Great thread
nlerner these kinds of threads always tickle my fancy being from 'up here' as I am. Fantastic bikes so far, I especially like the ones with a little beausage / patina.
We see all conditions here in Ottawa, from one extreme to another in the winter. From freezing rain to endless weeks of snow and -17c or about 3-5f. Ice everywhere to heavy sticky snow on the paths - so it makes selecting one bike alone for the work / commutes / errand a challenge.
This year being mild so far, today I was out for some errands and it was -10c or about 14f and only a light dusting of snow. In the winter I'm primarily a MUP / incidental road rider, as Ottawa has a good winter cycling network of paths and separated infrastructure along roads in the city that is consistently plowed. Most of the time, after a heavy fall, the path near my place will be plowed at least once and I'm connected again to the network. Its very convenient, but depending on the level of snowfall or if we get a freeze/thaw cycle, conditions can get tough despite the good plow service provided by public works staff. This year I found an old '90s MTB, and outfitted it with racks and a basket up front, dynamo lights, and bar mitts to really up my winter cycling game. The mitts help quite a bit and my hands stay toasty. Almost too warm, in fact.
1960s Triumph three-speed, now departed. The hub is great in the winter, I just kept it fed with synthetic 0W20 and it didn't get gummy in the cold. Everything else - the steel bits, the old rims, all got the rust monster. So, not really appropriate.
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This year, an MTB I found for a low price with studded 2.15" Schwalbes, fenders, racks, basket, and dynamo lights. Its rather heavy, but it does the job. As Neil pointed out, the salt is a killer of components, so I don't want to subject a nicer bicycle to these conditions. The bike has first-gen Shimano SIS indexing, 7 speed, with a triple up front I got off of my old '90 Schwinn Voyageur. I'm thinking of running an IGH on this bike next year - I have an Sturmey S5 36h five-speed hub in the rebuild queue that could be a good candidate. Not sure about how to fix the spacing though, its a 120mm hub and the MTBs are 135mm I think.
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