prairiepedaler

Man, such beautiful weather out there for January. It's pushing record territory temperature-wise. The sudden heat has caused a slush of road-salt and grit which melts down brakepads. After a ride, the rear wheel has black pad compound all over it. Riding the street is too messy and the trails / sidewalks offer no traction; as winter riders know, the snow crushes underneath the wheels causing instability and the loose stuff is like riding in sand. Give me cold, sunny and dry with hardpack any day!

DQRider 

That's French for winter bike. Here's mine - a Peugeot Orient Express with studded Schwalbe Winter Marathon up front, and Specialized Ground Control on the back:



The days are still so short, I only had about an hour of light after I got home from work. So I took the photos first, and then tackled my 14-mile neighborhood loop mostly in the dark.



This setup is working well for me so far, although now I wish we had more snow - that studded tire will wear out pretty quickly on all this dry pavement.

rumrunn6

nice looking bike. saw your post in the other thread. the Marathons are the tires I was thinking of. why 2 dif tires if you don't mind me asking. btw you might have justification for another set of wheels to swap when there isn't any snow

DQRider 

Thanks! Yeah, I do cross post sometimes, when I get some good photos. You got people logging their time on trainers at the gym on that other thread. Gotta spice it up a little with some actual ride reports.

I run 2 different tires because I'm frugal, and studded tires are expensive. If I start to slip too much with the rear, I'll get another studded tire - maybe off Craigslist. So far they are working well, though.

I have another set of wheels to use if I need to - they are on my daughter's old MTB, which she doesn't ride anymore. 17 and too cool for bikes, I guess.

To address a point you made on the other post - I am heading for one of our best rail trails today in Hastings, MN. Get a good breakfast at a Mexican place, and then ride out about ten miles or so and come back - no loop on this route. Gonna try some different gear so I don't get overheated this time.

prairiepedaler

Hi, those Origin8's look interesting. Anyone here use 'em? (Winterbike or otherwise). I wouldn't mind giving them a whirl on a regular go-to 3 season mountain bike.

LesterOfPuppets

Snow commute.


Snow pleasure ride.

dhunley1

Staypuft1652

gecho

I only did a few rides with them before taking them off. They felt awkward due to the width of the bars. A bar with a large back sweep would be even worse judging from my experience with bar ends on my fat bike.

noglider 

It's officially still winter, but we're having temperatures in the 60s and 70s now, so this is my winter bike today. I just ran a short errand on it. The streets are nearly completely dry now.

1975 Viscount converted to fixed gear
Cranks look original but actually it's an original big chainring bolted to 155mm TA cranks.

rumrunn6

cool bars, fork & chainring

FargoRider

Commuted all winter on this Framed Minnesota 3.0. Worked great, and it's a blast going places I always thought bikes could never go.

It's actually a very nice off-road bike in the non-winter months too.

sweeks

On Diamond Lake, Mundelein, IL a couple years ago. Ice was 11" thick!
Nokian "Extreme 294" tires.

noglider 

How do people measure ice thickness?

Hypno Toad

After somebody breaks through, and after you pull the body, truck, snowmobile, ... out, you use a tape measure to figure it out.

@sweeks pic reminded me of my January ride across Lake Minnetonka:
IMG_20170108_133856.jpg
Surly Pugsley with 45NRTH Dillingers

I showed this pic somebody from SoCal and they asked how I know the ice is safe... I said that there haven't been any news stories about people breaking through the ice, so it's safe.

rumrunn6

haha, no, they drill a hole. like for ice fishing

sweeks

1) I look for evidence of thick ice: ice fishing and snowmobiles are good.
2) I go to the closest ice fisherman and ask... they should know!

BTW, I only go out on *bottom-fed-by-spring* lakes. If there is water flowing under the ice there may be thin spots. I also carry two "ice picks" just in case.
Steve

Summer06

Super cool! this must feel so good!

johnnyspaghetti

IMG_20170731_092938.jpg Fenders clog up some but simply bringing it in to melt off after a snow ends any ice issues.

rumrunn6

nice bike & color, what saddle s that?

I'll bet carrying a drain stick would be helpful. I remember not having anything long & flexible to run up under & around the fenders to clear the void

DQRider 

What about road-salt? They even use it on the bike paths here. No corrosion issues?

johnnyspaghetti

The picture is very kind. This bike looks very good but has a degree of "patina" & "used" that affords me no lost sleep when it comes to rust. In a snow (love a fresh snowfall up to 6") never really is an issue with snow clog fender drag.. Bouncing the wheels a couple of times usually clears out the snow packed. Chrome is attended to after the winter season and all mechanicals are oiled often where needed. On a 1 to 5 scale this bike is a 2 although mechanically sound.

johnnyspaghetti

[QUOTE=rumrunn6;19810297]nice bike & color, what saddle s that?

I'll bet carrying a drain stick would be helpful. I remember not having anything long & flexible to run up under & around the fenders to clear the void


It is a Velo seat recently replaced my broken spring-frame seat. It is a vegan approved material (ha ha) with a dense foam padding that unfortunately sucks up more rain better than it really needs to. It looks very nice, like new & was $30 on craigslist. It is a firm-comfortable spring seat although the jury is still out on the durability of the "suede like" material. I did save enough money to get me a fat bloody red steak at the butcher. This bike can't budget a Brooks seat.

johnnyspaghetti

Corrosion is delt with & just not an issue. Road (rock)salt on the paths around here sucks because I trot the dog with me and the salt hurts her paws. IMG_20170820_140457.jpg

browngw 

A new winter bike for this year. Felt DD70 Fat Bike. It's fun in summer should be a (cold) blast come winter!