Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Freewheeling => Topic started by: Andy W on 13 December, 2020, 09:58:37 am
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Before Covid, I ride with a great bunch, evenings mostly occasionally Saturday. Some were stoic hardrider, similar to audaxers. Some rode carbon fibre , mudless bikes whatever the conditions. Didn't bother me, I'd get on the front as my bike has mudguards and long flaps fitted. If I was slower and dropped back I'd leave 30 ft. so I didn't get sprayed. What do others ride during winter or wet conditions?
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I mostly enjoy riding with people who care enough about others to use long mudguards and mud-flaps in wet weather. Less considerate folk can ride alongside or behind only. Forcing me to suddenly drop way back from the group because of your selfishness is ... well, you can guess.
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Before Covid, I ride with a great bunch, evenings mostly occasionally Saturday. Some were stoic hardrider, similar to audaxers. Some rode carbon fibre , mudless bikes whatever the conditions. Didn't bother me, I'd get on the front as my bike has mudguards and long flaps fitted. If I was slower and dropped back I'd leave 30 ft. so I didn't get sprayed. What do others ride during winter or wet conditions?
My bike. If it's icy, I'll fit studded tyres.
I don't use mudguards as I have not found any that fit my bike and aren't shit. But the tailfin stops the majority of spray.
J
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Any carbon bike can be fitted with mudguards. People who turn up to group rides without them on wet/muddy days are simply... whatever word you want to choose.
Although a lot of the clip-on variety are so short they mostly serve to focus skog on the rider behind's face, so a simple "you must have mudguards" rule can be totally counterproductive.
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I prefer to think of "dry" and "wet" bikes, as there are still dry days in winter although damp roads take longer to dry out.
The only difference is the dry bikes don't have mudguards, the wet bike does. And none of them are hack bikes, life's too short for that.
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I suppose I've misjudged or inferred that people have a crappy bike for winter.I agree with two separate points, I have a wet bike and a dry bike. The wet bike has big (40 mm Clement Explorer) ideal for current wet, gravel and mud strewn roads, and it's actually a really nice bike as life is too short for a rubbish bike , excellent gears, hydraulic brakes great handling etc. Lightweight it is not but that's not important to me in winter. I can't say I'm impressed when mates turn up without mudguards in wet weather, but then again, life's too short to complain. I just get my own house in order.
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Topical issue, my day to day steed is a Croix de fer 10 which up to today was fitted with 28c tyres and race blade pro XL. Given up on the latter, just not enough coverage to stop the frame and my feet getting sprayed so I just ordered Longboards and 32c Marathon tyres.
I’m rapidly forming the opinion that life is too short to suffer in silence
A
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I've been mostly riding my Streetmachine, because it's my favourite bike, is reliable, low-maintenance, and high enough not to get me splashed with skog or dazzled by headlights.
If it turns icy, I'll use the trike (which is a faff) or whichever upright has studded tyres, depending on what sort of ride I'm doing and how much I feel like cleaning the bike afterwards.
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I was out today . On my favourite , most used bike . Titanium frame , full mudguards & flaps ,28mm tyres , 8 speed triple with friction levers on kelly take offs and biggish saddle bag . It's the modern version of a clubman allrounder bike . Reliable but also cheap and easy to fix by the road side . Stopped twice today to help out other cyclist . First one had punctured his 23mm thin, tyres and had no tubes & mine wouldn't fit . So I gave him a hand to fix it with my puncture repair kit . Second one , the rear mech was playing up , so I ended up pouring water from a puddle on to the mech to clear all the muck off it . I would say apart from a few club men with mudguards , 80% of the riders looked like they had been cycling on the pit heap . Absulutley caked in mud. A friend of mine thinks a lot of born again road cyclist are from a mountain bike background and think its quite normal to have a wet arse . I bet a lot of component manufactures are laughing all the way to the bank . After I dropped my bike ( it doesn't go around muddy corners like my trike) , I notice a broken spoke , who says 36 spokes in a back wheel is overkill . Saved me buggering about I just rode it home . Will winter bike be killed off with trendy folks with disposable income . A local sportive club to me ride all year around in tight Groups with not a mudguard in sight . All wear glasses and face covering .
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Ps when the gritters out the trike is out . In fact I use It most of the time . But its not friendly to other cyclists with only a front mudguard but the drive train lasts longer than similar 7/8 speed triple bikes .
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The mudguard bike is down at present after a bottom bracket/chainset incident. So I quickly built up the Aithein frame I intended to sell with some spare bits and am riding that at present. Very wet yesterday, but I’m not sure it’s worse for the drivetrain than guards would be - and I’m not riding with other people at the moment.
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Same bikes all year round. My recumbent, road or folder. All of them have mudguards with flaps fitted. The only difference in winter is that I fit more robust tyres as I don’t want to stop for punctures in the cold. Mostly I ride my recumbent as I wanted to make it my audax bike of choice. So that required some dedicated riding to get the legs up to speed. When I first built the recumbent, the carbon fork had a hole in fork crown but no mudguard eyelets. So I rode it with a rear but no front mudguard. This resulted in a load of muddy spray in my face the first day it was wet. Not long after I got some PDW adapters to fit a front mudguard.
