Lets see your winter bike.

[ZygoteLittle]

Miss Fit

She is a great winter bike for going downhill snow mountain biking; nothing too special, Maxxis Hookworms 24X2.5, geared a little tall to keep the tires from slipping on icy/snow and a low center of gravity to keep from falling too far.

 

[us56456712]

Hmm, I had a vinyl seat last winter and it did just fine (and last winter was just about as cold as it gets). Then again, I was able to store my bike indoors at work at that job, and I stored my bike indoors at home. I get where you're coming from with your zero-maintenance policy on your winter bikes, but I really think a few small things (like storing it indoors, putting on fenders, etc.) could save you a fair amount of headaches.

I have to leave my bike outside at work at my new job, though. I'm using a Messinger saddle (different than the one shown in my Heavy Duti pics thus far). It's made of ... some kind of fake leather? I'm not really sure what it is, but it's gorgeous and also quite comfortable now that I have it adjusted just right. It hasn't had any issues with being outside while I'm at work; the only issue has been that my rear light can't handle the cold. It'll power on just fine, but when I get home it refuses to shut off until it's warmed up for ten minutes. Oh well .[/QUOT
The vinyl on my cracking seat is real thick. It probably can't bend easily and cracks in the cold. It is also from the 90s. My new gell seat is OK, not as comfortable but it absorbs moisture. I pout an old Messenger seat cover over it.

 

[us56456712]

Miss Fit

She is a great winter bike for going downhill snow mountain biking; nothing too special, Maxxis Hookworms 24X2.5, geared a little tall to keep the tires from slipping on icy/snow and a low center of gravity to keep from falling too far.

Wow, that is real different. I like it.

 

[ZygoteLittle]

Thank you, us5; she is fun to ride down snowy hills. I'm sure you have your fair share of snow in The U P; I have family living in Newbury.

She has a roadie crank 52-38, mountain bike rear derailleur, touring cassette, drop bars w/roadie brake handles and a tall sissy bar (not shown) because I almost feel-off the back of the bike when she went over a bump!

BTW the rear shock was removed and replaced with a drilled piece of steel stock to eliminate frame flexing and damaging the saddle.

 

[ZygoteLittle]

You guys have "winter bikes"? lol. Too funny. My winter bike is the same as my spring, summer, and fall bikes.

Crazy, you guys live in my freezer, lol.

We have salt to be sure. Just about every used bike I get has a stuck seat post and quill stem, lol. But at least the weather is perfect all year.

Yep

It’s OK, I’ll stay here up north and enjoy something called Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall

 

[ZygoteLittle]

Riding the Manta-Ray on one of our frozen lakes a couple of years ago; tires were at ~30psi each - fun stuff on a cold day in January!

 

[us56456712]

Lousy weather here for biking, skiing, snowshoeing and driving. I built another winter bike without studded tires because we have been having either ice or bare pavement. My wife says I don't need all those studs anyway as the one riding it is enough. Ha, what does she know.

A freighter on the horizon on Lake Superior in the rain 2 days before Christmas, 2014. Slush and grass on the city bike path in the foreground.


My street today. Rotten ice with slush furrows makes for marginal riding. After the plow goes by it will be safer to ride on. If it was frozen solid it would be great with studs.

My "new" stud-less winter bare pavement bike made from junk and cast off stuff from at least 10 different bikes. I made it yesterday. Today I put the front brake on. I have a larger rear tire than shown but I am basically lazy and if the 1.5 inch one works why change? If I have problems with the skinny rear then I will change it to 2.1, but this is designed for mostly bare pavement. The steer tube is too long so I used 4 locking washers to take up the space. You never know when you might need the full length for a different project. I didn't have a seatpost that fit so I used a mallet to insert one that was a little too big. It went in crooked but I can't move it. It is inserted almost to the recommended max height, which is close enough in my book of indifference. It won't go in any further or come out either. I hope it doesn't ever have to come out. The pedals are all metal and very rusty. I feel that plastic pedals keep your feet warmer. I have an old set of 1/2 inch plastic pedals that I may go to if I can't keep my feet warm but they don't fit my notion of a rat/maggot bike, which is pretty much what this is. It now has an old set of foam and electrical tape handlebar grips on it but they were inside being glued back together when I took this picture. It has a custom yellow overspray paint job to add some class. Yucky semi frozen fresh snow covers all the semi frozen slush. It was 35 F and snowing this morning. There are puddles in low places, weird. The prediction is for 4 inches of snow overnight. Can't ride in those conditions, at least until they plow. I hate the stationary velo attachment but I am going to have to ride it tomorrow in front of my wood stove to the accompaniment of Jerry Lee Lewis.

 

[us56456712]

Yes winter has kicked in here too. My favorite time of year for riding. It's called the Northeast Monsoon. The air is dryer so it feels much cooler. We hit a low of 21 (C not F) the other morning. I had to put on a t-shirt! This bike is built to take a beating with the heavy duty wheels and I can cruise all day if I like, with the huge seat and apes. And I can bolt on the sidecar anytime.

