this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2026
14 points (100.0% liked)

Bicycles

6054 readers
1 users here now

Welcome to !bicycles@lemmy.ca

A place to share our love of all things with two wheels and pedals. This is an inclusive, non-judgemental community. All types of cyclists are accepted here; whether you're a commuter, a roadie, a MTB enthusiast, a fixie freak, a crusty xbiking hoarder, in the middle of an epic across-the-world bicycle tour, or any other type of cyclist!

Community Rules

Other cycling-related communities

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Evkob@lemmy.ca
14
Advice on a winter commuter (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by ashenone@lemmy.ml to c/bicycles@lemmy.ca
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I recently landed in a small town that gets a decent amount of snow in the winter, and commute on my bike with thin road tires. I'm thinking I want a fat bike with some nice thick tires to deal with the snow days, but local used options are limited and new bikes are fairly pricey. I have a bit more options in the used departed if I can go with more standard mountain bike. Are regular mountain bikes a viable option for commuting in snow? We had a very weak winter this last year with 7 inches all season but from some locals I've spoken too they said it can get up to 6 or 7 inches a month and only main thoroughfars are plowed, if amount of snow makes a difference in what sort of bike would be most suitable.

Appreciate any advice from those of you who ride in the snow regularly.

top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

There are a lot of factors that will affect the details of your selection:

  • snow type, high desert fluffy, northeast boilerplate and snot, PNW icy wet slop...
  • daily thaw/freeze cycle
  • salt and/or sand used on the roads
  • how much car snot will you be hitting on your commute routes

Without details of your snow conditions, all of the details of any commentor's suggestion will be guessing.

I can offer these generalities; IMO, fat bikes confer no advantage when it comes to snow. They sound great on paper, but if you're floating on top of snow, that's a recipe for garbage traction. For the broadest range of winter road conditions, nothing beats a fixie. I could write you a novella why, but I'll spare you.

Notice that I'm riding road slicks in that pic (25 mile commute one-way).

The next best choice in my experience is a rigid 26” disc brake mountain bike. With a 26" winter wheelset, you can have snow tires, studded ice & snow tires, plus tires for summer trails. Most 26" disc mountain bikes can also fit 700c with clearance for as much as 32C. With fenders! Get yourself a decent 700c wheelset, and you have some summer zippyness. That's a lot of use case in one bike. Tons of choices for this style, but my all time fave was the Trek SU200, same frame as the 4300.

I can't find my pictures of this in winter configuration. But here it is in ultralight touring mode. Winter tires were Nokian on the stock 26" wheels.

[–] ashenone@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Ok awesome lots of good info here. I'm leaning towards the rigid mountain bike suggestion, but wouldn't mind hearing you out on your fixie novella :)

Some more area info:

High desert fluffy snow, daily thaw freeze cycle is not uncommon, roads get hit with something thats neither salt nor sand and I cannot for the life of me remember what it is ill try to find out. Car traffic on my route is minimal but that's because I avoid the main roads, so my ride will be through mostly unplowed snow

[–] JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My experience with high desert daily thaw-freeze cycles is that it tends to produce hard ice "sculptures" in the bike lanes. If you get a hard ice base, studded tires are just about the only thing that will keep you upright. If you get crusty ice, studded tires are mostly optional. If the ice sculpture is particularly gnar, consider full suspension. I went full suspension with studded tires. It was overkill except for those ~5 days per year I absolutely needed to get to work, and the ice in the bike lanes was bad enough to be unwalkable.

If you get hardpack snow, aggressive tread blocks might be enough. I've played around with smoother center tread with aggressive cornering blocks, Nokian Mount&Ground/Hakkapeliita tires, narrow slicks, hardpan tread patterns... it's all a matter of matching the tire to the surface. No single solution will cover all possibilities, and it's critical to match your tires to your most frequently encountered condition. Be mentally prepared for some trial and error.

IMO, a narrower tire is better than wide, within reason. Narrow tires tend to push through snow and crust.

As to why fixies are superlative foul weather bikes:

  • drivetrain components wear together: run it until the everything is worn to a nub (if you aren't into maintenance); replace everything together maybe every 7 years; clean and lube the chain when it gets noisy
  • way fewer fragile moving parts
  • dead simple drivetrain that performs perfectly even when neglected, always works regardless of sand, ice, snow, salt, foul language, or bad hair days
  • gravel gets into the drivetrain with the snow and ice? fixie DGAF, unlike belt drive and cassettes
  • on rim brakes, less road grit abuse of your braking surfaces because can stop with the rear wheel
  • fixies are generally a much lower cost bike to start and you can have yourself a winter beater that will take all the abuse and keep going; tons of choices on the used market
  • cheap chains, chainring, and cogs
  • changing gear ratio is cheap
  • direct connection to the rear wheel acts like traction control: easy to start and stop when slippery; when your front brake becomes useless because of low traction, you can still control speed through the pedals; inertia in the drivetrain carries your stroke through TDC/BDC, making it easier to maintain a smooth stroke in slippery conditions (helps keep you moving and upright); easy to feel when the rear wheel is losing traction, if your rims get iced over (and they will), you still have some braking capability
  • you'll feel like a kid again doing massive skids down huge snowy hills
  • easy trackstanding at stops: no unclipping/clipping back in (less chance to clog up the pedal and cleat), no putting your foot down into car snot, no putting your foot down in an ice patch and slipping
  • the time and money you save on maintenance adds up quickly; get yourself a couple sets of wheels and keep them ready for various conditions; use the same rims for rim-brake bikes to keep your sanity intact
  • disc brake fixies are a bit more rare, e.g. Salsa Stormchaser 1x with a White Industries ENO hub; disc brakes expand your capabilities, ease wheel swaps when using different rims, and improve all-conditions braking
  • ^that said, I only ever owned a rim brake fixie and never missed my discs even in the gnarliest snow and ice; unlike all my other geared bikes, I've never fallen when winter riding my fixie; actually, I've never fallen on my fixie, period, and I credit that fixed connection to what the rear wheel is doing
  • climbing hills is like being on an escalator: because the inertia of the drivetrain carries the pedals over TDC, a fixie just rips up hills; on a 25 mile one-way work commute, my top speed was down 3.5 MPH, but overall average speed was up ~1.8 MPH, with 1400 feet of climb each way

