Sawtooth

Dangit!!!
It is raining today and I love commuting in the rain, but I did not ride because I don't have a rain bike ready to go. This seems to happen every year where it takes me a couple of weeks to get up to speed with the nastier weather. Of the 5 bikes I have, 4 are out of service righht now for a myriad of reasons.

Short of keeping a bike set up with fenders year round, I am curious about any processes any of you have for making sure you are ready to go when that first foul weather hits?.....

Podolak

I keep my Trek 520 perma outfitted for bad weather. That way I am always ready for whatever happens. Plus this makes it so I am already conditioned to riding with a little bit heavier gear. I have another commuter bike that is on a MTB frame. It is setup for the really bad days during the winter. During the warmer months it is setup for leisure rides with the family, though it always has fenders.

Pig_Chaser

When it rains, i get wet.

dalmore

If your primary concern for a bad weather bike is fenders - get yourself a set of removeable fenders like sks race blades. Pop them on when you find yourself in need.

If you have other concerns too like nice bike is too nice, tires too skinny, etc. then you just have to make it a point to never let the bad weather bike be out of commission. Make it top priority project at all times.

Mr. Underbridge

Wow, 4 out of 5 are out of commission? Don't know what's plaguing you, but it could be that some of us have a somewhat lower standard for what constitutes 'rideable'. Also, I don't know what constitutes a 'rain bike'. I've ridden my regular road bike in the rain, I just try to wipe off the water when I'm done.

From now on, I'll do most of my crap weather riding on a bike that will have year-round fenders on it, though. I decided to invest a little cash to make a beater rideable so as to save maintenance costs on my nicer bike, and to give me nice, wide, slow tires that won't fit on my nicer bike.

PDay

I wish I had 5 bikes.

ItsJustMe

I have only one bike, I ride it 5 days a week year round, and the fenders and mud flaps never come off. All I do is put the studs on in the winter, take them off in the spring.

Sammyboy

I've got a ton of bikes, partly so one at least is always running, and at least a couple have fenders etc. Right now I'm working on my ultimate foul weather beater, however. It's a crappy old orange Falcon frame, which looks awesome despite the crapiness. I've built it up with a set of plastic coated single ring cranks, some plastic nasty fenders, a completely rainproof saddle, Nashbar bullhorns with vinyl tape for more waterproofness, and finally, a set of wide rimmed wheels built on Sturmey Archer Sprinter 5 speed hubs with drum brakes. Once I have it all set up and rocking, it'll be heavy, but with 32mm tyres is ready for trails and grass when neccesary, nobody will steal it, and the hub gear and brakes should make it ideal for locking up anywhere and riding in any weather. Pictures when complete...

Sawtooth

Good suggestions. I am leaning toward biting that bullet and keeping one permanently outfitted for rain Oct-May. The problem is chosing which one.

[QUOTE=Mr. Underbridge;5367548]Wow, 4 out of 5 are out of commission? Don't know what's plaguing you, but it could be that some of us have a somewhat lower standard for what constitutes 'rideable'. QUOTE]

Haha. I hear you. These reasons are infuriatingly stupid. My chainring on my converted Peugeot singlespeed wore out so I was transferring the ring from my TCR0 (also worn out) with its worn out chain and cassette cog together. In the process, a chainring bolt rolled to the deepest darkest recess of my garage and the TCR is "UNRIDEABLE" due to missing a $2 part today.

The single speed is "UNRIDEABLE" because its drivetrain is waiting to be transferred (spent the remainder of Saturday looking for that $2 part!!!!).

The NRS MTB is "UNRIDEABLE" due to (get this....) a sharp object in the tire that I cannot find and that cost me all of my tubes on my commute the other day and resulted in me calling for a ride home after I had no more ability to patch or replace.

The Jamis MTB is "UNRIDEABLE" due to making a harsh clicking noise from the rear. Also, the tires on it are so dog-goned tight that I am sure I could not get them off on the street when I flat (and I will;....4 flats last week; goat-head season).

The Major Jake is the only bike that is "RIDEABLE" and I am not yet sure I want to put freddy's on it this year. On the other hand, I have decided that I will no longer bolt my freddy's on but use zip ties instead for speed. This essentially allows the Freddy's to be used like a raceblade or something like that.

I do have raceblades for the TCR but, as I said, I lost that stupid little chainring bolt and none of my spares seem to be the right width.

Crazy, I know, and my wife had a good laugh at me last night and told me to pack it in and give up on riding for the day.

Sawtooth

I almost think this is the way to go. It would ensure that you put all the energy into one bike and it would always be rideable (except for emergencies). On the other hand, it had really better be a jack-of-all-trades. I like to commute my 14 miles to work and then go mountain biking with the boys at lunch and then hang with the fast road bikes on my way home....that's a lot to ask from one bike and I have not yet figured out the perfect answer....so I have 5 bikes.

I think, though, that my Major Jake comes the closest in meeting all of the above and with the right tire selection could be perfectly balanced. BUT...perfectly balanced means you have a bike that does nothing particularly well. So we start the selection process all over.

Man, this obsession can drive a person MAD

Sawtooth

Sounds like it is going to be great. Can't wait to see the pictures. This kind of a bike is what my peugeot started as and then I fell for the simplicity and cleanliness of the single speed set up. Remarkably, some of my quickest commute times are on that bike in only 70 gear inches.

What tires are you thinking of running?

ax0n

I just ride in the rain without fenders. I recently got my REAL foul weather commuter put back together. For me, "Foul weather" means things like snow and ice, or rain with ambient temps below 50 degrees. I have a rear mud fender on my mountain bike. That's about all I usually need.

Winter76

I don't care how I look, so full fenders all the time, on both bikes.

Bikingtoteach

I agree, slop up the bike with tape and auto paint, it is not about how the looks but how safe and smooth it rides!

ItsJustMe

Yeah, I ride a hybrid, and I can say from experience that they do NOT take well to being off road in any serious way. I took it on a semi-technical trail once for yucks and wound up having to rebuild the rear wheel.

For everything onroad though it's fine.

bmclaughlin807

I used to take my road bike on 'semi-technical' trails all the time. (An old Huffy...) If the trail got too difficult to ride, I'd pick it up and walk across.

And there's no reason that the wheel on a hybrid should be any less reliable than the wheel on a hard-tail mountain bike on a trail.

1ply

What do you have? (curious since I recently went down to only 1)

bike2math

+1 Keep it simple and ride.

Although I'm spoiled because I now have covered parking at both home and work. I noticed when I was leaving my bike out in all weather year round that the condition of exposed metal parts was detoiriating rapidly.

Sawtooth

I recently invested in a $20 bike cover from Nashbar that I keep locked to my lock at the bikerack at work. I love it for what it does. It keeps the sun and rain off my bike just fine.

Sawtooth

Update: Last night I just went to the LBS and replaced the entire drivetrain on the single speed (only cost me $31!!!). Then I came home and put it all on and mounted the Freddy's and a Planet Bike SuperFlash. Oh yeah....I am ready now baby.

That single speed should be bomber now (flats notwithstanding).