Yellowgiant

I need a new winter bike. I have seen a few of these Aquila's and they look good and come well equiped.
I am leaning to the Mondial.

aquilacycles.com

Basil Moss

Fixed gear is the only righteous way. Convert one from a crappy old steel racer, put mudguards on it, you'll have great fun making and riding it, and it will give you MASSIVE GUADS!!!

Yellowgiant

With all the snow we have here, 8ft snowbanks, I need something with lots of clearance and knobby tires and a range of gears. I prefer cross bikes over mtb that's why I was leaning that way.

sstorkel

When I have the money, I'm going to buy a Soma Double Cross DC then outfit it will full fenders and disc brakes. It'll be my commute and winter training bike.

mattm

get something that'll fit full fenders, that's a must (at least in the PNW).

fixed is good too.

botto 

incorrect.

full fenders are preferable, although sks race blades (or something similar) will suffice.

joejack951

My vote is for something like this (though mine will get more than just winter use):



Disc front brake (no need for it on the rear), 28mm tires plus fenders with tons of clearance leftover, tons of gearing for climbing hills with a 30mph headwind (yes, that's a triple with an 11-32 cassette). You might not need the rack but I wouldn't go without it for my commute. You don't need to splurge on the XTR rear derailler like I did though (but who would turn one down for $100?).

Basil Moss

It so is correct.

No they won't.

And concerning the bike in the above photo, isn't it just way too shiny to take out on all sorts of grotty roads? I like having a bike that doesn't give me puppy eyes when I don't wash it, because it's so fugly the puppy eyes are more like baby minotaur eyes, and evoke no sympathy.

About fitting nobblies to a winter bike, it can also be done with a fixed! Get an old steel MTB, with horizontal dropouts, or an old cross frame. You can put all the nobbly bits on that you want, and still have room for mudguards. Riding fixed on bad roads is wonderful, it has to be tried.

botto 

incorrect. again.

incorrect. yet again.

Basil Moss

Is too.

Yellowgiant

The bike I go with will also be the bike I use to pull a trailer(still shopping for) around with my baby boy in it. It will likely end up on trails the odd time. But for the most part in the warmer weather it'll have road tires and I'll use it for commuting.

I'll keep my Masi 3VC for less stressful situations

Psydotek

asmallsol

I would just go with a cheap cyclocross bike that has eyelets for fenders. For 800 bucks you can buy a full 105 drivetrain cyclocross bike with carbon fork from bikes direct.

Here is what I ride in the winter: (and I mean true winter/northcali need not apply)

K2 Enemy cyclocross bike from Performancebike.com $850 with full 105 shifters...



Although I would have gone the bikesdirect option if that bike was there when I bought this one.

joejack951

I have a cheap MTB that I plan to use when it's really nasty out (like salted roads/ice/snow/etc.). Currently, the MTB is used year round as my commuter but will be replaced 95% by the bike above (starting as soon as we get some rain to wash away all the road salt). My cheaper road bike that I rode during winter months has been sold and that duty will also now be taken over by the bike above.

Here's a closeup after getting home from work a few years ago (it was worse in the morning):

[

pdedes

fixed gear off road is a gas too. here in sw ontario, the trails are all snowy and its amazing fun to hack around for a couple of hours on a fixed. you can lock up the rear wheel, slide down descents, knock over trees ... grüvy.

Basil Moss

Nice! Also, being an MTB, it is congenitally ugly, so there can be no remorse... I like the ice on the fork. Last time that happened to me, I thought it was really cool, then I saw that there was a lump of ice on the crotch of my tights, and I realised that it was really COLD...

zatopek

Here's my winter/commuter bike. This pic is without the studded tires I later added for ice and snow. It's a single speed 29er.

joejack951

The heavily sloping top tube alone on that bike is enough to make me not care what kind of weather I put that bike through.

My upper body was completely encrusted in ice when I got to work that morning. I wish I had a picture of that.