Never quite understand why road bikers like a muddy stripe up their backs and a filthy frame. I too used to mtn bike, and a post ride clean with a low pressure hose, plus stripping off in car parks if you’d driven to the ride, were the norm. But I’d rather not have that if I’ve been on the road.
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I tend to revert to a fixed-wheel machine when conditions are poorer. Old habit.
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Maybe it’s my mtn biking years but my derailleurs would get caked in mud year round and they never missed a bit. These derailleurs are now on my recumbent and still fine more than a decade on. Winter certainly doesn’t destroy derailleurs
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Most MTBs don’t actually cover a lot of miles compared to road bikes.
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winter/wet weather. Generally the touring/endurance bike full mudguards and 48mm tires (650b) tubeless
Fair weather road racer. 26mm tires. tubes. Never mud guards.
Gravel bike. Hull mud guards dependant on weather. 32 mm. tubeless.
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Most MTBs don’t actually cover a lot of miles compared to road bikes.
Still a few thousand a year. It was about 4,000 miles a year on the mtn bike for me. More when I commuted on it. Not a lot compared to what you can rack up on a road bike but still.
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Deliberately bought a wet weather/winter bike 14 months ago and have put almost 4,000 miles on it.
Chose a titanium framed gravel bike with a 1x11 gear setup.
Full mudguards with flaps and running 35 mm tyres.
Still very happy with my choice.
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All my bikes are winter bikes - lights, guards, flaps, the lot. It rains all year round. :thumbsup:
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I generally ride my tourer as has guards, lights and suitable tyres for crap roads covered in crap
My fast bike comes out on the days the stars align when guards etc aren't required
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The mudguard bike is down at present after a bottom bracket/chainset incident. So I quickly built up the Aithein frame I intended to sell with some spare bits and am riding that at present. Very wet yesterday, but I’m not sure it’s worse for the drivetrain than guards would be - and I’m not riding with other people at the moment.
This morning I added a set of Topeak i-glow clip on guards to the Aithein. They're on special at Wiggle and much better than no guards. They're not very long and the rear doesn't run past the brake mount, but for what they are they're fine. They wouldn't clear anything bigger than 25's, but nor will the bike. It's quite nice when you turn them on in the dark and they light up:)
What I miss about the other bike is the big tyres and full guards. What I like about the Aithein is how it steers. I'm pretty ambivalent on the rim vs disc thing in most conditions, although discs are clearly better when it's really wet and skoggy.
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I don't have a winter bike. Or perhaps more likely I don't have a summer bike. I have two bikes, one has a rack, the other has a saddlebag, both have mudguards.
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^ this
Mudguards just make sense for my riding.
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I ride a Dolan Preffisio (alloy framed) bike for the winter months. Sadly not available anymore except from Ebay from time to time. Before that, I had a Ribble (alloy) Blue which were very popular at one time but they too were dis-continued.
In early Spring, I usually switch to my Van Nicholas Yukon (titanium) and then to my Enigma Etape (Titanium) for the summer months.
All bikes are fitted with either SKS or Portland full length mudguards as I like to stop at cafes along my routes without being covered in mud or sh1t.
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^ this
Mudguards just make sense for my riding.
+2. I ride in the UK, so mudguards make sense all year round.
The exceptions are the Reasonably Priced Mountain Bicycle, which has half-arsed mudguards that serve only to keep the sheep shit / snow slush off the top half of the rider, and The Red Baron when it's actually racing.
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As the above. I have the SPM and the fixed gear df, both have mudguards. If it gets snowy/icy I will either fit the studded tyres to the Dfixie or try the trike (the only bike currently without full mudguards - not because it’s a summer racer, but rather because of the cost).
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when the roads are liable to be covered in crap, mudguards are a no-brainer. That is most of the year IME. The difference in winter is that the crap off the road is both more plentiful and likely to be highly corrosive (road salt).
Some folk ride fixed gear in winter; I sometimes do that, but more often use an IGH, fitted to a bike that will largely resist crud n'corrosion in other ways.
Both have inherently simple exposed transmission parts; keeping a derailleur system working in the winter requires a fair bit more effort IME.
cheers
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when the roads are liable to be covered in crap, mudguards are a no-brainer. That is most of the year IME. The difference in winter is that the crap off the road is both more plentiful and likely to be highly corrosive (road salt).
Some folk ride fixed gear in winter; I sometimes do that, but more often use an IGH, fitted to a bike that will largely resist crud n'corrosion in other ways.
Both have inherently simple exposed transmission parts; keeping a derailleur system working in the winter requires a fair bit more effort IME.
My winter routine doesn't much differ from the rest of the year. If the roads are wet, and they have recently salted, I'll rinse down the bike with normal water. Then oil the chain. If not salted, I'll just lube the chain. This is on a steel framed bike with 11speed Di2. Tho I'm not doing big distances maybe only 100-200k or so a week.
J
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my hack bike gets washed about once every two years whether it needs it or not. In the meantime it gets rained on which keeps most of the crud at bay. Washing the bike is the thing that keeps a derailleur transmission alive (just starting every ride with a clean chain is a major improvement), but there is simply no need to do this with some other transmissions, which makes for a considerably easier life.
I got bored with cleaning/maintaining/replacing derailleur transmissions on training/hack bikes about thirty-odd years ago.
cheers