Hello all.

Why shouldn’t I use my only and best road bike through the winter? It’s carbon with a nice groupset, but if I stick a cheaper set of wheels with winter tyres on, is the groupset etc really going to get that knackered – especially if i give it a quick hose down after a wet ride?

The ‘done’ thing seems to be to have a seperate bike, but surely a new cheap bike will be more expensive than the cost of any damage done (especially as I already have the spare wheels)?

Discuss.

If you come off in ice or snow then you will have trashed your good bike.

Gritting and salting tend to degrade bikes.

I’d generally use a good bike in winter if it was dry and comparatively warm. Once it gets cold and wet….out comes the hack bike.

Plus, you will appreciate your ‘good’ bike more when the spring comes.

At the end of the day it is up to you.

‘good bikes’ tend not to have clearance for slightly fatter tyres or proper ‘guards, either.

Ah yes, I hadn’t considered the falling off possibility!

If you come off in ice or snow then you will may have trashed scratched your good bike.

I didn’t have a winter bike for many years as I couldn’t afford one and didn’t have the space for it.

Now that’s not the case, it’s a fantastic feeling riding the non-winter road bike as it’s not used all that much and bikes that aren’t used in crap weather just feel that much smoother.

FWIW, my winter road bike is a carbon disc CX bike (with road tyres for road riding) so hardly slumming it.

If you use it a lot all winter, you will require new chainrings, chain and sprockets as a minimum, and the mechs and cables may be in a bit of a state too.

You also might not have space to put mudguards on as stated above, and even the parts that don’t wear out will get tarnished by the rain and salty spray.

So it’s up to you, but it might actually be the more economical solution if you have top end parts on your good bike, and it’ll certainly give you the opportunity to put proper mudguards on.

A winter bike will have also have clearance and mounts for proper mudguards. Depends where you ride, but if I rode my race bike regularly through winter the weather would wreck it.
I have 13 year old front and rear gear mechs on the race bike which are still working perfectly. I’ve been through quite a few mechs on the commuting/winter bike in that time.

you will require new chainrings, chain and sprockets as a minimum, and the mechs and cables may be in a bit of a state too.

Nah, you’ll get a couple of years on the road IME but that is wearing it to the point of starting to slip. Cables I find actually wear out much faster than the drivetrain.

It’s about wearing out cheaper stuff, having proper mudguards.

If I had a penny for every noobie roadie bringing in a high end bike in spring that’s been trashed by winter salt…

You don’t have to get a winter bike but by the time you’ve bought those wheels, brake pads and possibly a new Cassette/rings/chain at the end of summer you’re probably not far short of the price of a “Triban 3” or “Carrera TDF” and riding a “crap” bike all winter will make you’re summer bike seem utterly awesome when you get back on it…

Personally I’m having a few second thoughts about flogging off all the parts from my old road bike (now I’ve gone and taken it apart), but winter commuting duties will fall to my fixie (guards are now on) and I’ve sort of decided said my ”New” Carbon bike will be an all seasons bike as it’s not cost me much to build so far, I’ll just find some appropriate clip on guards and it can have new wheels come summer…

TBH if I was you OP I’d maybe look at a CX bike rather than a winter roadie covers more “bases” and should deal with poor weather better…

My winter bike, when compared to my summer bike, has:

Stronger wheels so I’m less worried about pot holes.
Disk brakes as they are better in the wet.
Wider tyres for more grip in the rain.
Full mud guards.
Mounts for a full size frame pump.
Lots of ugly looking reflective stuff on it.
Cheap group set which I don’t mind getting covered in rain, wet lube and salt from the roads.

It’s heavy and ugly (much like its owner) but it does it’s job perfectly. And it means when I get on my best bike in the spring I feel like I gain about 5mph (I don’t, but it feels like it!). Mine’s a PX Kaffenback BTW.

and of course, your ‘summer’ bike can get a full strip-down+rebuild over winter.

(and your winter bike gets the same treatment in summer)

it means you can REALLY keep on top of maintenance, which helps things last longer.

.

Why not?

I’ve a cheap Ribble with 105, full mudguards, wider tyres, that I’ll happily ride through anything..

I don’t mind about it getting trashed etc, whereas my summer bike, I’m a bit more protective over..

It’s great to have a bike permanently set up with mud guards all year round. In Englandshire it occasionally rains during the summer – handy to have an alternative.

(Having said that I was on my winter bike for the 1st time on Saturday – like riding a farm gate compared with my good bike). Roll on next summer.

