Comments on: Winterizing – the Green Machine Rides Again

By: PGB

PGB — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:43:43 +0000

If your looking for a winter bike the best place to get one is at your local Police auction. This is a gold mine for picking up a nice bike for winter riding. I scored an Author Stratos CycleCross bike for $75 and outfitted with Nokian Studded tires. Now I don’t care how much salt I ride through. It’s a mid-range bike and parts for it are cheap enough to replace every couple of years. My next, or second, winter bike I’ll be looking for an aluminum frame.

By: plutosdad

plutosdad — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:28:11 +0000

I have a ’94 Giant aluminum mtb, this is my first winter. Front tire is knobby rear is pretty smooth, but I rode last week during the snow and it was fine. I commute from Lakeview to the Loop.

However I recently ordered Schwab Winter Marathon spiked tires worried about ice in the coming months, they should be ok riding on the streets. I hope that is knobby enough and don’t need something more, I guess it depends if there is really really heavy snow or not and I’m out in it.

By: crazycommutingcyclist

crazycommutingcyclist — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:43:52 +0000

I had talked to a LBS sales person about studded tires. They liked them on the ice and they helped a great deal. He told me once you hit dry pavement you tend to slip and slide.
If I do get studs I think I will have them on seprate wheels and change them in as needed.
For me I ride my Schwinn Masa GSX with 2.4 Mountain Kings and get around fairly well. When I have needed extra grip from them I drop the air pressure.

By: Pär

Pär — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:38:34 +0000

In Stockholm I ride an old Crescent 4-speed during the winter. Schwalbe studded tires 28 mm wide provides me with the necessary contact. And of course a lot of illumination due to blind drivers.

By: sqrl

sqrl — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:21:49 +0000

I mentioned that I ride a cross bike to illustrate the fact that you don’t need a Pugsley w/ 4” tires to ride the city in winter.

Mountain bikes work great for winter riding – especially w/ studs. I don’t mountain bike any longer as I have a jacked arm from being hit by a car and when my mtn bike was stolen, I never felt the need to replace it. As I don’t have the scratch or space for another ride, my choices were to stud my Fuji or my 70’s Schwinn Collegiate. I opted for the Fuji because it could house wider tires.

Cat, as Jeff mentioned, it’s pretty cheap and easy to make your own studded tires. If you’re looking to buy, I picked up mine for $80 (that’s the price for the set). Anyone charging $100 a piece is ripping you off.

Cheers to all.

By: Cat MacKinnon

Cat MacKinnon — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:02:54 +0000

i can only afford one bike right now, and it’s my trusty Specialized MTB. it’s been really cold and icy lately, and after eating some black ice a couple weeks ago, i dropped my air pressure down to 40psi (usually run them at about 70psi unless i’m going to ride a lot of off-road and trails.) it made a noticeable difference in traction, at least on rough/snow covered ice and plain snow. i’d take them even lower, but they’re rated at a minimum of 30psi and i don’t want to risk a pinch flat when it’s 15 degrees and dark. i’ve also started slowing way down and putting my legs out like outriggers when i come to a large patch of unknown winter accumulation. at least if i feel myself falling, my foot’s got a better chance at keeping me from going completely down. i got the “outrigger” idea from something i remember reading on Sheldon Brown’s website a while back, and it really does seem to work for me.

i’d love a set of studded tires, but i just can’t afford to spend $100 on one tire, let alone two (and of course i’d probably want to have another complete wheelset to keep them on, since Colorado weather changes so much in the winter.)

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:54:59 +0000

You can’t beat studs for glaze ice. If you don’t want to spring for the cost, you can make a set with sheet metal screws and knobbies: put the screws through the knobbies, pointy end out, then add a set of tire liners to try to protect the tube. (It’ll probably still get chewed up in a season.)

My problem was always going uphill in snow. The front tire would slide out. Maybe the ultimate winter commuter would have a 26″ studded tire on the back, more weight distribution towards the front and a little 16″ studded tire in front to punch through a snow layer.

By: michael sicurello

michael sicurello — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:59:34 +0000

I live in Tucson AZ, this Thursday the temp was 38 when I left to commute cross-town, and 70 at 5:30pm when I trekked home.. I ride the same “Urban Assault” bike year round.. A hard tail mountain bike with knobby tire and giant waterproof paniers that accomodate things like a wool jacket, extra shoes, lunch, and sometimes on the way home a bag of groceries or a frozen turkey…

A road bike is faster and easier to peddle, but a full loaded mountain bike gives you options like hopping curbs, surviving the “ditch or car” episode, having a change of clothes and tying the chair you found on the side of the road to your bike rack..

To each their own…

By: Powerful Pete

Powerful Pete — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:49:06 +0000

Fair enough dukiebiddle. I take your point (and hats off to sqrl for all year commuting in Anchorage!).

You Moscow cold types are nuts.

In a good way of course… but I guess it is all in what you are used to!

By: sqrl

sqrl — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:46:04 +0000

I live in Anchorage AK and commute all year on a cross bike. It’s a mid 80′s Fuji hybrid that, like Doug, I put 700×35 Nokian studs on for the winter months.

As you can imagine, there are a fair amount of Pugsleys up here and, though I think they are fun to ride on trails, they are sluggish on the street and would be overkill for strictly city commuting–not to mention expensive.

my two pennies:
If you’ve got the dough it’d be fun to pick one up for recreational riding on trails and such but if your only plan for one is city commuting, save the cash and storage space.