Your bike would work extremely well here in in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA, in the winter because of the up right riding position, padded frost free water proof seat, rear view mirror, wide knobbies and gearing. My cruiser is very upright like your bike so you can see ahead for ice and traffic as you need more reaction time on ice. My cruiser has 10.5 gauge spokes but the rear wheel is now like a potato chip and hits the frame. It lasted 4 years though. I think it might be too rusted and too bent to fix. Sliding sideways into an iced up snow bank bent it. I tried to fix it on the fly by laying the bike down and jumping on the bent part of the wheel. I could ride it home, but it is pretty bent. If anyone saw this they would have thought it was an old codger in a demented rage jumping up and down on his bike. My next rear wheel will be alloy and have 14 gauge spokes and we will see how that lasts. Rust frozen parts and out of round wheels are the biggest problems I have in the winter. Flats are usually not a problem until spring when all the broken beer/wine bottles, windshield glass, and various metal and plastic bumper car parts melt out of the snow and are ready to be ridden over. I almost always get at least one flat in the spring.

 

[us56456712]

Riding the Manta-Ray on one of our frozen lakes a couple of years ago; tires were at ~30psi each - fun stuff on a cold day in January!

Riding my 59 Schwinn Corvette the end of November last year on the frozen lake at our cabin.

 

[Illiterite Wino]

old factory Huffy.. now has a double basket on the back

 

[us56456712]

It snowed 4 inches of wet 34F snow yesterday. The plows came through at 4:30 AM and it got in the upper single digits last night. it has been a steady 18F all day so it was good ice riding. It was cloudy then sunny, then snow then sunny then another snow band off Lake Superior. I didn't get any pictures of the sun on the sparkling snow because my camera froze up. Just got a few pictures/videos at the beginning of my 8 mile ride.

Getting dressed to go riding. My friends say its not worth riding if you have to put all this stuff on. Hey, I am pushing 70 and I don't want to break something, so I am trying to avoid it if possible. Insulated 6 inch boots, gators for the shortcut trek across a field to avoid a busy highway that cuts through the bike path, knee pads, hip pads held up with old fart suspenders, elbow pads, chest protector and shoulder pads. Ice is sharp, hard and slippery: a good combination, just like riding in an ambulance (high speed, icy driving, compressed oxygen and gasoline). I think its good to wear protection as the ambulance ride could be dangerous.

The winter stable
Video of ice ride. Homemade studs are a joy on ice. Its bumpy from yesterdays slush freezing. You can hear the studs on the bare pavement under the bridge. Metal studs are slippery and bumpy on bare pavement, thus my other winter bike with regular tires.

Our bike path crosses our main street downtown one block from the Lake Superior Shoreline Drive. It is solid ice and bumpy from all the shoppers.


City worker spreading salt on the downtown sidewalk just after I rode on it. They wanted to know if I was documenting that they were really working on Sunday.

Lake Superior today. Its been so warm that there is no ice on the reefs or rocks
Same spot last winter.

Freighter today with no ice on the close or distant reefs and exposed rocks
A storm this fall washed out the break wall, road and bike path. The Lake has been at a record high and the storm was a 3 day blow. We have had much worse storms but the high water did so much damage that they are planning to move the bike path/road.
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Same scene today. No plowing here this winter so I can't always ride on it. I took a detour. A few fat bikes have been on it. After more walkers and fat bikes have been on it I will be able to ride it with my ice bike. I had to ride about a mile on a busy street but if I can go on this closed section I avoid all streets.

 

[patman73]

you need a bomb suit to ride
better have on saftey gear then to have to be taken to the hospital & get sick !

 

[us56456712]

you need a bomb suit to ride
better have on safety gear then to have to be taken to the hospital & get sick !

Good idea. Where can I get a bomb suit? Do they have military surplus bomb suits? I probably need better hip protection than the snowboard pads I use. I looked at ice hockey pants but I don't think I would be comfortable riding in them. I tried wrist protection but I can't grip the bars or use hand brakes with them. The one time I fell hard enough on ice to break something I purposely put my hands up to avoid breaking my fall with outstretched hands and landed on my knee and elbow pads. I hope I have the foresight to continue do this as it is instinctual to put your hand out to break a fall. Wrists are real easy to break this way. In our MB club the most impressive crashes have all been head first, most by older guys like me that don't have all their faculties anymore, like good balance and quick reactions. Most that hit their head only got black eyes and facial bruising and road rash. If you get a black eye you get your black eye picture posted on our web page. The next thing is knee injuries from clipless pedals. Then wrists, and then one 60 + old timer broke his collar bone when a stick stopped his front wheel and he went shoulder first into a tree. As far as I know last summer we only had 3 injuries, two were gals. One tore up her knee with clipless pedals and one split her helmet when her handle bars clipped a tree and she was thrown backwards into a tree. She had a slight concussion and good road rash. Neither one even whimpered. Another guy in his 60s hit a tree this fall in a very narrow "go no go gap" as we call it and broke his right pinky finger. After this I cut 3 inches off my bars and still need to cut off about a half inch more. Out west they ride with real wide bars, here it is just the opposite. First thing everyone cuts down their bars.

