79pmooney

I've commuted year 'round in Boston, Ann Arbor, the Bay area, Seattle and Portland. For those first three locations, I didn't own a car or use public transportation. The last two, commuted up to 17 miles each way on bike three days a week. So, a lot of wet roads, often wet skies. And every possible combination of road surface and traction.

The vast majority of my wet commuting was done on workhorse fix gears with fenders and lock. Set up drop bar and excellent brakes front and rear. Sewups - training grade in summer, cyclocross below freezing - until 2000. Now it's 28c Paselas and winter specific non-studded clinchers.

The real secret is the fix gear. Once you learn it and become fully comfortable, they are radically easier to keep upright in marginal conditions. (It's a secret that is very easy to keep. I can get. up on rooftops and holler the advantages and nobody will hear it.) Fix gears solve two other issues also. Drive train issues from wet and grit. They are so simple it takes a lot to kill them. They run just fine, even with absolutely dry chain (lubrication-wise) and a few frozen links. (Just slide the wheel forward to get chain slack back.) Another plus: in snow and ice, that spill to the right side never kills the drive train. If the wheels turn, it will get you home.

My Boston and Ann Arbor days were also my racing days. My "B" bike was a sewupped UO-8 with the fix gear. At the end of March, hubs, HS and BB got repacked and new rims laced on. December, the cyclocross tires. First minor rim dents happened in January. Seriously funky in February. By March, thewy were irregular polygons. Great thing about sewups and Mafac Racers? Neither cared! Then that rebuild and new rims and rubber. Ahhh! Between December and March, I did almost nothing for the bike beyond oiling the chain and brakes.

Edit: I forgot - the essential piece for both me and the bike - a real front fender flap, one that comes way down. The old Blummel fenders came with them though eventually they needed replacement. I keep my eyes open for quality stiff sheet plastic. In the '90s it was mylar when the really stiff stuff was what engineer/graphic folk used. 1999 I scored full sheets of thinner architectural stuff for presentations. Doubled up with the edges taped with packing or duct tape, the flaps were stiff and folded up easily without damage when the loaded bike was wheeled carelessly off the sidewalk.

When I buy fenders, the first thing I do is install a good flap. (After removing the toy flaps on fenders like the Planet Bikes.) I buy yellow or white fenders if offered. (Why these are so hard to find in road widths is beyond me. The folk who ride county roads for miles in the low light winters are the racers.)