Depends how far your commuting and how often doesn’t it

I used to commute 8 miles every day – in this case fatter tyres, mudguards, and cheaper, heavier kit might make sense. I say might as I used to do this on my normal racer without too much bother but each to there own.

These days I do a 22 mile commute twice a week. I can choose the best riding days to avoid the worst of the weather…. and no way would I do this distance on anything other than a fast bike.

It’s great to have a bike permanently set up with mud guards all year round. In Englandshire it occasionally rains during the summer – handy to have an alternative.

Exactly this, but maybe it depends how committed you are to road riding anyway. If you don’t think it makes sense for you, it probably doesn’t!

And the black ice thing on cold days in winter.

Winter bike = Commuting bike, light, fixed, nice to ride, full mudguards.
Nice bike = Summer and dry winter day rides, SKS Raceblade Long mudguards.
Race bike = Race bike all year round (Imperial Winter Series starts Dec 8th)

I have an extra set of wheels for winter for the Nice/Race bikes. And I do commute on the Nice and Race bikes when I’m riding them after work (club and race nights).

What TiRed said. But if I only had two it’d be a training bike that’d be used all year round (maybe with a change of wheels for summer) and a race bike.

I’ve used my Madone over a few winters when I’ve not had winter bikes, I think it’s sustained more ‘damage’ (and it’s mainly superficial – light batteries rubbing, mud guard stays scuffing etc) in 2 winters than in 10 years of summer riding.

It’s not died though, the aluminium chainrings are original, chain and cassette wear hasn’t been all that much work. My Allez, which is now my winter bike, has cheaper parts on but they need replacing more. It’s had 3 sets of brake calipers, whilst the Dura Ace ones on the Madone remain fine (although the nuts are rather seized).

I understand the salt and the fact that winter is not kind on your bike but I don’t understand people saying it has stronger wheels for potholes.

Do the council come round and fix all the potholes in spring and then chip out the tarmac in autumn?

Do the council come round and fix all the potholes in spring and then chip out the tarmac in autumn?

Not far off. The cold weather tends to open up the holes in winter and they get fixed in the spring. Also, in the summer I can see the buggers, in the winter, no matter how good your lights are, you often don’t see them until too late.

It may just me being a crap rider but I certainly hit a lot more of them in the winter than the summer.

I have a Titanium Sabbath September for sale racks and mudguards included £950
[url=https://flic.kr/p/jXmHjn]20140210_120452[1][/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

What lunge said.

A Pair of CXP22s with lots of spokes paired with fat tyres or fatter tyres, make a lot of sense for the winter commute. As I don’t have a commute any more it is largely academic for me. I usually try to run tyres with more volume anyway. Winter roads are a lot rougher plus, where I live, the rain tends to wash flints and stones into the road. This in turn calls for bigger tyres albeit ones with some puncture protection.

I only have one bike (carbon), about £1,800 worth. 7 years later it’s still going same as always. Groupset hasn’t exploded, it’s lasting far better than MTB stuff as you’d expect. I really can’t see a reason to get another one! I can’t fit anything other than 23s but this hasn’t been an issue. It doesn’t have race wheels, since it was built as a general purpose bike.

I have a hybrid for commuting purposes which is battered around and covered in racks and guards and stuff. The roadie takes clip-on guards nicely enough. I don’t wash it much, I’ve only given it 3-4 cassettes, and it’s not showing any signs of corrosion. Unless you count the loss of sheen on crank arms etc.

I think summer bikes are for roadies who are precious about their pimpy clean Italian bling.

My winter bike is for commuting and shit weather. It has full length guards and lights fitted. It also cost less to build than replacing the chain, chain rings and cassette on the fast bike. I do around a thousand miles per month give or take and a winter at that mileage will eat a bike alive. On a wet day it’s nice to pick up the winter bike and roll it out the door without worrying too much about it eating expensive parts. I also ride in a group so mudguards are good manners.

I really can’t see a reason to get another one!

It’s another bike. More bikes = good.

I don’t commute every day but it’s a 65 mile round trip so I’d need something reasonably quick.

Seems that the general opinion is that winter really **** a road bike!

I’m trying to not spend too much as I sold my Roubaix to part fund this purchase, so I’ll be gutted if I have to re-spend that sort of money when I could have kept the Roubaix for winter duties.

A slightly cheaper option would be to put 1” tyres on my singlespeed mtb and run it something like 50/16, but I can’t imagine that it would feel right.

I think summer bikes are for roadies who are precious about their pimpy clean Italian bling.

Me me me! 🙂

I love having a road bike that is spotless and kept for best.

