Suggest to me a decent winter bike

[aea730]

Having wasted the last 2 months looking for a new "best" bike I have decided to hang on for a possible winter bargain and look instead for a winter hack.
Obviously a prerequisite is mud guard mounts but beyond that I'm not too concerned. Something in the £500 to £750 price bracket. Nothing too boring looking :-)

[Herman Toothrot]

Boring old Ribble 7005 Audax, a winter training bike should be a heavy old lump so your best bike feels like a rocket when you use it. £550 new.

[Magic919]

Have a look at Genesis. They have plenty of bikes that will take mudguards and even a rack.

[TheLemming]

Secondhand - that way you wont be precious about cleaning, polishing and generally being sad your shiney new bike isn't shiney any more.

I used a Boardman CX Team as a winter bike last year on slicks. Getting a new one was a mistake because at under 12 months old it looks like crap. Scratched paintwork from extra light mounts and bags, one heavy crash on ice etc etc.

Got to say a CX makes a perfect winter steed - lots of tyre clearance, disc brakes, I'm a fan. It's gone back to offroad spec now, so my winter bike for this year will be my commuting / audax / general backup bike.

[bakerstreet]

TheLemming said:

Secondhand - that way you wont be precious about cleaning, polishing and generally being sad your shiney new bike isn't shiney any more.

I used a Boardman CX Team as a winter bike last year on slicks. Getting a new one was a mistake because at under 12 months old it looks like crap. Scratched paintwork from extra light mounts and bags, one heavy crash on ice etc etc.

Got to say a CX makes a perfect winter steed - lots of tyre clearance, disc brakes, I'm a fan. It's gone back to offroad spec now, so my winter bike for this year will be my commuting / audax / general backup bike.

Bit of insulating tape/helicopter tape where the lights mount and away you go. I put some on my CX bike.

I personally wouldn't bother with second hand due to the faff factor.

You could also run your own bike through winter. You could always buy a second set wheels if you run expensive wheels. However, most wheels on bikes that cost £2k are usually about £100-£150's worth, so I'm not sure I would even worry too much about running them through winter.

[anonymous-user]

Depends where you live but i'd go for a cheap second hand single speed, they are great fun to ride and the minimal maintenance burden is great when the roads are covered in crap. Genesis Day One etc often come up on ebay/STW. SKS race blads fit most bikes and you can bodge guards to fit. My s/s doesnt have guard mounts so i have a nasty seat post mounted one for the rear and an old squash bottle on the down tube....

[TheLemming]

bakerstreet said:

Bit of insulating tape/helicopter tape where the lights mount and away you go. I put some on my CX bike. .

Wish I'd thought of that BEFORE I was missing paintwork on the Fork and Chainstays. Actually I'd have had to have wrapped the whole bike in it.
Shifters are scratched, top tube is scratched...

It's not that I haven't looked after it but it's done 3000 miles in a mix of road and offroad mostly in the winter and spring (nice bike came back out when the sun did) and one big crash - so it's led a hard life.

[bumrar]

have a look at the Tifosi ck7. Better frames than the ribble's and nice retro paint jobs. fatbirds sell them.

Dolan prefissio is exactly the same frame as the ribbles.

Ste

[47p2]

Bought a second hand Genesis Skyline single speed last year, run it through the winter months and it was great fun, never missed a beat and looking forward to another winter on it this year

[aea730]

Thanks folks, I've had a boardman cx before and I must say I was impressed I just fancied a bit of a change. I have seen a kinesis TK3 today at a cafe and that looked a decent thing. I'm understanding the single speed concept too. There seems quite a lot of choice around the £800 mark

[Jimbo.]

aea730 said:

Thanks folks, I've had a boardman cx before and I must say I was impressed I just fancied a bit of a change. I have seen a kinesis TK3 today at a cafe and that looked a decent thing. I'm understanding the single speed concept too. There seems quite a lot of choice around the £800 mark

If you want singlespeed and aren't bothered about riding fixed, buy a normal (geared) road bike/frame and convert it (using a singlespeed tensioner and sprocket). That way you still get the fixed wheel position (easier mudguard mounting) and vertical dropouts (easier wheel removal, ability to use QR wheels rather than bolt-up etc, etc.