KGood

Hello fellow commuters, currently I ride my Trek FX 7.2 (new this year) as my primary transportation to school in Ohio. I've heard winter riding is bad for bikes so I was thinking of buying a Trek Mountain LX 7000 for $130 instead of risking damage to my FX. What do you think? Is it worth buying a winter bike? Should I ride my FX until it wears out and worry about damages later?

If I do ride my FX through the winter what kind of preventative maintenance can I do?

jimc101

How do you expect the winter to be bad to the bike? Salt corrosion is normally the worst you can expect, in your case, the frame is Alu, so won't be affected by this, and washing down the bike after use will control it the components.

Fenders can be a useful addition if you have a lot of rain, spiked tires if snow, but you would need to check the frame/fork clearance to see if they would work

Andy_K 

After my first year of bike commuting (on a GT Timberline), I bought a Kona Jake to be my "nice" commuter and declared the GT to be my winter bike. A few months later I found myself buying a nicer winter bike (a Marin Muirwoods 29er) because the GT was so burdensome to ride compared to the Kona. That lasted a few years as I toyed with the Muirwoods a lot trying to make myself happy with it (though it really wasn't a bad bike objectively). Eventually, I decided the Jake needed to be my winter bike because around here it rains (our form of winter) more than it's sunny. Plus I was using the Jake for CX racing anyway, so the idea that it would be ruined by exposure to harsh conditions was made absurd.

The FX 7.2 has rim brakes, right? That makes a bit of difference, but only a small bit. With rim brakes you have to either keep your rims wiped down regularly or commit to buying new wheels in a year or two (not a bad option if you can afford it). Other than that, keep an eye on the chain and make sure you aren't keeping it past the point where it's "stretched". They probably salt the roads in your area, so you might want to rinse the bike after riding in that.

Generally, if you like the FX, ride it all year. The worst that will happen is that the wheels, cassette, chain and crankset will wear out. When they do you can replace them with better pieces, or maybe pick up a new bike and save the FX for winter.

Erwin8r

N+1. You need to buy the second bike

Seriously, a second bike set-up for winter commuting is a great idea. Mount some fenders, a rear rack, and ride the heck out of it.

Sixty Fiver

I often suggest that people who depend on their bicycle for daily transportation have a back up bicycle and in place where you have a lot of variability in weather a designated bad weather / winter bike can serve in a couple of roles.

If you have to deal with freezing temperatures and ice studded tyres will make sense as will fenders, these will keep you and the bike drier and cleaner which reduces the need to cleaning and reduces wear on components.

More info in my sig.

buzzman

I bought a Specialized MTB for $200, which I set up with studded snow tires just for my winter commutes. Once the ice and snow hit I'll be on that bike pretty exclusively.

I much prefer a dedicated winter bike. I don't have time for the cleaning and maintenance required to keep my regular commuter "healthy", even just "hosing it down" is impractical where I live because our hoses are put away from November to March.

Funny thing is even though I beat my winter bike into the ground every season it seems to hang in there year after year. the trick is doing a major overhaul at the end of every season so that all you have to do is a quick tire pressure check and off you go when the snow first flies.

KGood

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions. As of right now I am going to ride the FX 7.2 through the winter. Now I just need some studded tires for it. If I change my mind I have an old Mongoose MTB I can ride if I have to. It rides like a POS though with the gears shifting of their own mind.

scoatw

You might want to think about getting a second wheelset and mounting the studs on those. I do that. It takes me less than 10 minutes to switch out the wheels. In my case its cheaper than buying another bike. I get to ride my bike year round. And its convenient. There has been lots of times I got ready to leave in the morning and changed my mind and decided to switch the wheels because of the conditions changing over night.

Bike Gremlin

2nd bike - cheap MTB. I got mine for free (studded winter tyres and a 10 euro crankset were the only investments).

One day there's snow, the next day it melts - it's more convenient than even switching wheels. Plus I have a backup bike in case of some failure/accident.

As far as maintenance goes - lube it all well before the winter. Get an aluminium frame and wheels. Other stuff is mostly aluminium or SS. Deraileur springs are not SS, so they might need washing and lubing between rides, or you can just let them rust and replace with cheap functioning ones when they do. One more reason for MTB - MTB derailleurs are cheaper than road ones and even low end ones work nice (from as low as Acera).

acidfast7

hmmm.

did you buy the first bike to look at it or to ride it?

Bike Gremlin

OP?

Not sure if they put salt on the roads where he's at - where I'm at - plenty of salt. Plus for the last 15 years, snow stays for 2-3 day, or a week, then melts, then falls again. So switching bikes is faster - if it snows when I wake up, I take the snow bike. If not - I take the "mule".

Plus it's good to have a backup, just in case. Last time a car hit me, my first worry was: how will I get it fixed for commuting to work on monday?! That's just my filosophy at least. If I didn't have enough room, I'd go with one bike, 2 sets of wheels.

I also have a third, dry weather bike, that has the nice, sensitive road bike components - lighter, quicker, nicer to ride on pavement, but putting fenders on it would turn it into almost another "mule".

KGood

@scoatw A set of studded wheels that I can easily change out is ideal. I'm not sure what studded wheels will fit on my bike or which set I should get.
@acidfast7 @Slaninar Haha yes I bought it to ride but I'd hate to see it ruined by the end of the winter because of all the salt on the roads.