What do you all do to keep winter from ruining your bike?
#26
Senior Member
If I did winter cycling on roads covered with ice, snow, salt and sand I would just buy a Walmart bike and dispose of it the following spring.
#28
your god hates me
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In no particular order:
- once the first snow and salt hits the streets, I hang up my steel bikes for the winter. (Learned that lesson the hard way.) Ride alloy or carbon frames only until the roads are clear and dry again.
- clean/lube chain often
- after cleaning, wipe down the frame with Pledge Wipes; this makes the next salt and grime less likely to stick, and/or at least easier to remove
- buy an apartment in the desert and ride throughout the winter with impunity, ignoring all the previous suggestions
- once the first snow and salt hits the streets, I hang up my steel bikes for the winter. (Learned that lesson the hard way.) Ride alloy or carbon frames only until the roads are clear and dry again.
- clean/lube chain often
- after cleaning, wipe down the frame with Pledge Wipes; this makes the next salt and grime less likely to stick, and/or at least easier to remove
- buy an apartment in the desert and ride throughout the winter with impunity, ignoring all the previous suggestions

#29
Junior Member
I'm from NE Ohio we get it all, ice, snow, salt. I'm wanting to keep riding more through the winter. I'm not a total winter novice but this would potentially put a lot more harmful salt and rust producing materials on my bike than I have in the past. I don't want winter ruining my bicycle. Any advice?
#30
Mad bike riding scientist
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Titanium.


Me to salt: “I fart in your general direction.”


Me to salt: “I fart in your general direction.”
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Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!
Days of Wineless Roads. Bed and Breakfasting along the KATY
Twisting Down the Alley. Misadventures in tornado alley.
Stuart Black
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!
Days of Wineless Roads. Bed and Breakfasting along the KATY
Twisting Down the Alley. Misadventures in tornado alley.