War machine
 

Well winter riding is war... this is actually my year round commute to work bike or grocery getter. Its a 1976 CCM Targa 10 which I bought it for 5 bucks last may and tore off all the original steel parts and replaced them with cheap aluminum stuff I had kicking around to lighten it up a little, it actually weighs 29 and a half pounds though still. For winter I threw on my winter wheel set (widest 27 X 1 1/4 tires I ever saw are on those rims, pulled em off a raleigh I found in the trash last auguste! and the fenders. I only managed to crash once so far during the first real snow storm this year. The frame is a bit bent after getting hit by a car in July on it but it still tracks ok, that impact snapped the BB spindle and the left pedal was a write off.. shes a tough girl!

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I dont really clean it ever, all that sand they coat the streets with during winter is death for chains, so I usually just replace the chain every month and wipe the chainrings and derailleurs down while im doing so.
Who says fenders keep you and your bike clean anyways?

Just wanted to post this cause it looks so cool with all that winter crud on it, you cant even see the rear rims surface anymore!

You should just run it as a single speed.

It's a great winter beater. How do you keep cables from freezing up?

I do have a single speed bmx freewheel somewhere.. which I picked up to turn this bike into a single speed but never bothered with it, mainly cause I broke the shimano 400 derailleur I had on there initially.. now I have a suntour VX which sucks so I dont care if it gets ruined. I kinda like having gears still though.

The front derailleur cable usually freezes up on me so I pretty much keep it in the large ring always which I typically do anyways. The rear one never seems to freeze on me though. I rode a similar set up last year and never had problems with the cables freezing on me, so I dont know how I do it, it just works!

try some decent mudflaps, they really help keep the grit from getting sprayed up.
Nice looking bike though.

DIY mudflaps from vinyl stair tread work great. That's what I did for my beater Bridgestone.

Neal

Pack your cables with Phil waterproof grease. There's not much you can do about the front, because the exposed cable freezes to the bike.

I'd kill myself riding when the streets are frozen.

Thatza beater alright. But since when do SunTour VX derailleurs suck?

Running full length cable housing and liberal application of grease to the cable usually works.