides a week, what ongoing maintentence / cleaning would you do and how often?

smidsy

Maintenance and cleaning do not change just because you get a cheap bike.

Ride what you have and look after it properly.

schweiz

smidsy wrote:

Maintenance and cleaning do not change just because you get a cheap bike.

Ride what you have and look after it properly.

+1

or buy a cheap bike and look after it properly! It'll still be expensive to replace drivetrain components, even on a cheap bike and If the drivetrain is wrecked then it'll be a PITA to ride with the chain jumping and skipping about.

Mystique

Treat yourself to a pair of Raceblades (other clip-on mudguards are available) and get out there. I ride my Look 555 year-round and the post-ride clean & lube takes no more than 10 minutes.

elderone

What some call a cheap bike is some one elses pride and joy and should be maintained regardless of cost.
Be a bit silly having a crash due to an ill maintained cheap bike,just to keep a better bike clean.

Bullet1

Yep - yet the poinit re a bike is a bike, still needs cleaning etc

What do you do to clean / lube?

schweiz

I've been using the same 2 litre cannister of turtlewax car shampoo for years. You only need a splash in a bucket.

Lube, I use Finish Line Ceramic Wet, but everyone will have their favourite.

smidsy

Basically its a case of keeping things cleaned and lubed.

Nothing fancy just make sure that you clean off the crud and re-apply lube to those things that should be lubed. e.g chain, cables, pivot points.

As for cleaning products and types of lube ... well thats a whole 2 other threads and both have been covered extensively on here many times in the past :-) Search is your friend.

Brian B

My winter bike is my old summer bike. Its a good bike and have been riding it for four winters now but take really good care of it and ensure its always clean and lubed.

I ride my winter bike from Novemember to March and due to the crap weather we have had in Blighty the only real difference between summer and winter is the salt on road and thats what you need to take care off due to the corrosion effect.

jameses

Mudguards are your friend! I fitted a pair of Crud Roadracers recently, can't believe how much of a difference they make! Almost nothing makes it onto the frame, and less than that onto the cranks, brakes and derailleurs. Cleaning is now a 10 minute job, quick wipe down of the frame and degrease/re-lube of the chain is all that's needed. Cheaper than getting a winter bike, too!

prawny

Neither, like me. I noticed this morning that my Rhigos is filthy, but its for riding not looking at. A quick hose down, wipe of the excess water WD40 on the chain and a spurt of lube. Cassette is black, wheels are minging and my bar tape is ripped. A poor show all round, but I mostly ride in the dark anyway.

bails1310

I'm a winter bike man I'm afraid.

I commute every day, circa 100-150 miles a week so the thought of my pride and joy getting filthy (crud catchers do help) didn't appeal.

I got a £300 Raleigh from eBay, brand new and I know as long as I give her a little TLC once a week she will be fine.

I has to work bloody hard to get the best bike so just want to keep it in good nick, that's just me though.

smidsy

We were not saying that winter bikes are a bad idea (hell I have one) just making the point that you still need to clean and maintain it if you want it to perform and get you where you want to go.

The Op seemed to suggest it was either a winter bike or cleaning and maintenance, which is simply folly.

simon_masterson

If you're going to get a 'winter bike', at least get something that's particularly good for the job. An old steel racer (for example) might cost you £20, £50, £100 or £400 (+), but you should be able to get something that takes full guards and a rack (if desired) and has clearance for 35-38mm tyres, which allows both bigger tyres for durability, grip and ride comfort, and snow tyres if need be. I don't know the exact details, but certainly the Triban does not look as if it fulfills the above criteria. Winter cycling is a great deal more enjoyable with mudguards and tougher tyres with better grip, but given the frequency of precipitation in our green and pleasant land I don't know why you would have only one bike with tyres best suited to dry conditions, and frankly a bit of puncture protection is no bad thing unless the roads near you are much better than the ones near me. In other words, if your tyres can handle a British summer and a British autumn, they can probably handle a British winter as well...

Otherwise, just keep your bike clean and lubricated.

