Originally Posted by
gkastraveckas
Good feedback, thanks everyone. The reason i ask is that i started commuting year round about 2 years ago and after the winter a lot of parts went to hell. I changed what i needed to but don't want to do that every spring. I'm wondering if it's worth it to get a second bike or just switch out wheels. Do you typically need to change out chain, chainrings and cassette yearly?
This is what I've found, and why I have a 2nd bike set up specifically for winter commuting. I think it's the chemicals they put down in our area for the snow/ice. It completely rusts any bit of steel on my bike, and quickly oxidizes any unpainted aluminum.
The first year I commuted all winter on my regular "good" bike. After that first winter my bike was in such terrible condition that I decided it was now my winter bike and I bought a different "good" bike for summer commuting.
I used to try and keep up with replacing all the rusted parts of my winter bike (chain, rings, cassette, cables, etc) but after realizing that I'd be replacing them every single year I now just run things until they literally break before replacing them. So the bike looks like it's some form of rolling modern art sculpture.