I have my normal FS bike and I also have an old Zaskar that I mainly use for rides with the family. Is it really worth using the Zaskar, which isnt quite as much fun, for most of my riding over the winter and ‘saving’ the FS for big rides?

I cant really see the point to be honest.

Yes. If you ride the whole winter on the FS, you will most likely have to replace the bushings/bearings and service the shock. This costs a fair bit. Ride the zaskar and you may have to service the forks, this costs a lot less.

nah sell the bike use the FS all year round

Only if you can’t be bothered cleaning/maintaining your bike.

My Enduro gets used all year around. I just make a point of cleaning it straight after a ride, and re-greasing the bearings and shock sleeve every 2-3 of months.

Still using the same bearings that got used all last winter 1-2 times a week and there’s no play in them yet.

If you’re riding twice a week or more off road then yes i’d say so. Depending on how you ride you might have replace bearings etc…

A single speed is ideal as you can leave it covered in mud for a while and there be no ill effects.

Keep the full suss clean you should be fine.. After the “summer” we’ve just had i can’t see winter riding being any worse.

Yes on the road,salt is a nightmare.
Off road ,no reason you would have to spend any more if it stays dry 😉

One for snow, one for rain, one for sun and one for when it’s a bit cloudy and breezy.

That’s all you need.

It all depends on how much and often you ride.I’ve a rigid bike with a Rohloff hub for winter but I commute off road so it gets plastered in mud twice a day. It just gets the chain wiped and squirted with GT85. I really wouldn’t want to ride a bike in those circumstances that needed more maintenance.
And I’ve just ordered a Supernova E3 Triple so I won’t even have the hassle of charging batteries this winter.

Yes, found out that shops charge £100 to replace the bearings in spesh frames as they’re a PITA (and there’s 10 of them + bushings)!

Buy contrast a SS with ‘zocchi forks will require f*** all maintenance, although my rear hub appeared to collapse last night so might need a service………

You just need another bike, according to the formula.

Yes on the road,salt is a nightmare

Is it really though? I’ve never had any noticeable corrosion from salt in the thousands of winter road miles I’ve done. Tend to get ‘crazing’ on the STIs levers, which I assume is from my sweat!

If you sell the Zaskar you could probably buy a set of bearings and a couple of transmissions for the FS bike.

I’ve done the winter bike thing, but IMO unless you have a bike anyway it’s a false economy. In fact, I’m thinking of selling my Allez and just riding my full Dura Ace Madone year round, the only slight hurdle is whether it would get nicked from work!

IT might not be. The cost of buying and then maintaining the second bike may be higher than just maintaining the one bike.

There are reasons to do it though. If you want two bikes it’s worth it, especially if you want one of those bikes to be something fairly basic (I have a full suss and a ss ht). I ride both year round but tend to prefer the ss in winter as it’s easier to clean quickly in the cold and dark after a night ride.

The other main reason for me is that it means I’ve always got one full working bike. When the forks are being serviced or something has broken and I’m waiting for spares then the other one is usually rideable or between the two I can make something work.

Worth it? for me yes, my bikes are different and I like that. Don’t need two, but I’m lucky enough that want is the only requirement.

I thought about SSing it but as I use it to put the kiddie trailer I thought better of it because that is hard enough to pull with a full compliment of gears.

To be honest I dont find it particually difficult replacing all the bearings on my Enduro and I am yet to buy the proper tools. Only £20 or so online for the bearings and I am definitely not paying £80 for a bike shop to change bearings!! Spoon dont you have a Pitch? Even easier to change the bearings on that.

Is it really though? I’ve never had any noticeable corrosion from salt in the thousands of winter road miles I’ve done.

Has been on a few of my winter road bikes .
Salt ate right through the bottom of the headset cup and corroded the (AL)frame under the paint on one of them.
Cables get trashed and everything starts to seize up or weld in place ( spokes)if you don’t keep on top of it ( not easy to do in the dark days if you busy with other stuff). Now this may just be a far North thing ,where they are known to go a bit mad on the salt to grit ratio,but none the less ,I won’t be taking anything nice out on the road till March/April .

Off road ,I use the same bikes all year round .I even use the same tyres 😉

I’m going down the route of bargain bin SS hack for a “Winter” bike assembled from spares and classifieds parts, there’s nothing preventing me using it when the sun comes back out, I just don’t want to keep cleaning the shite out of the gears on my posher bikes after every other local trundle between now and next ~March…

I don’t really want to find myself using weather and subsiquent cleaning as an excuse not to go for a ride, ultinmately I’m removing an excuse for not getting out and riding this winter…

I certainly wouldn’t spend much on a “Winter Bike” though, I barely anything on the “Summer bikes”.

I don’t need much of an excuse to skip winter rides – if I take my summer bike or my full sus out in slush and rain I feel the need to clean them which takes ages. So, I ride more because of my Winter bike. It never gets cleaned or lubed, never goes in the shed, leans up against the fence by the back door. I bought it on ebay for £11.60 . It is a really frigging awful bike, but a bike none-the-less – I love riding it.

ride the full suss all year and stop worrying

The biggest advantage of having multiple bikes is you can still ride if something breaks and you need to wait for parts.

