I would rather ride outside but for snowy, icy, and sub zero days I have a cyclops fluid 2 trainer to ride. Heck it beats crashing.

Sadly enough it is also useful for when I am unable to leave the house during nice days. Kid is sick or monitoring data loads.... stuff like that.

I've never ridden in the snow but think it would be fun. Right now I have road tires on my MTB. Would it beh0ove me to change them back to my mountian bike tires for the winter?

In winter I use Tacx rollers to true up my handling skills and eliminate sideways motion. When I started riding, I briefly had a Cycle-ops, but hated how boring trainer riding is.

I think I'll be forced to ride indoors only, since I'm completely broke and can't afford winter clothes. I don't even feel like riding outside right now.


I'm beginning to like my rollers. Plus, I can watch my It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia DVD's.

bah, I ride indoors, no trainer, no wussy rollers, all hardwood floors, like a velodrome. One lap around the kitchen, into the den, around to the dining room. Stuff gets broken, but that's the life.

Harden the F up you wussies.

This will be my first "winter" riding. I have started using a trainer. I have limited time to get out during the week and it's really a matter of darkness rather than temp at this point. I'm not keen on riding at night yet. Maybe some day. So what I hope to do is 45-60 minute trainining sessions inside during the week and then a longer ride on Saturday with a couple of rest days thrown in there. Hopefully I can get back to swimming laps again a couple times a week as well.

I just got the Travel Trac RealAxiom trainer and I really like it so far. But still not as fun as getting out on the road.

I'm looking into getting a trainer, but haven't yet. Of course, my cutoff is about 20 degrees F or major ice on roads. I have ridden down to 10 degrees, but minor chilling of toes(not enough layers).

I can't answer your tire questions, but I can tell you that riding in the snow is fun, if a bit slow. When I was a paper boy at age 14 I'd do my 5 mile loop with 40 pounds of papers on the back of the bike if the snow was not deeper than 4 inches. We didn't have any different tires, like knobbies, back then unless you rode a BMX bike. Any deeper than 4 inches and it was like riding a bike in deep sand - the front wheel would just mush and it was too hard to pedal forward.

Go for it - just change the tires back to the MTB tires and you should have fun!

You do know that winter cycling clothes are much less expensive than summer cycling clothes ... right? If you go to the winter cycling forum right now there are two threads (at least) about that.

I ride outdoors all winter. Temps usually don't go much below freezing and, with the right gear, you can still get out and ride. Sometimes it sucks, like when its raining, but that is better, to me, than doing the hamster thing on a trainer.

I have an old performance roller, that I'll be using most the winter, I'll probably take a month off and run on the treadmill for a change of pace though

I'm trying to figure out what to do as I just moved to a much smaller place. But until this summer, I'd do a lot of evening/night (in all seasons) rides on the fluid trainer.

If I've taken a lot of time off the bike, I do rollers for a few days as I find my "comfy" cadence stays higher if I do rollers at that time (100-110 rpm instead of 70-90).

I also have a converted spin bike which I use for sprint work.

If I were to choose one, I'd get just the fluid trainer. You can train pretty hard on it.

You can't simulate the out-of-saddle efforts though (might be interesting on a free motion roller set but you'd need resistance). Whenever I ride outside for the first time in a while, the out of saddle muscles get sore (arms, legs, shoulders, etc).

I use whatever tire I have on the wheel. I try and avoid using my race wheels (with CX or Contis tubulars) but use Michelin ProLite2, various Specialized high end tires, Vittoria Rubinos, and misc others. They get a silver sheen on them but I don't wear them out. The sheen goes away after 10-15 minutes of riding outside.

My trainer sessions can run from 45 min - 1:30 and long ones are 2-3+ hours. A power meter does wonders to keep my mind focused on the task at hand (as does watching bike vids and movies).

You can buy a cheap tire ($10 wire bead tire) and not only will you not worry about it on the trainer, you can take the bike off the trainer and ride it outside. I have a couple for all around training.

On rollers I don't worry about tire wear so if I don't feel like taking the race wheels off the bike I'll use the rollers.

hope this helps,
cdr

You're not a real cyclist until you've had your iPod freeze.

That is final confirmation that you're stupid enough to ride in any conditions regardless of your personal health and safety. Pcad has acheived this benchmark. Nobody's dumber than me.

http://www.machka.net/brevet/Coldest_Century.htm

But I don't have an iPod to freeze. :D

And I can't afford summer clothes either!:D

I have three letters for you.......ADT

I love Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It makes my thursday nights special.

Ewwwww.