Originally Posted by
ItsJustMe
Thanks for the comments on cold weather with IGH. I'll probably never do anything with it, I'm generally too cheap to buy another bike when I've got one that will do, but if I ever do find a nice frame that fits me at a garage sale with horizontal dropouts, I might think about building an IGH bike.
You realize that the reason people build winter bikes is often exactly to save money right?
Here in Minnesota, among the people who bike commute to work all winter, the reason people build winter bikes is to save money. I've been told again and again by people who have tried it that after a single winter of bike commuting every day the entire drivetrain on their bike is shot - derailler, chain, chainrings, etc.
People have different approaches. Some people ride a single speed (about $100 to replace the entire drivetrain there). Other people buy a used $100-$200 mountain bike (the old ones without suspension), ride it all winter, then throw it away in the spring and buy another one the next year. People unwilling to forgo gearing buy an IGH bike, or spend time cleaning their bike every ride or every week, or just pay the extra money to replace the components every year.
If you only have one bike, if it's decent at all, and if you're going to ride it all winter on the roads, I'm just saying using it for winter riding is not the "cheap" option.