what exactly is the purpose of changing your gear ratio in the winter? i know of people who normally go for a lower gear ratio when winter comes around but no one has ever explained to me why.

right now i'm riding 48x16 but i have a 14t cog sitting right here that i'm eventually going to put on. would it be wiser to keep it at 48x16 for the winter, or even go to 48x18?

It's worth changing to a lighter gearing since riding through snow makes it much harder to pedal. While I rarely ride through snow, I do find it nice to have a lower gearing since I find that the combination of colder weather and wind makes a higher gear undesirable. My cold muscles don't like hammering away just to go like 18 kph into a headwind which makes it feel like -40c.

That's just personal experience and what i've read so far though...

the roads are always wet here, so i don't want to be going as fast

You are planning on rolling 48-14 on the street? I'll sing the requiem for your knees.

Going faster in the cold is harder, and in ice and stuff you want more control anyways. Hence, lower gearing. Dope.

winter wind = go **** yourself, world.

yeah, i'll probably stay at 36x18 for the winter most of the time. i just bought a new 48t chainring, and i don't feel like buying a 44t or something like that for the winter.

Last winter I was getting pretty bad pain in my knees during the coldest periods. My knees seem to take longer to warm up in the cold. If I'm going on a short ride (most of my rides are as I'm a commuter), I like the lower ratio so that I avoid tendonitis.

During the summer (maybe it's psychosomatic), my legs seem to be less sensitive and appear to handle a higher ratio. Braingel's point is pretty good too, as a general safety precaution.

I don't gear down my fixies (49x17 and 42x15) in the winter..the same gear ratios work just as well for me regardless of the temperature. Even in the winter, most days are still dry, so for me there's no real point in gearing down most of the time. However, I do resort to riding my SSMTB (Flip 34x15; Flop 34x17) on really snowy and/or windy days.

I normally ride 46/16. When it's windy or slippery I try to flip over to my 18t cog. It's easier to pedal in the wind and it slows me down on ice and snow. Also, I feel like I stay warmer at a lower gear.

Weight of the bike makes a big difference in my experience, if you have like a 10 or more pound difference in bikes. My snow bike is geared a touch too high at 44x18 for going uphill all the way home in snow, but a lower gear would be murderous to spin all the way to work downhill in snow/sleet/wet - when there's not any snow, this bike is slow, heavy and sluggish compared to my road bike, and when there is snow, it's murderously slow and sluggish with a much smaller ratio than you're riding. My unsnow bike is a touch too high for the unsnow but very cold when commuting, but livable with the same ratio.

I think part of the "gear down for the winter" comes from an old training myth that you shouldn't ride a bigger gear than X in the winter because you've got to spin and keep up your aerobic fitness, suppleness and form. If it's terrain, gear down.

I always gear down for the winter for the reason of keeping warmer and avoiding muscle strains due to the cold.
Track training nights here start at 20:00 to 22:00, and in the winter (like now) it's pretty cold so spinning a high cadence is good for me, I still get home nice and sweaty even in this weather (it's cold, wet and windy in the UK at present...errr, for a change).

To go with the fatter tires, maybe?

Just out of curiousity, how many people switch to winter tires? I'm still running the same 700x23 slicks that I ran all spring/summer/fall.

i switch to winter tires. i always used to use the clement cyclocross tubulars, but since they are no longer in production and my stock is used up i'm trying the grey vittoria tubulars this year.

also, a lower gear keeps your legs moving more, and it's easier to keep your body temp up.

Yeah OUCH

Don't forget the air itself is harder to push through when it's c-c-c-cold!

The point of a lower gear in winter is that when your joints are cold, they are not as flexible. You are more prone to overuse injuries. By going to a lower gear, you lessen the stress on your cold joints and also warm up your joints a bit better with higher cadence.

Plus, cycling is about power and leg speed. During the summer, you can ride a bigger gear and develop your power. Sometime, however, you need to ride a lower gear and teach your legs actually to move faster. You'll notice after using a big gear for a while that even in a lower gear, you can't spin all that fast (spinning fast downhill isn't the same as being able to spin a gear fast). So the winter is just a good time to work on your leg speed. You'll find that you can ride faster in a 46x18 than other folks around you in a 48x16. Remember that a world class match sprinter will sprint at 150-165 rpm; they don't try to do 90 rpm in a humongous gear because it isn't as fast. So ..... gear down.

On the snow bike it's 42x17, and on the regular bike it's... 42x17.

I run the same tires all year here. The roads get plowed quick, so it's just the occasional ice patch and puddles that do me in.

On the snow bike I'm on 26x2.1" spiked tires, and 700x28C on the regular bike. I switch to the snow bike whenever it snows, and then I'm stuck on it until the roads clear up enough. This can take a while, since the city doesn't plough very much.