And if you ride even a couple of times a week sending shocks and forks off for servicing can lose you a few rides.

I suppose the way to look at it is, what does a winter bike save you if anything?

If you are looking at wear and tear on a Gucci FS bike then its what, shock service ~£80, set of Pivot bearings Varies I know but lets say ~£50 for the sdake of argument, sundry components Brake pads/chain/cassette/etc wear and replacement ~£50

So arguably we’re looking at something like £160 – £200 worth of wear, possibly more if you feel the need to post your forks to TF or Mojo as well.

You can assemble or buy a cheapy 2nd hand SS for that sort of money, there will still be wear and tear on it through winter use, but compared with the cost of restoring your £3K ego chariot’s suspension, gearing and brakes to full function after a winter of abuse ~£30 once a year on a chain, brake pads and some cables, seems a fair compromise to me…

If the offset of costs simply isn’t there, and your happier on the one bike, then don’t do it… Simple really…

I built a winter hack out of cheap parts/stuff in the shed, cost me less than £100 and it’s still quite well specced.
I reasoned that the cost of replacing the drivetrain, servicing suspension etc on my ‘main’ bike would be more so if the winter hack lasts until next spring I’ve saved cash.

NO, just clean and service as usual. Couldn’t imagine riding a substandard bike.

My winter bike cost twice as much as the summer one. 🙂

weird question.

winter was invented for single speed

I find a few months on a hardtail over the winter makes me faster when I get back on the full-suss in the Spring.

Running two bikes doesn’t save money overall, but I run cheaper parts on the hardtail as it gets used in the worst conditions. It also gives me a spare bike to lend to mates/family when needed, and for when my best bike is being repaired.

I think the main thing that is stopping me riding the Zaskar at the moment is that my lights fit the OS bars on my FS but not the skinny bars on the Zaskar.

What about looking at it the other way round?

Is it worth spending big bucks on a bike you don’t want to use when it’s muddy?

The cost of buying and then maintaining the second bike may be higher than just maintaining the one bike.

No, because the wear is spread over 2 bikes, so parts last twice as long. If a cassette lasts you a year now, buying a second bike wont mean both cassetts need replacing in a year (unless you ride 2x as much). In reality my summer bike needs SFA doing to it as it only comes out in the dry. And the winter bike needs SFA as its singlespeed with tiny disk rotors.

Is it worth spending big bucks on a bike you don’t want to use when it’s muddy?

Yes, I like having a bike thats always in 100% working order. Over winter this means a singlespeed as theres less to go wrong, and the summer bike lasts much longer as a result.

As well as honing my hardtail skills in the winter months, I also like having a bike that’s easier to clean during the winter.

…and one bike is clearly not enough to own 😉

I’ve always run two bikes (min) and I’ve ended up with a £3.5K Lynskey Ridgeline in a super spec as the “good” bike; this is for all group riding, whch are effectively my races these days – we tend to blast it all the way, in an old fart kind of way…used in all weathers for that purpose

Bike no. 2 is a fixed wheel MTB – why? Because riding it is hard work (32×14) and makes the group rides feel easier – the training should always be harder than the “racing”, you know.

So, I think we can all make excuses for more than one bike – whether it’s the weather, the season, the colour, the weight, suspension, no suspension, gears, no gears, road, off-road…doesn’t matter – 2 bikes is always better than one!

I think the main thing that is stopping me riding the Zaskar at the moment is that my lights fit the OS bars on my FS but not the skinny bars on the Zaskar.

I have say that is a corker of an excuse 😆

In the past I’ve always run a hardtail through the winter, and left the pampered full-suss tucked up all warm and cosy til the spring

I’ve just shelled out for new bearings and pivots for the full suss. And whatever bike you ride through a North West winter, you can budget for a new drivechain etc.

So if I have to do it anyway I might as well just ride the bloody thing all year round. I know my arse will thank me for this decision 😀

Depends on what your ‘summer’ bike is and how much money/time you’re willing to spend on it.

I got a winter bike a few years back. SS with rigid forks and hydro brakes so cleaning after a ride consists of nothing more than a quick hose down and lube of the chain. Wear is negligible and costs peanuts to replace when it does finally need replacing.

If I was going epics all year round then I’d still ride my ‘proper’ geared hardtail, mind.

kudos100 – Member
Yes. If you ride the whole winter on the FS, you will most likely have to replace the bushings/bearings and service the shock. This costs a fair bit. Ride the zaskar and you may have to service the forks, this costs a lot less

Perfect example of cyclist economics. “If I ride my bike, I’ll have to buy new bearings. So to save money, get another bike”

That was my argument for buying a Soul, and it makes perfect sense to me.

You forgot about Spring and Autumn, and the equinox twice a year, you need six minimum.