Originally Posted by
FrankHudson
In NYC you won't have the cold like we have in MN. IGH are nice in the winter, but at least my SA IGH case, they also don't always shift well when it gets much below freezing (I'm going explore lube options for next winter). Disk brakes are great. Upright and somewhat wider handlebars are great. I prefer straight or straight-ish bars to North Road type bars in winter. If you have much ice (I can't recall how much problem ice was when I lived in NY, too long ago) studded tires are good. Wider tires are good, and aggressive tread is good if you will ride unplowed or under-plowed streets and for surviving road hazards.
These are all really good specifics that I wanted to hear about. Do you prefer the flat bars because of the braking hand position?
Originally Posted by
FrankHudson
Gears are good if you ride in snow I think, it's best to spin, but lots of folks make do with single speeds here too.
I am not sure. I don't expect to be riding too much in snow, if anything just hard-packed snow. Part of my route is on a common truck route and the rest is bike path, so I don't know what to expect...
Originally Posted by
FrankHudson
Your mountain bike sounds like it's mostly there for winter suitability. What about the geometry doesn't please you on the road?
I don't think I really want the front suspension for the winter, and I just feel very sluggish pedaling a 26er on roads. I'm not adverse to setting it up for the winter, but I'm also interested in exploring other options that are a bit more road-oriented.