Originally Posted by
wolfchild
Winter commuting can be very hard on bikes. Just use good quality components and maintain your bike and you'll get many years of service out of your it. As for hubs I use both, cartridge bearing hubs and shimano deore/xt, my shimano hubs have never given me any problems, I've taken them apart to inspect the grease and bearings and everything was clean even after several winters. I also prefer to ride SS/FG, this eliminates any need for maintaining the drivetrain other then lubing the chain. Disc brakes are great for winter time, no need to worry about rims wearing out.
I would say the opposite. Just get cheap components that can be easily replaced. My winter beater has a cheap chain, crank, cassette,
that I do minimal maintenance to. If they last 2-3 winters that's great, I can replace them at hardly any cost.
The Xt hubs (6 years old), thumb shifters (23 yeas old), HS22 hydraulic rim brakes (15 years old) are going strong with 0 maintenance.
I would have used less than the F/R XT derailleurs, but they were on the bike so I kept them.
Depending on severity of the riding (salt/sand/temp)
I think LX/105 should be the highest quality used on a winter bike.
I think even deore cranks ($30-50) would do just fine.