Originally Posted by
noglider
@
PaulRivers, last winter, I decided I'd buy studded tires for this winter. I've been riding a kinda-sorta cyclo-cross bike for commuting. Do you think that's good enough, or am I better off on a mountain bike? The current bike has 35mm tires and fenders, so there's a fair bit of room. It has drop handlebars.
If it's worked well for you I don't see any reason to switch.
(Other than style or comfort) the only reason to switch to flat bars is because the terrain you're riding over gets to lump and wider bars give you more control. The same reason mountain bikes had flat bars while road bikes have curly bars. My winter bike has flat bars, but that's because a lot of the trails I'm on are lumpily plowed. Or at least they were when I bought my winter bike.
I don't know that it's worth the money to switch. Of course you'd have more experience with how that's worked for you than I...