Originally Posted by
ThermionicScott
My method, for consideration:
Every winter, I not only flip my wheel around to use the bigger cog, but swap to a smaller chainring. By losing 3 teeth in front and gaining 3 teeth in rear, I'm able to use the same chain throughout the year without changing the axle position. It works for me, but I could understand that being too much futzing for some people.
You could also get dedicated summer and winter chains that are allowed to be different lengths.
Not a bad method.
If I went down a few teeth on the chainring I think that might effect my gear ratio too much for my liking though. For reference, my summer setup is 46-17 which equates to around 72 gear inches. For winter I'm using 46-19 which is around 64. 42-19 or 44-19 would get me down to like 60 which might be a bit too low for my taste.
I decided to go for the longer chain setup for now and I am really liking the 46-19 ratio with my fatter winter tires. What Ill probably do is either use dedicated summer and winter chains like you said, or get a half-link chain like the KMC HL710 that will allow me to fine tune the chain length more.