Do I need a winter bike?

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Comments

  • stueys
    stueys Posts: 1,332
    passout wrote:
    'Need' - no. 'Want' - probably.

    Winter bikes do make sense in my view, 'if' they are considerably cheaper than your summer bike & of course you need to consider mudguards. For me the reasons are mainly economic & revolve around wear & tear. Personally i wouldn't bother with discs. I'd a cheap alu bike and stick crud mudguards - some sub 500 quid deals at planet x at the mo (with 20% off voucher mentioned on here). Ribble have some good deals on winter triners. I got a GTR series 4 from PBK for 360 the other day. Even better - stick all you old parts on a used frame, if you have a shed full of bits.

    Agree with this, I ran my old Spesh Allez with Cruds/SKS for a fair few years as a winter trainer when I got a nicer bike to use. Worked pretty well.

    The only thing I would add is that I've now got a CX bike that I use as a winter ride and having proper fitted (and bigger) mudguards is absolute bliss. No more rubbing, adjustment, etc. Plus they keep a surprising amount of additional crud/water off you.

    For me it made sense as I consolidated bikes down, CX bike I use as winter roadie/kids ride bike and family trail bike, I then have my nice plaything for dry days. Means the mtb is currently on ebay as is the Spesh, (though I may keep that as a dedicated turbo bike depending on how the offers go!). And the CX bike runs big mudguards, big wheels and hyro discs, none of which are essential but all of which are pretty nice.

    Everyone's circumstances are different but it will hopefully work out as very limited additional expenditure for me (dependent on ebay..) and gives me more verstiality with my bikes.

    If I could only have one bike I would genuinely struggle to rationally explain why that shouldn't be something like a CX bike that takes full guards, can go on or offroad, can handle bigger tyres, etc. Probably a different discussion though :wink:
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Ai_1 wrote:
    mistertommyt wrote:
    ...As you say, Sunday was wet and it was on that ride that I was thinking about a winter bike. I don't run guards and I don't think they'd have kept me any drier anyway. It was so wet that I was essentially riding in a wet suit, but at least I was warm....
    Mudguards don't protect you from the rain itself but where I find they make a big difference is in greatly reducing/eliminating road spray hitting your feet, face and back. I find the small amount of dirty spray that typically comes off the top of the front wheel and hits your face quite annoying and unpleasant. The mudguards eliminate that completely. They also hugely reduce spray hitting your feet, especially when you hit any standing water. That eliminates any water getting in through the bottom of overshoes and makes a big difference to comfort and warmth.
    The other benefit of mudguards is when they're on your riding buddy's bike! I don't know about you but I hate drafting in the rain unless the bike in front has a decent rear mudguard.
    You still get wet with mudguards but it's clean water and it's all from above.

    +1 to this. I did the Wymondham 50 last year with 2 work colleagues. I'd seen the weather forecast so took the bike with mudguards. Sure enough after half an hour the heavens opened and we were followed by the cloudburst for about an hour. Lanes quickly became streams of brown slurry, and at points the drains were overflowing. OK, so everyone was soaked, but I was pretty much the same colour I'd started, whereas my chums were both largely brown. And judging by the smell along parts of the route, I suspect that a significant portion of their spray tan was of animal origin :D
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Did not read all the replies but I am a big fan of having a winter bike.

    A few of reasons that may not have been mentioned are that....... its great just to have a second bike in case of emergencies (or generally not to have to rely on having one bike ready all the time).

    Also I use the winter bike all year round. Winter road use in the winter, and convert to TT bike in the summer.

    Thirdly it means that your best bike never has to be humiliated by wearing mudguards.
    http://www.iphonehdwallpaper.com/wp-con ... 40x510.jpg

    I think there are four types of road bike: Summer, winter, deep winter and ............ I do not have a name for it yet, but the one you ride only on sunny days, either on your own, or with people you trust not to rear end you!

    I am saving up for the fourth :wink:
  • florerider
    florerider Posts: 1,112
    I hit black ice on the first day of the season I took out the summer bike :cry:

    on a 15% downhill bend too, so no namby pamby toppling over stuff.
  • scott_w1987
    scott_w1987 Posts: 316
    coulddobetter wrote:
    Do you have an open top sports car for summer and a land rover for winter ? No ...then use the bike you have.

    I've got a B5 RS4 that I don't like getting dirty and a T5 van for the daily work commute and bike carting duties... So it seems my clean bike obsession probably comes from my clean car obsession. :lol:
  • kajjal
    kajjal Posts: 3,380
    If you want to preserve your better bike against crashed, salt / grit damage and the other good stuff the winter brings it can be a good idea but your winter bike will normally be a lot lower spec. There are plenty of second hand bikes at low prices ideal for use as a winter bike.

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