Whether anyone likes it or not, unless your bike is very high end with a top-end groupset (the consumables for which though expensive ironically may well end up more durable than cheaper ones), carbon wheels with expensive featherlight silk tubs, and other expensive appointments, being unable to bear to ride it in winter is vain more than anything else. You could ride it regularly from October until February without so much as a drop of oil and it would probably be fine; anyone would think that road bikes disintegrate at the sight of a dark cloud.

It just isn't that hard to keep a bike in good basic nick. It's already been said, but keeping chains clean (degreasing not necessarily required but a good idea) and lubricated, brake pivots similar (I've read that GT-85 works well for this but haven't tried it personally; mine just get a drop of oil here and there) and the rest of the bike clean (using some form of soapy water, car shampoo or bike wash), can go a very long way. No smothering bikes in solvents or frantically rushing it to the workstand as soon as you get in (if you can do that you didn't work hard enough!), or anything drastic. It can take you sitting on it; it's tougher than you think.

(I use Green Oil products, by the way. They are excellent. I'd be happy to recommend Finish Line Cross Country to anyone, though; it's cheap, it's available and it works very well.

pswinfield

I fell on my Bianchi the other day in the rain and the bill for sorting it out is going to be the price of a really decent winter bike! In retrospect I should have got a winter hack with more durable bits.

night_porter

My best bike is carbon with a Red groupset on it and my winter commuter has Tiagra. Last month I had a fall on ice and have had to replace the Tiagra shifters. The total cost of the repair was about £90 as I did it myself but if I had fallen on the best bike the bill could have cost considerably more.

Of the bikes you mention I know that the Carrera Virtuoso will take SKS type full mudguards and like others have said this will protect your bike an enormous amount and reduce the amount of cleaning you need to do. The groupset is Shimano 2200 so repairs are likely to be cheaper too so this is what I do/recommend.

cougie

I ride a fixed wheel for the winter.
It has full proper mudguards on so its less messy for me to ride.
Its got less bits to clean than my summer bike.
Its also a lot cheaper - I came off on the ice last year - that would have been expensive on my good bike.

I will hose it down after nasty rides but thats about it.

If i was taking my best bike out - I'd have to be a lot more thorough on cleaning and then polishing it. My mate is a bit slack on cleaning and he let the road salt corrode the nice finish on his groupset.

ovi

I've just come back from a ride and I took this photo half way through, would you want a good bike to get like this?
The chainset and rear derailleur is right up the naffs. You could stick to the main roads where its cleaner but I like to be a bit adventurous with my old bike.
on my rides


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

smidsy

ovi wrote:

I've just come back from a ride and I took this photo half way through, would you want a good bike to get like this?
The chainset and rear derailleur is right up the naffs. You could stick to the main roads where its cleaner but I like to be a bit adventurous with my old bike.
on my rides


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

BUT you will still clean and lube it will you not?

The OP seemed to think that if he got a winter bike it removed the need for maintenance and cleaning...or at least that is how it came across to me, which is why I gave the response I did. 8)

night_porter

smidsy wrote:

The OP seemed to think that if he got a winter bike it removed the need for maintenance and cleaning...or at least that is how it came across to me, which is why I gave the response I did. 8)

Cleaning a winter bike takes significantly less time than cleaning your best bike and I think that is what he meant.

My winter bike gets a weekly Muc Off wash and brush up with an extra wipe dry and relube of the drivetrain if I ride home in pouring rain. The frame and wheels are alloy so they will not rust but the drivetrain is not.

If I rode my best bike it would get the full works including dismantling polishing most things after every ride and considering I get home at half past midnight that just would not happen.

Winter bikes for commuting are a must and can be used at the weekends too if it is really horrible out. Much better than looking out of the window and deciding not to ride.

ovi

smidsy wrote:

ovi wrote:

I've just come back from a ride and I took this photo half way through, would you want a good bike to get like this?
The chainset and rear derailleur is right up the naffs. You could stick to the main roads where its cleaner but I like to be a bit adventurous with my old bike.
on my rides


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

BUT you will still clean and lube it will you not?

The OP seemed to think that if he got a winter bike it removed the need for maintenance and cleaning...or at least that is how it came across to me, which is why I gave the response I did. 8)

I'll just look out for a big puddle lol

Flexisurfer

Cleaning a winter bike takes significantly less time than cleaning your best bike and I think that is what he meant.

