Actually, it's not a hypothetical question. Actually I was thinking of doing the exact opposite. I guess, just like biking, I've been doing WAY TOO MUCH reading on bikeforums recently. I have a few things I do have to remember as I think about it more. Most of the guys that are doing the winter riding are riding up in Canada not in central New England and most of them are using mountain bikes as their winter bikes not standard racing bikes.

After reading several guys mentioning removing the derailleurs and going down to fixed gear riding for the winter I got to thinking about doing the same thing. I know I need to replace my chain again and since I waited too long the last time to replace it I know come spring I will end up replacing the cassette as well. Thanks/no thanks to doing all the reading over on the Winter Cycling section of the forums it got me to thinking it might work to my benefit to switch down to fixed gear for the winter, not only keeping the derailleurs out of the salt/sand crap but, possibly(thinking it through my head not knowing enough info at the times) also by not having the extra shifting capabilities it might make the chain last longer. Yes, looking at the weather forecast its looking more and more like December may end up being my 5 consectutive month of doing 1500+ miles in a month.

As I was reading the responses back to my question it hit me that I would end up having one other problem and that would be controlling what the outside/running gear would be. I don't think you can reconfigure the cassette so you can control which gear comes where, aka put the 16 or 17 or 18 or 15 tooth cog where the 11 tooth cog is right now.

I'm thinking the idea isn't quite as workable as what I initially was thinking. Oh well, my mind always comes up with one stupid idea after another...what else is new Nifty idea until you really get to thinking about it. Darn!