Originally Posted by
VicM
I rode more safely on my upright old Schwinn Varsity than on the Trek 930 where a bunch of my weight was on the front wheel. Ok, the tires were not the same though both bikes had city type tires. On the Trek the front wheel would slip out and send me into the snow, hard-pack or ice. I just bought Nokian studded tires to avoid hard crashes this winter. Safety is paramount. For winter around town riding is a bike with the most weight on the back tire clearly easier to stay up on than a mtb? It seems that way to me, but one person on two bikes is not much of an experiment! Your experience please.
I've been putting some thought into this as it is time to replace the frame i use in the winter. First, any bicycles handling will be affected negatively by tossing a bunch of junk in the trunk so to speak. The rear-ward weight will cause the bicycle to plow a bit, which can be a good thing so long as you have a slack head-angle bicycle. Putting all that weight in the rear may make it harder to recover when and if you fishtail turning left or right through intersections or stop quickly. On the plus side it will help you to get going from a stop because the extra weight forces the wheel to bite into the ground.
When you sit upright you are more tippy, since you have a higher-centre of balance, having said that many hybrid bicycles have very slack head-angles, seat-tubes and long wheelbases. If your schwinn has these characteristics then it will handle slowly, that is preferred for snow and ice. Try to avoid road-bicycles as they're very "twitchy" and place you forwards which will give you more power to pedal and less wind resistance to deal with but reduces your stability if the front wheel slides a bit since you'll be closer to being over-the front axle and most of your weight will be resting on your hands.