Hi there,

First time posting in this forum. I've been commuting on an old ten speed road bike in Pittsburgh for the past couple years. I'd like to build myself a winter bike and just looking for a little advice (hopefully from some people who are familiar with the roads, weather and terrain around here. I know there are at least a few Pittsburghers on this forum).

In the flats, I usually cruise at 67 gi and ~17-20 mph. If I want to try to kill it I shift up to 85 gi and, right now, I top out at around 24 mph. (I'm not the strongest, but I'm getting better)

I've been practicing riding single gears on my road bike to try to simulate as best I can, the fixed gear experience (even going so far as to ride the brakes on most of my descents so I have something to pedal against so I can get a feel for the cadence that will be necessary on my downhills.) On my morning commute I climb a 4-5% grade for a little over a mile and the rest is downhill or fairly flat (up Nobles/Brownsville and down 18th to the bike path, then pretty much stay on bike paths all the way to the Northside, in case you know Pittsburgh.) On the way home I reverse it. Climb 18th (a little over a mile at ~6%). All of this I can do quite comfortably at 67 gi or quite strenuously at 75 gi. I've got one additional climb though on my way home with several short sharp inclines in the 9-12% range. The tallest gear I've used for this section is 62 gi and it was tough but doable on the steep sections. Round trip I ride 20 miles each day.

So I have a mid 80s Takara mountain bike that I want to use for my winter bike build. It's pretty much a stumpjumper clone. My thought right now is to get 26x1.75" knobbies (I might get a studded tire for the front, not sure yet.) and to run about 60 gi to account for increased effort through snow and slop on the road. I will likely continue to use my road bike when the weather is nice, and just use the fixie on messy days. I'm keeping both brakes on the bike. I'm not doing this to be "cool." I want any easy to clean drivetrain, and I like the idea of the fixie to feel the road better in slippery conditions. So, just wondering if I'm in the right ballpark for tires and for gearing. Wondering what others use for a winter bike, especially my Pittsburgh brothers and sisters.