I don't ride in snow often enough to remember not to shift when my cogs get packed with ice. I shift out of habit without thinking, then when I shift back to the cog that was working, sometimes it's too late.

I've poured hot water on my cogs to de-ice them. Urine works also, but these are temporary measures and the ice comes back fast.

I don't think the chainrings can't get full of snow/ice. I usually don't have fenders on my bike and it's never happened to me.

I think this is why a lot of winter cyclists prefer single speed or IGH setups. You don't have to remember not to shift.

HA! I've done this too. Hot water, not urine, that is. Hot coffee, actually, out of the thermos. Total waste of coffee because, like you say, the ice comes right back.

Maybe because of the larger difference in diameter between chainrings? I've noticed that the smaller cogs tend to clog up a lot faster than the larger cogs, which seem to have a larger change in radius as you work your way into the the lower gears.

A little more evolution. I got a Brooks B17 for Christmas, and I just completed a drop bar conversion.

@GriddleCakes:
Good story, great pics and an increasingly awesome bike.

After breaking the front fender, I decided to replace them with SKS Longboards I picked up cheap online (the beige colored ones were marked down the most, and they are the ones I wanted).

Well I'll just do mine by photos, LOL!





Lot's of Little Changes, racks, bars, bar ends, stems, ect. now to it's final set up as my trekking/weekend machine!

I decided to add Sora 3500 brifters to my bullhorn bars, as I found that when I was riding my bike I was wanting to spend most of the time on the horns, which made braking/shifting rather inconvenient. I also added cross levers for braking when I'm riding on the flat part of the bar. I had to change out the standard V-brakes for mini V-brakes to work correctly with the brifters.

Before:


After:


Very happy with the change. I'm impressed with myself for being able to do all the mechanical work by myself, and I'm impressed with the feel of the bike now that the changes are complete. I had to adjust the brakes somewhat to get enough stopping power, but I've now ridden the bike over 100km and it feels great.

Cool looking bike, I like the horns and the setup, how comfortable is it on longer rides?

^Today I rode it a little more than 60km (a little less than 40 miles) and it felt great - no hand pain at all. The only issue was a slight bit of neck pain due to the low riding position (probably similar to riding in the hoods on a road bike, though I'm not certain as I've never ridden a modern road bike), but I think that will pass as I get used to riding in that position.