I resisted fixies for a long time despite hearing all the benefits. The story of that fixie pictured in my previous post is here: https://lemmy.world/post/27619326/16157725. VT, OR, UT, WA, MA, and CO winters have never given me any troubles on my fixie with the correct tires for the conditions.

[–] ashenone@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

Thank you so much for taking the time to write all this up. I lived at the beach most of my life so the only weather I've experienced on a bike is some mild rain, and you've really given me a ton to think about. I never considered the benefits of being directly attached to the movement of the rear wheel in winter but what you say makes a lot of sense.

[–] justaman123@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I've heard good things about bike tire chains, but I don't have personal experience with them

[–] ashenone@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

Never heard of those. Very interesting I'll have to look into that

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't know how fatbikes perform on winter snow but as far as I know the standard way of commuting on unplughed roads is studded tires. E.g. put Schwalbe Marathon studded on your standard bike. I used to commute a couple of winters in Toronto and got away with regular gravel 38c tires. That said most roads were ploughed even if there were snowy sections. More hardcore friends used studded.

[–] ashenone@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'll see if I can find some studded tires narrows enough to fit my current bike. But if not I believe I can probably get away with studded tires on a mountain bike, which opens up a lot of used options for me. Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it.

[–] fpslem@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

That seems like a good plan. You can also just get a "beater" MTB bike for winter if you go that route, which you won't have to worry about as much with salt, ice, corrosion, etc. as your good road bike.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I've ridden a plus-tire bike on fresh snow on pavement and it was terrible

[–] ashenone@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks for sharing your experience, seems like fat tires are not what I need

[–] nimble@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

For the snow get as wide as tires your frame allows and then ride with a bit lower air pressure than normal so you have more surface area on ice. Studded tires can also help but i just used all-seasons year-round and only fell over a few times ;)

Personally i would avoid getting a new bike unless you can bring the bike into work+home with you to keep eyes on it. I just don't see the point in spending more money just to make your bike a more attractive target to opportunists. Also could always just wait and see if a new bike is really warranted

[–] ashenone@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

I'm on 25c now and don't think I can go much wider, which is why I'm leaning towards a mountain bike with snow appropriate tires. Bike is stored inside both at home and at work, but I'll still probably go used for better value. Thanks for the advice.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I did a few years of commuting in southern Ontario winters on a bike. I ran regular width hybrid bike tires with tungsten carbide studs.

Schwalbe makes snow stud tires to fit a variety of wheel diameters and widths.

Since Southern Ontario plows and salts a lot, deep snow was not really an issue, it was ice, so commuting was easy with studs. On snowy days with build up I'd ride in the tire track of a car that had already made the trip.

When weather was really bad, I actually was faster than the cars on the road because they couldn't get good grip.

Short self tapping hex head screws drilled into a thick soled work boot were also helpful for when you have to stand or push off.

A good Air'Zounds horn is a must.

Moisturize your exposed skin before you set out.

Buy a set of snow mobile gloves with the split claw. Good warmth and you can still use brake with two fingers with rest on the handle grip.

Boots studs and tire studs

[–] ashenone@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks for the write up and general winter riding advice, lots of good info there that will make my first real winter on a bike that much easier

[–] Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

Mountain bike, studded tires, fat tire bike. I live in Albany, NY and we get a fair amount of snow. I generally do not ride my bike during the months of January and February. December and March gets snow too, but it usually isn't as bad during those months. Even after the roads get plowed, you will have to contend with ice, and a reduced shoulder, which makes riding in the winter inherently very risky. You will also have to contend with the cold, wet, and windchill, which are no joke. Be sure to invest in waterproof and insulated gear. I decided broken limbs, discomfort, and the wear and tear caused by the elements wasn't worth it. I ride the bus during those months. Stay safe.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

Would help to know the infrastructure or surfaces you will be riding on. Will it be all paved? That being said I was never big on winter cycling. I thought it was the weather and I was being a wimp but I realized it was really about daylight savings. Pretty much during on daylight savings its just to dark for my comfort.