[*BCM*] My winter bike

[Tom Revay]

Cyclists often ask what works for a winter bicycle.  Here's what I've used for a few years.

My winter bike is a 1986 Miyata touring frame set up as a 67" fixed gear.  I chose fixed because I was tired of replacing derailer-style drivetrain parts that didn't work well anyway in the ice, slush, and so on, and I've learned to like the extra control and "road feel" I get with the fixed.  Plus it's good exercise.

I chose the gear size because this will run at 90 RPM cadence when I'm moving 18 - 19 MPH.  I've found this is a good cruising speed for city traffic.

Salient features of this bike, from the bottom up, are:

*  Tires:  usually Continental Top Touring 700x32, or Avocet hybrid 700x35 tires, the same tires I ride all year.  I don't ride studded tires because they're heavy, noisy on ordinary paving, and they're expensive.  I stay on main roads, and I ride in the plowed sections of these roads.  Since I only ride on maintained roads for my winter commute, the times studded tires might have been useful have been very few compared to the times they would be a hindrance, so they're not worth it to me.  YMMV, of course.

*  Wheels:  sturdy 36 spoke touring wheels, front and back.

*  Brakes:  I ride with cantelever brakes, front and rear, with hard brakepads.  I use cantis because the bike was built for them, and their simple center-pull mechanism works well when gunked.  The hard pad wears better than softer compounds, and though they don't stop as well, I control my speed with my legs as well as the brakes.

I ride with a rear brake on a fixie because I carry my commuting stuff -- clothing and lock, mostly -- in a rear pannier.  I find the bike stops more smoothly with brakes front and rear when there's weight over the back wheel.  I've heard it said that a rear brake on a fixed gear isn't desirable, so again, YMMV.

*  Fenders:  SKS full-coverage fenders, front and rear.  Get full coverage fenders, not these hokey clip-on plastic mudguards.  Your feet, your situpon and the cyclist behind you (who has to suck your un-fendered rear wheel spray) will thank you.

*  Frame:  it's old, it's rusty, it was last blasted clean and repainted in 1999.  I might do that again someday, or I might not.  I don't get attached to old frames, and this bike has more than paid for itself in commuting savings over the last 20 years, so if the frame craps out I'm not going to cry about it.

*  Saddle:  cheap plastic fart-thru-hole saddle off a Fuji road bike that I got for free.  I don't cry if it gets wet, snowy, etc.  Hmmm, there are lots of things I don't cry about ...

*  Handlebars:  drop bars, because they're good in headwinds and offer several comfortable hand positions.  They're adjusted to be about the height of the seat, with a relatively short stem, so even on the drops I'm not bent over a whole lot.  This is good when I'm wearing bulky clothes.

*  Lights:  Front -- 3-LED Cateye white headlight, set to steady mode.  Also, 5w halogen VistaLite, with Nightstick rechargeable battery pack.  I use the LED lights on well-lit roads, and I use the halogen on dimmer roads, the few paths I ride on, and on lousy roads where I've learned there are many potholes to avoid.

Steady lights are believed to give observers a clearer sense of a moving body's speed and direction.  When I'm approaching a motorist who wants to enter or cross my lane, I want that, hence I use only steady lights in front.

Rear -- Two red LED lights, for redundancy, because you won't know when your rear lamp has failed.  A flashing light on my underseat toolkit bag is intended to alert trailing operators that I'm there.  The steady red light on my briefcase/pannier is intended to give the advantage of a constant light source, as described above.

*  Accessories:  

-- Rear rack and Jandd briefcase/pannier, for trips over four miles, because I want the bike to cary my stuff, not my back.  Up to four miles I use a Timbuk2 messenger back 'cause it's a lot easier to deal with than attaching a pannier while wearing winter gloves.

-- Computer/Odometer:  when the temperatures are below 20, as they have been all week, I get an ego boost from seeing how far I've gone in the cold.  (It's 54 miles since Monday.)  All right, I'm obsessive, but at least my obsession involves a healthy activity ... well, most of the time ... ah, never mind, stop asking questions ...!

-- Santa Claus squeaky-horn.  Highly recommended.  It permits me to scream, "GET OUT OF MY &^%# WAY YOU SON OF A %$#!@, I'M A BUSY MAN!" at other people.  Then I pass it off with a wave and a honk of the Santy-horn, and use my thumb to gesture at the operator behind me as a cover for my rudness.  

HTH,

...................Tom