How To: Pick your Winter Whip

Over the last few weeks I've had the uh... pleasure.... of winter riding both a cyclocross bike and a fat bike both for commuting and some more recreational riding. As a firm believer in the n+1 rule (see smaller points at bottom), I think you should have both a fat bike AND a cyclocross bike. Sadly, my time in the bike shop has taught be that not everybody agrees about this rule, and some people who do simply can't afford multiple bikes yet (they're expensive, I get it). The following is your guide on picking your winter whip.

For sake of simplicity, I'm going to focus on cyclocross (see smaller points at bottom) and fat bikes. I'm not going to look at road bikes because as much as they can be used, I'm never going to recommend one as a winter bike, at least in Winnipeg.

You may also notice the glaring omission of the mountain bike. If you just got all defensive because mountain bikes are the best (if you seriously think this, I'd love to buy you a coffee find out why), you'll find out closer to the end.

Riding Position

The biggest difference between your summer and winter positions is going to be the drop. This is the difference in height between the saddle and handlebars. If you want to determine your drop, measure the distance from the ground to your saddle, then subtract the distance from the ground to your handlebars. The bigger number is, the bigger your drop is.

Proof that I like making charts

As much as I love aggressive race bikes with a lot of drop, they have no place on winter roads. Both of my winter bikes are set up in a relatively relaxed geometry. I use the word relatively because a lot of people still think they're aggressive (and they are), but in the summer I ride REALLY aggressive, so for me the position is relatively relaxed.

In simple terms, if you think you ride in an aggressive position, you should try to get your bars 2-4cm higher than said aggressive position, however the more aggressive you are in the summer, the more you'll want to raise your bars. In my case, aggressive is a 20cm drop, relaxed is an 8cm drop. If you have less than a -4cm drop (minus means your bars are higher than your saddle) I wouldn't worry too much about changing your position.

There are a couple reasons why this more relaxed position is better. First off it makes it easier to look around, something you'll likely be doing a lot more if you struggle to hear through your ear protection, and will be made more difficult is you're wearing goggles. It also takes weight off the front end of your bike. This makes it easier to handle your bike, similar to how you'll raise your bars a bit for cyclocross vs. road. This added agility makes it easier to handle your bike on ice/loose snow, or avoid it in the first place.

Tires

This is really the one point that should decide what kind of bike you should buy, so I'll go as in depth as I can. Broadly speaking, use a narrow tire for road, and a wide tire for off road. Picking your tire size will pick either cyclocross or fat bike.

Regardless of what tire you're running, you should think about running studded tires. In my experience, studded tires are slow on clean roads and do nothing on the snow, but work magic on ice. Studs down the middle help with accelerating, braking, and light cornering. Studs down the sides help with hard cornering. I'd say run just down the middle (cheaper/lighter) or fully studded (more grip). Just down the sides doesn't work quite as well.

Studded cross tires - post commute

A narrow (ideally less than 35c, 40c is still not bad) tire will cut through snow fairly well, the narrower the better, although I'm running 35c for added versatility when I ride off road (it doesn't work well off road, do as I say, not as I do). This is good for on-road situations where you have something to grip on to, wether that be the road, or a sheet of ice if you have a studded tire. (I actually rode home on a skating rink today with my studded tires/cross bike. Got a lot of weird looks).

A fat tire (4inch or bigger) will start to float on the top of the snow. With a good low gear you can trudge through deep powdery snow, with a high gear you can sail down the flatter sections, and they grip like no tomorrow so you can confidently throw a fat bike into a snowy corner and not worry (as much) about sliding out (if you don't fall you aren't having fun). The tires aren't even that slow. I read a study that said they're 20watts slower (maybe 1kph), the reason the bike is slow is more due to a less aerodynamic riding position.

You can still get studs on a fat bike tire, but I rarely recommend this. Fat bike tires are really heavy. I'm pretty sure mine weigh 1kg each. Adding studs increases this number VERY quickly. They also don't get used very often because the tires float so well. If you're riding on a sheet of ice covered in snow, you'll end up riding on the snow and have the snow slide on the ice whenever you corner too hard. That said, I've fallen on the exact same ice sheet 5 times now on my fat bike because I just can't get traction this is pure ice though, no snow on top.



No excuses, this one is just dirty. I really should clean my bikes more

So why don't I recommend a mountain bike? The advantage of the narrow tire is it cuts through snow, and the advantage of the fat tire is it floats closer to the top of the snow. If you go somewhere in the middle, you won't cut through enough when hitting small amounts of snow, and you won't float well when it gets deeper. As always there are exception. I know a guy who will wait a couple days after snowfall for the fat bikers to smooth everything out and then ride his mountain bike on our local trails, but I like being able to ride 365 days a year. As with most things in my blog, I'd like to emphasize that this is my personal opinion (albeit the popular one). Disagreeing isn't wrong, it's just different.

How The Cold Affects Your Bike

Believe it or not, bikes are capable of freezing. If you're running hydraulic disc brakes, you can expect them to be a little bit tighter (read, harder to pull, won't release as fast). On some bikes, your cables will be greased, this grease can freeze up and affect your shifting or mechanical braking. It's also possible that the grease in your hub can freeze up and your free hub won't engage (you'll pedal but the wheel won't turn).

Keep in mind this is all the extreme case. The coldest I've ridden in is -32C before windchill. The brakes tightened up and the shifting was slow and wouldn't hold gears nicely, but it would all work again perfectly fine when I got inside and the bike had a chance to thaw out, and it was still rideable in the cold.

If you do experience any of these problems (especially with the hub) or you just want peace of mind, you can get thinner greases/fluid. At my shop I was advised to use some Dura-Ace grease that we have in my hub. I didn't do it, but our trusty mechanics said it's the best solution.

If you want to know the science of why this happens, it's all due to viscosity, or the thickness or the liquid (read substance). As it gets colder, the particles lose energy and become more dense, making it harder to move, which is why everything feels a bit stiff.

If you have a suspension fork on your bike, you also risk collapsing it in our extreme cold. I'm not all that familiar with suspension, however one of my co-workers told me he was going to write a little something about this, I'll link it once he writes it. There is a cold weather conversion you can get for the RockShocks Bluto (popular fat bike suspension fork) that he'll likely cover.


Quick note: since writing this, I found out that the rear derailleur cable on my bike is exposed under the bottom bracket. I cleaned ( / lubricated) the cable and this made my shifting a lot better, still some issues though.

Smaller Points

Cyclocross bike - For the sake of simplicity, I'm saying cyclocross bike, as that's what I'm riding. A gravel/touring bike would fit the same tires but be a more relaxed geometry, and a hybrid will function broadly similar but without the drop bars.

Gearing - If you're riding off-road, be prepared to go very slow. A fast (Off-road) fat bike ride will often average only 18-20kph, slowing down to about 4kph on a regular basis. On the road, expect to slow down about 2-5kph from summer speeds just because riding in the cold is harder.

N+1 Rule - The formula for the right number of bikes to have, where N is the current number of bikes owned. In extreme cases, use S-1, where S is the number of bikes where your spouse will leave you.

As always, feel free to ask any questions you feel have been left unanswered. Picking a winter bike is a fairly involved process but I'd be more than happy to help.

Stay cool Internet ;)