Winter bike for a beginner
 

Hey everyone!

For the last month or so I've been volunteering at our local bike co-op (which just got started at the end of the summer, more on that in another thread). The guys keep razzing me about not riding my bike there, so I think I'm finally going to give in. The problem is that I live in Michigan and my only nice bike is my Cannondale touring bike.

The guys told me look at some of the older bikes with fenders, and that I can probably just have one, but besides being old and gross, they all had skinnier tires which don't do well in Michigan winters. I do happen to have a nasty old Huffy mountain bike that I won in a drawing (is brown with black spots, like a cow!).

My idea is to convert it to a single speed since the Derailleur on the bike suck. Could I add fenders to it easily? Any other mods I should look into? Any tips I should know about?

Luckily I used to be a runner and I still have all of my winter clothes form that, which will be helpful on those really cold days!

Just one thought. Fenders are great in nasty weather however, if you're riding in snow, make sure you have *lots* of clearance between the fender and the tire. If you don't, the snow the tires pick up can jam in the fender and lock your wheel. This happened to me once while experimenting with different fenders on an MTB and it was less than amusing.

MTB clip-on fenders have only one advantage of proper one, they dont clog up with snow.
Note that singlespeed requires some chain tensioning apparatus: horizontal or track dropouts, eccentric bottom brackets or a spring-loaded derailleur-like tensioner.
There are plenty of instructions for DIY ice tyres around. See winter cycling forum.

That sounds like a fun project, but if you feel too lazy you can always just choose one of the existing gears and just stay in that combination. Pretty much the same end result, as long as the derailleur isn't so bad that it shifts around by itself...

As for extra mods, after the fenders, add a rack to carry extra crud, and lights because it's going to be dark... Oh and you can add a cycle-computer to see how much slower you're going in winter :)

If theres enough snow on the ground it doesn't matter how good the derailleur is your probably gonna end up with only a few gears anyways, I'd say add the fenders and such and see how it goes from there. And yes make sure you have plenty of clearance with the fenders, in my experience fenders and knobbies dont really like each other from the get go. Also browse the winter bike forum, sixtyfiver is a great person to learn winter tricks from.

Have not tried winter bike, too cold for me

If you're looking at single speed, consider an internally-geared hub- you get the same advantages of no derailleurs or cassette to clog up with snow, but retain a decent gear range. Sturmey-Archer three speeds are simple and quite robust. More modern hubs are available for a reasonable price with seven or eight gears. My three-speed is set up with the high gear as a flat ground gear, with the middle and low gear used for acceleration, climbing and fighting headwinds. You can always coast downhill if you need to.

How far are you riding to the co-op?

What is wrong with bringing in your Cannondale?

Otherwise, If you are trying to show how good some of the bikes you have in stock are and want people to purchase them use something that is available. Use some ingenuity and put together something that is useful. Or also look around and find a early to mid 90's non suspension mountain bike. They can fit wide tire sizes, can add fenders, and were pretty solidly built.

The official line is "Why would you drive when you could ride?"

Makes perfect sense. That Huffy sounds like the real deal for winter biking. Save the touring bike for nice weather.

Thin tires may not be as much of a problem as you think - I've been riding through the winter for several years on a 90's mountain style bike using pretty thin tires - 26 x 1.50 - and they have much better traction than you might expect in snow and on ice. I do ride defensively if the roads aren't clear though - a little slower, and if there's a lot of snow I do try to avoid heavy traffic roads. That's more due to lack of confidence in the automobile traffic, plus splashing slush if its warmer, than worry about crashing.

Regarding the single speed - if you want to try it out without any cash investment you might be able to lock your derailleur into one gear with the adjusting screws - if you don't like it you can change it back. Fenders? I have a set of Zefal or similar thin plastic fenders set up with plenty of clearance - they work well and I haven't had any trouble with snow/ice clogging, as I recall they were less than $20US and pretty easy to install.

I see a lot of folks say they have luck with the skinny tires in winter but they have never worked well for me. I use 1.9 to 2" mud tires. They are big enough that they don't get too squishy in the biscuit dough, and they still sink enough to get traction on the slush over the ice. I fell a couple of times on ice-under biscuit dough a few years ago and so I now use 2" studded tires and won't look back. They are pricy though, so don't buy them until you know you will use them.

We may also be riding in different environments - my commute is in a pretty urban/not quite suburban area. The streets do get ploughed, not always 100% but I'm seldom riding on severe buildups of snow/ice/etc - if I'm in deeper snow it is usually freshly fallen. The ice to pavement ratio over the winter is high enough that I never tried studded tires, they would be wasted on me. For me though, the thinner tires have worked better than what I used before (knobbies that came with the bike and 26x2.0 IRC Metro), and they are not >really< thin like on a road bike (26x1.5). If the OP is going to be riding in snow/ice more of the time something else may work better for him. I was just trying to say, don't rule those thin tire bikes out just based on first impressions, they may work better than he thinks.

I'm about 70 miles west of you, but my ride is edge of city through open space to edge of city. I see a lot of drifting, and a lot of melt/freeze, and that is a lot easier to ride on studded tires. Most of the time the studded tires just add resistance, but I see enough black ice that they are worth it to me. Your point is valid though...try different things to see what works best for you is the message I see here.

Most people I've seen convert MTBs to single speeds for the winter just remove the rear derailleur and then just take out enough links and choose the cog they want, since it's hard to find off the shelf 26" wheels with single speed axles that are also the right size to fit the MTB. Then leave the brakes on,

That's more of a "i have a crappy bike i don't want to spend money on doing a true conversion yet want less maintenance for the winter" solution.

Yes you want fenders definitely. For tires I like Schwalbe marathon winters but I ride only on always plowed streets where the main danger is black ice (though I've not seen it personally, it happens). If the streets might not be as good the Nokians are nice studded tires, with good tread as well as studs. If you go to the Peter White cycling site he reviews a ton of winter tires and shows how to pick which one for what conditions you'll be riding in.

Though a coworker got very cheap steel studded tires because his commute is only about a mile each way.

I notice the narrow tires cause me to get pushed side to side by ruts.

I have not really experienced black ice here, but there is ice in my alley for the last 10 feet of my commute and it's funny how i'm fine on the bike, and slip when I try to step off. So while i've not had problems, during the winter at almost every bike get together someone will say "oh i wish i had those tires when I fell last week!"

I bet the measure of amusement depends on whether you're the one going OTB or if you're just watching it happen.

Get better riding gear. I rode all week - morning commute temps from the high 20's to the low 30's (Fahrenheit). I typically arrive at work and spend the next 60 seconds stripping off layers to cool down.

I gained clearance by cutting my mudguards, they are interrupted at the lowest point, the fork crown.

And they are bolted onto both sides..

80's Mountain bikes are a good basis, I have drum brakes on mine ..
good stopping the same no matter the weather.

This is my winter beater, a Jamis Commuter 3. I usually run 32 mm tires and am going to try Nokian A10 with studs this year. It gets me wherever I need to go in Kalamazoo all winter.

Marc

The high is 24'F tomorrow. I'm starting to wimp out! I think I'll put it in my trunk tomorrow, mess with it a bit, and then ride it when it's fixed up.

I suppose I'll post pictures!