baldilocks

Happy thanksgiving everyone,
What do you think of buying a 3 speed IGH cruise bike as a bad weather and more importantly, winter bike. I would buy studded tires for it. Originally I wanted to buy a single speed mountain bike, put some Jones h-loop bars $ on it. Put a nexus 3 speed hub $ on it. Put fenders $ on it. Buy Lights $ for it. Put a mirror on it. $ Put a Rack on it. $ And, finally buy some studded tires for it. Then I got to thinking, Old cruisers were used at the birth of mountain biking. I'm not talking about actually off roading, but I do jump curbs and prefer mountain biking. The bikes I've been looking at come with most the things i would putt on my winter bike. Has anyone used a cruiser for winter riding? or feel free to offer your opinion.

dabac

Cruisers are made for (very) upright, seated riding.
Winter riding can offer frequent opportunities to get out of saddle.
Make sure you have the proportions of the distance between saddle, pedals and bars contact points reasonably within range before buying.

fietsbob

Why not ?coaster brakes work OK you will not be in a hurry .. studded tires are slower in general ..

I have drum brake wheels on one of those old MTB .. and studded tires ..

I'd avoid abusing any bike jumping curbs.. I use the curb cuts at corners..





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baldilocks

Thanks for the feed back. The fit of the bicycle would be a gamble, as it would be an on line purchase. Many of them have listed a height range that I fall within.

SquidPuppet

That is a very real problem with the Cruiser layout. However, it can be overcome (to a degree) by replacing the swept bar bars with some forward mounted BMX bars.

baldilocks

That is a beautiful bike. The thing with the swept bars is, I think I want them. My current bike has Jones h loop bars and I love them. If I didn't like my good bike so much, I would just ride it thru the winter. The other option is to add the bars to my old MTB. But I don't like my old bike the way I used to. Also I would want to change the shifters, and need fenders and a new rack.

wipekitty

I seriously thought about doing this at one point. I actually have an old Schwinn cruiser in the garage - but the thing is heavy and slow, even compared to my old mountain bike.

What kept me from trying to winterize it was the lack of availability of pre-fab studded tires in the correct rim size. I'm too lazy to DIY studded tires these days.

baldilocks

The bike I've been looking at un-assembled is under $400.00 with tax. It comes with every thing I would buy (lights, Fenders, rack and kickstand. I would have to pay $60 or so to have it assembled. I would have to buy studded tires and a mirror. I might want a new seat as well. The bad side would be the weight and coaster brakes. If I hadn't just bought a bike in April, I'd have bought it by now. I suppose for now my old mountain bike will have to do.

PaulH

When I started riding in the winter, back in 1960, single speed cruisers were the only bikes anyone had ever seen. I quickly discovered that my bike went quite well in snow because of its geometry and balloon tires. I could easily go up hills that my father's car could not manage without chains. I recall it was very stable -- one could easily slide around corners dragging my inside boot on the snow. Coaster brakes are ideal for winter -- no cables to ice up and the rear brake is the only one you need. If our country hadn't entered the automobile age as early as it did, the cruisers might have evolved into something analogous to Dutch bikes.

bicyclridr4life

I rode a single speed coaster brake "beach cruiser" (of course that term had yet to be invented at the time) from roughly 1960 to 1977, year round in Iowa. No studded tires in the winter. I don't know if studded bicycle tires had been invented yet ... heck, I'm not sure if bicycle helmets had been invented back then. If they had been, no one I knew used a helmet.
I do remember making pedal tracks in the snow was fun.

littleone

Fenders are a must. Fender clearance is the killer. I used a 26" bike frame with 24" wheels so the snow wouldn't pack between the tire and fender. Using a longer crank with a smaller gear will produce more power and less speed. I used this bike for delivering newspapers in the 70's A skinney English tire on the front and a balloon tire on the rear did the trick. Went through over a foot of snow with that bike. They didn't have mountain bike tires back then but that's what I'd put on the rear today. Studded tires may help on ice but aren't a necessity. Never had any trouble with the coaster brake so I'd stick with that too.

MANIFESTTO

If you really want to go full winterize, try fat tires, although they are becoming mainstream now, they were actually designed for riding in the snow. You will likely need a frame for them too : (

baldilocks

I really don't know what I want. I considered buying the exact bike I just bought this April. But it doesn't exist. They've changed it so it has hydraulic brakes. Heck, I didn't even want disk but the mechanical were a compromise. I like rigid Mountain bikes. I no longer like twist shifters, which my original mtb had. I prefer lg tires, the 650b's have been great. I love the Jones-h loop bars. With the different hand positions, It's like having two bike's in one. That said, think I would like the hand position of some of the cruisers. Not sure if I would like the geometry. For this winter I will probably be on My old mtb. I guess I just suffer from not wanting a whole fleet of bikes.

55murray

I used to use a 1950's cruiser frame with a Bendix two speed hub (the one with the low gear) for winter use in MI. I worked great really. It is still at my parents house up there...

Mark Mandolin

I bought my Next mountain bike new for under $100 through a community bike shop. It was a donation. I was poor so it worked out. 21 speed v brakes . I guess as I changed out parts it became a beach cruiser by default. I grew up with high handle bars and like the upright stance. Great if you spin out on ice. And if you do drop the bike you can tuck your body in and have larger protected space as ground contacts pedals and handlegrip.I put a 2.4" cruiser tire on the rear and was surprised how much better bike coasted. When the snow came I had a spare knobby tire but never put it on and was truly surprised how well bike handled even riding over snow covered grass. I included pic of tire for reference. Seems counter intuitive but that tire is perfect for winter riding! I like to be able to jump curbs and medians too.
Down side of high handle bars is eventually they strip and bars move overtime so I replaced with Elevenz largest bmx bars made and way more solid while keeping the stance I like. Why not run a derailier in the winter? Nice to have all those gears.
I spend a couple bucks at a do it yourself car wash and spray down gears and derailier to clean accumulated sand and salt preventative maintenance you will have no problem with gears. oil cables and chain and your good to go. Never had an issue with the caliper brakes in rain or snow they stop fine.