Originally Posted by
Banzai
(Cross posting from Winter Cycling since there's no traffic there right now...)
2. God help you if you have to change a flat. It's bad enough in a climate controlled room. But I had to do it in the cold, on the road, and it is the worst thing to ever do on a bike when you are at 5deg F, and the mechanism is grunged up with slush and ice and salt, and your fingers feel like they are shredding on the parts. God help you if you are ever in this situation.
As a MN refugee, I can laugh about this now, been there done that.
I was the "stupid kid" who rode to school all winter.
The only thing more insane is attempting to circumnavigate the north pole in winter.
I read that it would take a whole day to repair a flat, unpack gear, find wood, start fire, warm up wheel, severely low temperatures would make it impossible to unseat the tire from the rim, nevermind frostbite.
If I had to commute by bicycle in a MN winter, hopefully with a large budget, I'd be curious to know how well di2 holds up.
Low budget, I would use a single, dingle, or a tringle speed. (single speed rear hub, double or triple crankset with a tensionor)
Whatever you use, expect it to fail at the worst possible time in the worst possible way and try to have a backup plan in place. (I had a rusted high tensile steel frame fail on me while jumping a curb, didn't end well, frame inspection was an afterthought when I was young)
My strategy in Shanghai if I have a major issue is to lock up the bike somewhere and deal with it later, there are many public transportation options here. It also helps that my commuter bike has very low resale value, and can be locked up securely overnight without incident.