 

[patman73]

i like 24" wide bars but some are about
28" or 30" wide

 

[chepe13]

Nice cold 60 degree winter weather. Have a fender just incase it rains.

 

[MplsCoaster]

It snowed 4 inches of wet 34F snow yesterday.

I didn't get any pictures of the sun on the sparkling snow because my camera froze up. Just got a few pictures/videos at the beginning of my 8 mile ride.

Getting dressed to go riding. My friends say its not worth riding if you have to put all this stuff on. Hey, I am pushing 70 and I don't want to break something, so I am trying to avoid it if possible.

Lake Superior today. Its been so warm that there is no ice on the reefs or rocks

Great pictures and story of your ride us5!! I sure hope I'm ice riding when I'm pushing 70

We had been getting a bunch of rain in Mpls so we had a Green Christmas because the grass started to grow again LOL! Went out the 26th on my mild winter bike (it had been cloudy for a week, Arghhh!)

The next day, we got 5" of powdery snow and some much needed sun shine. It was in the low 20s with not much wind and the sun made it feel even warmer. The plows mashed down the center of the street so good packed riding for the aluminum bike and knobbies.

Found this interesting building so I tried and "art" shot

Down at the park there were fat tire bike tracks. Wanted to make my own tracks in the fresh powder and it was great.

Here is shot of the sparkling snow for you us5. It was all around me in the late afternoon sun.

This morning its -5F with -20F wind chill. It's supposed to be sunny though but I won't go out though unless the wind dies down a bit and it warms above 0F.

Keep those ride pics coming
Steve

 

[patman73]

brrrrrrrr !

 

[us56456712]

Great pictures and story of your ride us5!! I sure hope I'm ice riding when I'm pushing 70

We had been getting a bunch of rain in Mpls so we had a Green Christmas because the grass started to grow again LOL! Went out the 26th on my mild winter bike (it had been cloudy for a week, Arghhh!)

The next day, we got 5" of powdery snow and some much needed sun shine. It was in the low 20s with not much wind and the sun made it feel even warmer. The plows mashed down the center of the street so good packed riding for the aluminum bike and knobbies.

Found this interesting building so I tried and "art" shot

Down at the park there were fat tire bike tracks. Wanted to make my own tracks in the fresh powder and it was great.

Here is shot of the sparkling snow for you us5. It was all around me in the late afternoon sun.

This morning its -5F with -20F wind chill. It's supposed to be sunny though but I won't go out though unless the wind dies down a bit and it warms above 0F.

Keep those ride pics coming
Steve

We got your weather yesterday. It was -5F and a little windy when I went for a 2 hour bike ride last night. I took the ice bike 15 miles in my truck to a mining community of 5000 people. It is fairly hilly and there is almost no traffic in the older parts of town. It was very icy and I only saw 2 vehicles on the back streets. I had a lot of fun riding in the dark on the ice and managed to stay warm until the last 5 minutes when my feet started to ache. Cold is hard on bicycle mechanics, especially if everything is not up to snuff. I had a loose shifter when I started which fell of the bike partway through the ride and the back brake cable came off the brake lever as it was adjusted all the way out. My lazy fault. I will bring it inside tomorrow where it is warm and fix it. Today there is a wind chill advisory and right now it is 5F with a windchill of -15F. This morning at 9AM it was -11F with a windchill of -25F. They are predicting 20 mile/hour winds night and day with wind chill values at 0 or below until Saturday when it is supposed to snow. I may brave the cold one more time before the snow. Happy New Year.

 

[JGood]

Yep

It’s OK, I’ll stay here up north and enjoy something called Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall

Yeah, cause people don't die from the snow storms and tornadoes... I will take my week of storms to 6 months of ice and snow any day. Thanks.

 

[mornview]

Yeah, the wind this week has been pretty brutal. The temperatures finally started dipping into the single digits, but the wind was the only part that made it uncomfortable. Within a ride or two though I had figured out how to properly dress again and all was well . I pretty much spent all of last winter going through trial and error trying to figure out the appropriate clothing for all of the different scenarios winter throws at us, but it's paid off because I can adapt pretty fast now.

We still have seen hardly any snow here, but no complaints on my part - the drivers in this city are crazy and the city doesn't seem to plow the roads very well either.

It'll be interesting to see how the remainder of this winter turns out. So far it's following the path last winter took - a shockingly mild December. I just hope it doesn't follow the same path it went last year - record-breakingly cold through January and February.