Winter MTB riding

[Trevelyan]

I finally got my new MTB over the weekend and took the opportunity of the extra hour yesterday morning to take it out for a play before breakfast. I'd like to use it as much as possible over the winter and am hoping that when the really bad weather arrives I'll be able to use it to get to and from the nearest railway station allowing me to leave the car at home.

These thoughts set me wondering if it's feasible to ride a mountain bike on the road during wintry weather? Obviously once the roads have had some traffic along then there'd be no real difference, but I'm thinking more of how they handle riding through fresh snow and packed down slush. Is riding in snow fine as long as a bit of care is taken, or is it a stupid idea best forgotten about?

[OneDs]

There was a post about someone riding in the snow (in January) a month or ago, and IIRC all the problems despite almost dying of hypothermia were with the slush freezing in the drive chain, mtb drive chain have more space to allow crap to escape but I fear they'd still be as susceptible to this type of problem, other than this extreme, stick some 26x1.125 conti gatorskins on and you'll be fine on the road.

[BOR]

A light covering of fresh snow is ok, it's suprisingly grippy and predictable. A level covering of ice is also not too bad.

The problems start to occur when snow/ice melts and turns to slush. Obviously bike tyres cut through the slush and leave deep ruts.

When the temperature drops again, the slush freezes, leaving ruts that criss-cross each other. When your wheels hit these ruts, they can be deflected in different directions, which is extremely unpleasant.

Spiked tyres overcome these problems but aren't great on dry tarmac.

[a11y_m]

I commuted through the entire last winter - didn't really have the option of driving anyway as my car was stranded in the street. Some mornings were pretty snowy but my major problem was with black ice: snow itself is reasonably grippy, but it's the ice (sometimes underneath) that caused me problems.

I didn't have any mechanical issues with slush, etc affecting the bike. I did have a couple of mornings where the freewheel failed to re-engage after freewheeling for a bit, leaving me with no drive - that was extreme sub -10degC mornings in snow though.

[BOR]

Slush can freeze in the mechs, so you learn to leave it in a middle gear - quasi single speed.

[tybalt]

Packed down snow is fine - more grippy than walking.

Deep snow (4 inches) with tyre ruts is tricky: you have to really concentrate. Normal snow conditions are not a problem at all on a mountain bike.

Edited to add - salt! Rusts cables, and knackers brakes. My rear brake still hasn't recovered. Rear cable guide was shagged by salt on my bike.

Edited by tybalt on Monday 1st November 09:40

[Parrot of Doom]

The worst thing, apart from frozen ruts, is having to deal with impatient drivers who think you should be cycling through the 1 foot deep drift of snow near the kerb, and not in the clear area formed by the vehicles using the road.

[Mr E]

Not easy but possible.

One of my best ever rides was across the dales in serious snow. Great fun, but would have been faster to walk...

[Trevelyan]

So it sounds as though it should be do-able with a bit of care and attention to avoid black ice and frozen ruts. The ruts shouldn't be too much of a problem as I'll probably either be on fresh snow (I leave very early for work) or on a cleared road on the way home.

Good point about the salt corroding things though - I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to remember to wash the bike down well after riding on salted roads.

[a11y_m]

Trevelyan said:

Good point about the salt corroding things though - I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to remember to wash the bike down well after riding on salted roads.

During the worst weather I wash the bike down properly once a week, but I use Scottoiler FS365 spray after wet commutes. Great stuff at helping against corrosion, etc. Designed for motorbikes but equally useful on bikes.