Winter bike torture

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Winnipeg MB CA
With the amount of salt used here, the roads are fairly slushy even a fair bit below freezing. It's often too cold for the salt to melt the snow, but the salt helps to keep the sand from freezing in clumps. Anyway, it's hard on our winter bikes. I lube the chains throughout the winter, but do the major maintenance on the bikes in the spring. Looking forward to doing so in a month or so. Still cold here - cloudy and -10 C with a NW wind of -26 kph for a nominal equivalent windchill of -19 C.

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Nice fatty buddy! I see your running Dil's. I'm running 27.5 Ghar's on mine. Not a fan of the slushy junk we get here in my area of NY.
 
About twice a year I do a good clean and wax of my fat bike frame, crank arms, rims... Stuff doesnt stick as easily. I just built a new Surly for myself with custom powder coat and I added clear protective film to the downtube and chainstays.

Chuck, do you apply Framesaver to the insides of your frame? Money well spent.

That bike is a prime candidate for fenders. I think theres one called Mucky Nutz that goes on the bottom of the down tube. Works really well.
 
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Better man than I. No wonder you break chains and crank arms and stuff. Back in NW Pa we'd ride the MTBs until the snow got too deep but nobody commuted. At what point do you decide it's too dangerous mixing it up on bad roads with the cars?
 
Our street Cannondales are itching to go, but its gonna rain the next 5 or 6 days,,they got a tune a week or so back, just waiting for 2 old folks to get withl it,,,,we are doing the elliptical machines to get ready...…...old muscles and bones need tuning up as well,,,maybe one ore two muscle groups..
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Originally Posted by The_Eric
Room for fenders?


have to second this! think I'd be rollin' fenders on there.

Any issues with the freehub locking up in those temps? I remember in the days of freewheels when I live on the east coast, the bike would turn into a fixed gear below 0 degrees. Given the viscosity of the lubricant (normally grease), I could see the freehub body pawls locking up as well?
 
JOD, I fat bike all winter long. Not a problem this winter, but in anticipation of exactly what you are asking about, I lube my pawls with a mixture of probably one part grease to three parts Phil Wood Tenacious Oil. Ive never had a freehub act up in any temp. I do that year round on all my bikes.
 
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