Every other bike is filthy which just makes it all the better.

It’s the wheels as well. That scraping noise of pads on wet gritty rims hurts me when it happens to a £500 pair of Mavics. If it’s my R500’s that are being worn away then I don’t give a toss.

Just like MTB’s, if you get caught in the wrong conditons with the wrong chain lube you can trash a road bikes drivechain in a single ride too.

The finish on my road bike’s been knackered by salt.

Idealy I’d keep it for sumemr use, but it’s not really nice enough, and seeing as a winter bike would need a full strip in Spring anyway, it’s not anymore effort to do it to my one and only bike.

But as others said, it’d be nice to have a bike ready set up with 28c tyres, guards, disks, wet lubed chain etc as well as just saving the nice bike. Drasticaly reduced the number of days where you have to think “mehhhh, not today”.

It’s the wheels as well. That scraping noise of pads on wet gritty rims hurts

Damn right, a crappy winter of commuting and wet club runs can trash a pair of rims.

would much rather replace a pair of Open sports at @25 per end each time rather than posh wheels where rims are often very difficult to get hold of and cost a fortune.

TBH if I was you OP I’d maybe look at a CX bike rather than a winter roadie covers more “bases” and should deal with poor weather better…

Or he could buy my guard-shod winter Defy to allow me to do that ^ 😀

I think it’s sustained more ‘damage’ (and it’s mainly superficial – light batteries rubbing, mud guard stays scuffing etc) in 2 winters than in 10 years of summer riding.

I’d cry if that happened to my carbon Bianchi

It’s great to have a bike permanently set up with mud guards all year round. In Englandshire it occasionally rains during the summer – handy to have an alternative.

…and my winter bike sits on the turbo trainer when not in use for winter duties, using cheap £11 Luganos rather than even bothering swapping for a turbo specific tyre.

To be honest I’ve just bought a winter/ crap weather bike, a Genesis Equlibrium, full Sora 9 speed and 32 spoke wheels, the guards will be going on soon.

The main driver behind it is that my Giant TCR is way too nice to ride in crappy weather and the new wheels on it were about half the price of the genesis, also tyre clearance is crap for the cow poo paved country / rough Tarmac roads we have round here from now until about March

My main reason for not having a summer road bike is that I’d never ride it. It can rain and be crappy any time of year, and often does 🙂

My nice road bike is used all year round with a swap to a cheaper wheelset / gp4seasons and a ass saver was fine both winters – in fact I managed the Rapha festive 500 on it in some pretty horrible weather last winter.

All it’s needed is a new chain. Cleaning the salt off is a bit of a pain but I think the extra wear winter causes is over egged.

That said, I’m in the market for a winter bike – probably a disk equipped CX mainly because its time for n+1 rather than I need it.

I think summer bikes are for roadies who are precious about their pimpy clean Italian Taiwanese bling.

FTFY. If the weather looks like rain and wet lube would be needed, The pimpy clean Taiwanese Bling stays in the garage. If it looks dry and crisp, it comes out. Racing is on closed unsalted circuits, so the race bike is used all year around.

And then there’s that feeling of swinging your leg over your best bike after months of riding the heavy one. It’s soooooo nice. Whoosh.!

…and my winter bike sits on the turbo trainer when not in use for winter duties, using cheap £11 Luganos rather than even bothering swapping for a turbo specific tyre.

I’d probably do the opposite, nice clean expensive summer bike in the house, winter bike covered in crud in the shed!

‘spoon – this piece is crucial:

“when not in use for winter duties”

I do clean down even the winter roadie after a ride, but sweat is quite corrosive don’t you know, I’d still rather the posh bike isn’t subjected to the pool of salt laden excretion from my body during a turbo session…

Or to flip this around the other way, if you have a practical road bike that can stand a bit of grit and doesn’t cost a fortune to replace consumable parts then why have the “dry” weather bike that no doubt costs several times as much and is ridden a fraction of the time? Far too sensible 😀 Even more so when most people taking the winter bike approach don’t race or have any real need for the MOAR performance you get out of the dry bike…. and if you aaarrree racing then the sensible folk will take heed of “don’t race what you can’t replace”. A crash will very often do more damage than Wintery salt and grit. One well specced, robust bike (CAAD 10 or Chinese carbon w/ Ultegra perhaps), maybe with 2 sets of wheels… wouldn’t that make more sense for most people?

It’s all n+1 at the end of the day however you try and justfy it 😉 People are far too precious about bikes- they are tools to do a job at the end of the day