Mountain Biking - Would a soft-tail be good for city-commuting - especially in snow/ice?

I am thinking about getting a full-suspension bike for my commute to work.

The main reason is that now, in winter, I have to go over many snow piles and ice mounds. Sometimes these snow piles are 2 to 3 feet high and are a mix of ice and snow.

With my present Trek "Mountain Trek" with no shock-suspension front or rear, I often get stuck.

I am wondering if a full suspension bike might do better in these conditions.

Can anybody provides some feedback, comments, and suggestions?

Mike

Mike,
Welll first off let me say this, a softail is not the same as a fs bike. A softail is defined simply as a hardtail with a little bit of rear end travel if that makes any sense. See KHS for a good example of a "softail". As far as getting stuck in two or three feet of snow and ice, I would say anyone would in stuff that deep. A fs bike may not be the answer. With the movement potential of a fs rig you might find that it will get worse. I am still in belief that fs bikes are more gravity specific, meaning downhill. My suggestion the faster you go into that deep stuff the more of a chance you ahve of plowing through it.

Hi there,

I'd tend to agree with Hunter on this one, Softail bigs are a great idea for comfort etc, but I wouldn't necessarily suggest forking out all that money for a new bike, unless you were going to upgrade anyway.

Have you tried running wider tires..? They'd give you more traction in the deep stuff.

Good luck

Rich ;)

go ahead and get a fs bike,i find that my rear end will get sore after riding a hardtail. so get the fs and your rear end wont be sore when you get to the office :p

Ever since I got my f/s for racing (cc)( 4 years ago), I havent been able to ride a hard tail. Even if its a juant to the local store or to work, the f/s is much more comfortable. As for snow and ice, unless you spike your tires, the bikes are going to slide all over the place anyways, so wether its a f/s or hard tail really doesnt make that much difference. In deciding if you want to buy a f/s, you need to think about the upgrade and if its worth it for you, since to upgrade to a good f/s is not a cheap proposition.

I dont know the size of your tires but the average running tire is 26X2.215 .... I recommend going a size larger... I also race Pro Bmx and I find that when I am winter training *I live in CANADA* It gets very slick.... You might want to choose a softer rubber compound along with a good set of treds... Specialized makes a Great Mountain bike tire for riding, so you might want to look at a set of specialized tires....

A pugsly woud be a good winter ride with surlys own 3.7 tire it would be slow but woud make life in the snow a little fun 2-3ft of snow will stop all of use in our tracks and think of the all cleaning that would have to be done on fs bike salt freez thaw cycles woud be a pain

A pugsly woud be a good winter ride with surlys own 3.7 tire it would be slow but woud make life in the snow a little fun 2-3ft of snow will stop all of use in our tracks and think of the all cleaning that would have to be done on fs bike salt freez thaw cycles woud be a pain

beat me to it. yep if your riding through that much snow and ice the pugsley would be the way to go.

surly website (http://www.surlybikes.com/pugsley.html)
sheldon brown's website review (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/surly-pugsley/)