Dumb people rely on cell phones when they get a flat or mechanical breakdown . Smart people learn how to use few basic tools. I feel sorry for people who have no basic mechanical skills.

I really do think a spare is nice, I just do not think it should ever be called a need. The last time I had a bike broken beyond repair was about 8 years ago when I was hit by a car. Even when I had no car and a 40 mile RT commute I only had 1 bike I would want to make the trip on and never once felt like I would be screwed if the bike broke because I knew it would almost always be fixable.

Have you ever returned home tired or sick?...Too sick or tired to a repair that darned bike?...That's what I mean by NEED!

You just wake up fresh or rejuvenated the very next morning. Maybe inflate your spare bike's tires up to specs, and take off! Now you may classify that event as a convenience, or luxury. However, at that very tiresome moment as you dragged your dreary butt over that threshold and through the door, you felt a very pressing NEED to lay down. It's only because you could rest assured that you had a spare bike, that you could afford to lay down when your body both NEEDED and YEARNED for it...

Spare bikes are for emergencies and stressful situations. I'd say that "winter", qualifies as a very stressful situation.It most certainly is tiresome, if nothing else!

BTW

After you crashed your bike, didn't you NEED another one, either the next day, or soon afterwards?

- Slim

I used to have only one bike and it was always a compromise between looks, weight, and utility. I could use either one of the two bikes I have for winter or commuting, but I am much happier having one bike for year round commuting and the other for leisure riding on my days off.

There! The N+1 Rule Lives On!

If I am too sick to repair my bike I will probably not be able to make it to work either. I am used to working extremely long hours on my feet so I have never been too tired to fix my bike if it really needed it, if something needs to get done I just suck it up and do it.

When I was hit by a car I did not NEED a back up bike, I took the bus for a few days until I got the replacement. There are other ways to get to work without a bike and if need be I can utilize those options for a day or two.

So once again, a second bike is certainly nice to have but is not a need.

Well in that case, just commute by bus, exclusively. Since you don't need a spare bike, because you can just as easily ride the bus. Just ride the bus! Of course, if your bus breaks down, you're going to NEED another.

I commute by bike because I enjoy it more than any other method, the bus or my car are my back ups in case the **** hits the fan, at least in most places in the US there will almost always be a 2nd way to get to work until you get your bike fixed on the extremely rare occasion your bike is broken beyond repair till parts show.

I see this will keep going round and round, I guess it is just time to agree to dis-agree.

Agreed, my friend!

I don't have a dedicated winter bike. If snow is forecast, I'll swap the slick tyres for something with a bit more tread, but that's all.

The salt slush is nasty, and not just for your drivetrain. My rear canti brake hardware suffered from Chicago winter sludge more than other parts, including my well-lubed drivetrain. I wish I'd used something like Boeshield on all my unpainted surfaces (except for wheels).

Also beware dripping sludge. Using fenders mean your bike carrying twenty times as much wet mess as before. I wasted many a section of the Tribune catching grey sludge melt after rolling my fendered bike indoors.

Because... I can.



Picked up the new winter / mud / sand / railbed / trail / riverside bike this morning.

Awesome!

Indeed... I rode home after I picked it up this morning and instead of taking the bike path that runs through the middle of the city I rode on the adjacent rail bed and tracks.

I have done a fair bit of work on Pugsleys and ridden them enough to know that I would get a lot of use of of a bike like this... tomorrow morning I am going to take my Sunday morning ride and go down to the river and ride along the edge which is a place you normally cannot take a bicycle as even the widest MTB tyres do not have enough float.

It is sticky clay and mud...

SixtyFiver, sweet bike, I have been lucky enough to ride a fat bike a couple times, once in heavy snow and the other on a warm sunny day riding single track. Both days were a complete blast, I was really surprised at how well it did off road, I had no trouble keeping up with a friend on a full squish MTB, the cornering grip was incredible.

Sounds like exactly the kind of place you shouldn't ride. Snow? Sure. Sandy public beach? Hey, it's your drivetrain. Mud? No.

Uh... Why not?

CX bikes are ridden in mud all the time. Why wouldn't one want to see what a Pugsley can do?

Why not ?

Some of the terrain and views from the bottom of the river valley are breathtaking and I cannot walk / hike as well as I can ride.

Where do you hunt for food, friend?

I like the feeling of self sufficiency, but be real: for most people, a cell phone and a credit card are a good choice that DOES solve problems.

A friend, who is a lawyer said it is cheaper for him to pay me, than waste his time he could use for making even more money. The man is now 50 and can't even change a lightbulb - nothing wrong with him still. Lives, breathes, happy.

why do you torment me so

I didn't even realize they were purple, if I had one I'd put rainbow lights on the spokes and rainbow fenders and make it my new byke.

With apologies to Kookabura... this might look like torture.

Today's route looked a lot like this in places... I just rode through it.



And like this... a little sand was nothing.



And like this... my ride really started where other bikers had turned around to find another route because they could not proceed any further.



And you do not get views like this from the road... felt a little sad for the spandex clad warriors I saw today.



I would have had a lot of trouble walking where I rode today in relative ease.

You're far more likely to tear up the soil and perhaps even worse (e.g. create ruts that lead to further drainage and erosion problems) when you bike through mud. It's one thing to ride on a trail that has a few soft, muddy spots, but the Leave No Trace principles intended in part to preserve soils and prevent erosion mean not going out of your way to ride on a trail that's very muddy and therefore prone to damage. Some places are just too fragile for biking (or hiking). You won't be allowed to take even your sweet fat Pugsley on a sand dune preserve, nor off the marked trails in a fragile desert park; for the same reason, you shouldn't take it on trails muddy enough that it leaves tracks, IMO.

BTW, I'm envious of your new ride, too. Good thing we get little enough snow around here that I can tell myself it would be a hassle finding great places to ride it. :-)

I don't ride on the single track or any delicate trails after it rains and we have hundreds of km of those... riding along the river's edge is a place you can get muddy and wet when the river is low like it is now. The river has been cutting away at these banks for millenia and a favourite portion of this route is now submerged as the bank above it collapsed in the spring.

The Pug is too much fun to limit to winter riding... in many places they are seen as a sign of copious consumption and consumerism but up here where winter can last 6 months a Pugsley is actually the ideal machine and are actually becoming more and more common.

sa-weet!!

I was wondering if there is going to be a flood of surplus pugs now that the moonlander is out.

A truly fat-tired bike floating across the mud is nothing like a 2" knobby digging into it. It's a really different beast.