1. "I dunno about all this fancy-scmancy stuff on a winter bike..
Internal geared hubs are great, if you have 135mm dropouts...."
You don't need 135mm dropouts. We are talking about creating a utility bike not a Trek 5900. You can spend a fortune buying a customized frame that supports horizontal dropouts but there are plenty of bikes out there that have them. I noticed several bikes on Ebay that have them including a smart looking Phat cruiser.
This actually happened today. I parked my 3 speed next to an MTB with huge knobby tires at the mall. It was pretty cold outside and the bike was stiff after being outdoors for several hours. Well it just so happens me and Mr. MTB get out at the same time and he gives me the kind of look like "You ride that junk?". I followed him about several blocks as we were headed in the same direction and guess what happened? As he tried to change gears, the chain poped off and had to stop and fix it in the cold. I must have been almost three blocks away and upon looking back, he was still trying to fix it.
2 "Disc brakes? Lotta money to expose to the salt spray around here.."
I don't need disk brakes. My Sram hub gear bikes comes with an internal brake and my three speed has a coaster brake.