My winter bike gets a weekly Muc Off wash and brush up with an extra wipe dry and relube of the drivetrain if I ride home in pouring rain. The frame and wheels are alloy so they will not rust but the drivetrain is not.

If I rode my best bike it would get the full works including dismantling polishing most things after every ride and considering I get home at half past midnight that just would not happen.

Winter bikes for commuting are a must and can be used at the weekends too if it is really horrible out. Much better than looking out of the window and deciding not to ride.[/quote]


Word for word what I was going to say. I bought a new winter bike last October and its been ridden through the worst winter weather so far, so much so it's back at he shop waiting for a new set of forks, freehub and bottom bracket. I returned to work last Thursday and rode my best bike with guards and after just 2 days it looked like it had been ridden through a building site. It's just been given the clean of all cleans after today's ride, if I had been on the winter bike then I wouldn't clean it to he same extent. I've got SKS guards on my best bike and Cruds on the winter bike and the Cruds keep the bike cleaner no doubt.

night_porter

Hmmm someone else gets home at half past midnight eh???

pollys_bott

night_porter wrote:

Winter bikes for commuting are a must and can be used at the weekends too if it is really horrible out. Much better than looking out of the window and deciding not to ride.

Nail. Head.

Building myself a commuter / winter bike this time last year was one of the best things I've done.

GavH

I don't understand the question. Why would you not want more than one bike?

In all seriousness, I built my winter bike after pointing out o the wife the damaging effects of the corrosive effect the salty gunk on winter roads was having on my carbon bike. That cued an excuse to build a winter bike, which in order to 'save costs' would 'borrow' certain expensive parts from the good bike (wheels and tyres, shifters, chain, cassette, pedals, saddle). Obviously a few months later, the new bike 'really' needed new wheels and tyres, shifters, chain, cassette, pedals and a saddle.

Net result: reasonably nice winter bike with an upgraded summer bike on the side.

k-dog

I would definitely get another bike - and definitely with proper mudguards - they are a lot better than clip on ones.

This is the first year I've done that and it's been great - I got a single-speed bike with 35mm tyres and good mudguards. It's been very easy to keep clean (proper mudguards do that as they are long enough) and really only needs a light hose down and some lube occasionally.

Last year my best bike got filthy and I spent a lot of time fiddling with it to get it back to normal. It's in individual pieces right now and should be back in best condition when the weather gets better.

I wouldn't buy any of the bikes you suggested. £200 is a lot for a second hand bike so you could get something much better that will suit your needs. If it lasts a couple of winters with only minimal maintenance then you'll have had your money's worth and not ruined your other bike.

Bullet1

Thanks for all your responses.

Just to be clear - I know that all bikes need maintenance. I also know that I'd spend more time and effort cleaning a £250 bike than I would a £1500 bike.

smidsy

Surely you would spend the same time cleaning both (if not more time on the higher value one not less)

drlodge

I've now got a Winter bike, my old Condor 531 and it has mudguards fitted only 4 years after buying them!!! I'll take this out if its wet and I don't want to get my new pride and joy dirty.

The new Rourke gets taken out if its "dry", and on long rides like last Sat when I did 77 miles. Although it was dry, I still kept to main roads as the minor roads are still quite $hitty, the Rourke did have some dirt on it but not that bad. I don't want to get crud in the expensive Campag Super Record drive train.

bobones

Winter bike for me, well more like winter/rain bike as it sees a lot of use in other seasons too. This bike has SKS guards attached permanently, less nice wheels, hardier tyres, and slightly cheaper components, but it's still a nice bike that I enjoy riding and can ride fast. That's important: if you don't enjoy riding your winter bike, you're less likely to go out in foul weather.

Regardless of how often you clean your bike, the rims will wear a lot faster in crap weather so definitely don't use your best wheels if you want them to last more than a couple of seasons. I also think you're a lot more likely to crash in wet or winter conditions so it's nice to not be so worried about the frame or components taking a hit. The good bike stays turbo ready (i.e. trainer tyre attached) during the winter months and still gets used regularly, albeit indoors with zero risk of damage.