Originally Posted by
digibud
there's snow and there's snow....locally we qualify for real winter, and once it is cold enough the snow is "dry". I never have problems with wet snow in the middle of winter. Typically our snow never sticks to anything. My drive train comes home perfectly clean from nearly every ride. When spring arrives that will be a different story. I'd love to have an internal hub bike though....
I would have never agreed until the snow yesterday. I rode over 10 miles in the snow and came home and the bike looked like it hadn't been out in the snow at all. Normally when I get home the bike looks like it's been to he!! and back. Not yesterday. I'm still not sure why since the road were a mix of snow and slush.
Today I paid for that big time. I wasn't even 5 miles into the ride today and the bike looks horrible. I'll definitely have a clean up job to do tonight.
I have a few more snows to ride in but I think I may understand the difference. Riding in colder snow, farther from the freezing point, helps to keep it from slush up on the bike and makes clean up during/after the ride much easier to deal with. I would still expect it to take colder temps though to give what I saw yesterday. I didn't shovel out yesterday, I swept out with the broom so it was fairly dry snow.
Being further south the OP probably had wet snow that made it easier to stick to everything.