Welshman's Winter Bike

Omat pyörät
#6

Yep, gotta agree with jasmin on this one, the man has got a point.

Fixie is bulletproof, everything else might freeze, including the rims, so the cantis are a nogo.
Go for knobbies, the bigger the better, spikes are expensive, heavy and generally useless, and riding fixed, youl’ll start losing studs in no time.

I would go for karate monkey or inbred, but a soup’d up ESB would also do the trick, and prolly end up being sexier ride.

#7

The main problem with fixed is that I have an unbreakable rule, and that is no brakes on a fixed gear. But riding brakeless in the middle of an icy winter is just stupid, surely.

#8

Ride a freewheel then, it might end up freezing and you can do a skid or two.
I’ll leave my thoughts on your rule to myself.

Here’s Kimis ESB for ya.

#9

I personally would say that going without fenders is not a bright idea.

#10

Well not as stupid as as that rule so…

#11

Will a freewheel genuinely freeze up? Under what conditions would that happen? If I rode then locked the bike up outside?

#12

During my 30 years of being a I have suffered a frozen freewheel once. It froze open. Freewheeled both ways. Annoying fuckerance. Other than that I’ve heard of one frozen freewheel.

Most winterbikers bike with their plain normal cheapo bikes with no problems.

#13

95 % of the time:

  • full fenders are the way to go
  • cross tires with no spikes are enough
  • brakeless or any brake is fine
  • gearing works

Then there are times when:

  • you need wide rubber, spikes or both
  • fenders stop you
  • rim brakes or skids do not
  • only fixed works

There are no perfect winter bikes for Helsinki. Just get on the bike and learn. That’s what we have been doing since we were kids, with plain normal bikes.

#14

Would it be better if people just posted here their winter(bikes that they ride in Helsinki during winter time) bikes like I did and let Ty decide what he wants for himself?

#15
thefootdown - 22:48, 25.8.2015 » Will a freewheel genuinely freeze up?
its just the fear, if you lube it right or not at all it could work flawlessly
#16
lnstj - 22:49, 25.8.2015 » most [s]winter[/s]bikers bike with their plain normal cheapo bikes with no problems.
[b]we[/b] just can`t do that
#17

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/W96mu7t0TAhxuSAK1R_jNdQPXjZ1GByKv4X5cz2pO14=w800-h600-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ORYIeW_ES9ldvhImRFAdWdujlv7zw7FbcpV2bnXqWjI=w1123-h842-no

#18

Winterbikes

#19

http://i3.aijaa.com/b/00814/13155516.jpg

#20

Posting a picture doesn’t give the ‘why’ he asked for. But pics are always nice.

#21

I like to ride in Turku with 26" spike tyres, full fenders and disc brakes. It is slow and heavy but I just hate the black ice so much. I have another fixed bike with knobbys for dryer snow days.

#22

Like Kare said, it’s all about learning, until I moved here I’d seen maybe 10 days of snow in my entire 33 years. I’m sure it’s very easy if you’ve grown up with it but I literally couldn’t even walk around for a whole month last winter and I found it REALLY frustrating.

I need a bike that is going to get me to and from work reliably and I find it hard to believe that a bike without spiked tyres will work, I’ll just slip and slide all over the place, hit a patch of black ice, end up in the hospital unable to work and won’t be able to pay my rent.

I know there isn’t one solution that will work 100% of the time and people will have very different ideas from each other so keep them coming, it’s all helping!

#23

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41eACbAMRoL.SY355.jpg

sorry

spike on front could save you some peace of mind but

#24

just ride your fairdale?

^nice G.

#25

I bought some of those literally a week before all the ice melted, I only got to use them twice! I hear they are called ‘granny spikes’ :smiley: