Winter Cycling - suspension reliability in winter?

I see that most winter bikers prefer hardtails as their preferred winter bikes. When it comes to performance, this seems a little counter-intuitive to me. My experience is that fs is the best way to go for maintaining traction and control on rough surfaces. Has anyone experienced failure of front or rear suspension components in cold weather? Or is it more a matter of avoiding general wear and tear on a more expensive bike?

Yeah there is the wear and tear issue, esp with rear suspension pivots and rust. It is more problematic to clean those pivots so in all likelihood they will rust.

Sometimes front-forks are made from Magnesium which will corrode quickly. Somebody here had their front drop-outs corrode out and snap.

Mostly it just comes down to one more thing to maintain.

My suspension bikes work just fine during the winter.

Salty and sandy roads will indeed cause more wear and tear than dry summer pavement, but IMO less than riding off-road in dirt and mud, which is what most suspension systems were designed for in the first place. I had a magnesium race fork last for six winters of everyday riding without corrosion issues. By then it was dead from other causes.

You're right, I can't think of two many riding surfaces that are LESS BUMPY in the winter.

Thanks for the info. I've outfitted my p.o.s. dept store fs (s25) with X294s, fenders, and a second blinky on the seat post. At least I'm not putting a $2.5K bike at risk that way. I'll probably post some pic's, hoping that any cork sniffers don't laugh too hard :)

I see that most winter bikers prefer hardtails as their preferred winter bikes. When it comes to performance, this seems a little counter-intuitive to me. My experience is that fs is the best way to go for maintaining traction and control on rough surfaces. Has anyone experienced failure of front or rear suspension components in cold weather? Or is it more a matter of avoiding general wear and tear on a more expensive bike?

I use a hardtail or a rigid bike for commuting partly because of expense, partly because of maintenance and partly because of performance.

Expense: I have 3 mountain bikes. One is a hardtail, one is a softtail Moots YBB and one is a full on double squishy Specialized. The Moots and the double squishy are pretty expensive and I'd rather keep them as my fun bikes. The hardtail is still a good bike but it's just fallen to the bottom of the heap.

Maintenance: The Specialized has lots of pivots and the rear shock is right in the line of spluge fire:eek: It has a cover but there's no real way of protecting it with a fender. The Moots only has slider on the rear but it's indirectly in the line of spluge and fitting a fender to it is difficult. The hardtail (a Specialized Stumpjumper, by the way:innocent:) doesn't have anything other than the front derailer that spluge would hurt. And it's pretty easy to fenderize

Performance: There are a couple of reasons I don't use the dually for commuting. First, I can't put fenders on the rear. Second, I can't put a rack on it...easily. Third, I hate riding it on the road. The inch worm effect is okay in the dirt and the traction is fantastic but having to deal with it bobbing along for 9 or 10 miles without a need for it just sucks. Plus, I don't run slicks on my mountain bikes:twitchy: Particularly on a dually:twitchy: If I ride my mountain bike to work, I want to be able to tooley off into the woods and have some fun.

I have a rack on the Moots. I do ride it to work occasionally and I do play around in the woods on the way to and from work. Since the Moots' rear suspension is very limited, it doesn't have the inch worm problem of the dually and is more pleasant to ride. However, it's very difficult to put fenders on the Moots and, like running slicks, fenders would be wrong:twitchy:

The Stumpy I can fenderize or defenderize as I like, it has a rack, maintenance is simple, I can lock the fork out and go rigid on the road but still have the ability to tromp off into the woods when I like. I can deal with a slightly rougher ride...the front fork does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to handling anyway;)...with a bike that is less expensive than the other 2 (but not by much:eek:)

Suspension manufacturers have a operating temp range for their suspension components. We've already seen -30C temps and it's only 3 days into winter. I would check with the manufacturer before I subjected my suspension components to the harsh realities of the winters I'm faced with. Your milage may vary.

IMO the key to safe and reliable winter riding is simplicity. Suspension is just another thing that can cause issues. Plus it is hard to run a fixed wheel with a FS bike ;)

I commuted on my dual suspension for one winter and had to replace the upper pivot bushings by spring. Also, the cold temps were tough on the Fox Float air shock seals and it started leaking air.

I commuted on my dual suspension for one winter and had to replace the upper pivot bushings by spring. Also, the cold temps were tough on the Fox Float air shock seals and it started leaking air.
Thanks. This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. My impression is that regardless of price-point, there are few components (except tires) which are designed with low temps, snow, and salt spray in mind. I'm sure it would be possible to design suspension components suitable for winter use. The problem seem to be that the winter biker segment is a very, very small fraction of the total market. I think any information we can share regarding what products hold up vs. which ones fail would be a big help.

Has anyone experienced failure of front or rear suspension components in cold weather?

Yes. I had a front fork develop a leaky seal one winter. Of course, seals are a wear-item anyway. Could've just been coincidence that it failed during winter. The leak was so minor that I didn't bother to fix it. I just ran the fork as-was until buying a new bike.

Last winter I started out with a plan to run one of my 29er hardtails with a suspension fork. It was a Tora 318 air-fork. What I found was that on cold days, the oil in the rebound damper didn't want to flow as fast as in summer. I had my LBS change the oil to lighter-weight. That made all the difference. Then, ironically, I never bothered to ride the bike again, preferring my 26er that was fully-rigid.