Do You Need A Different Bike For Winter?

Nothing I can say. I have a Winter bike, a gravel bike, a 'best' Summer bike and a bike for the indoor trainer. I don't actually need the Winter bike as I ride indoors in Winter. And I don't need a 'best' bike as the gravel bike is adequate for my needs.

Hang on! I don't have a hard tail anymore. Hmmm 🤔

I wish I had your motivation, for me cycling goes from a pursuit to just the commute as soon as the clocks change.
Frumpy old schwalbe marathons, full length mudguards and fingers crossed I don't have to deal with a 30mph headwind in both directions!

Personally I think your better off just using and enjoying what bike you have, as long as you maintain it through winter it won't look any different 👌👌👌

Good points. If you're racing then you definitely have a performance-optimised best bike, one with a better groupset & wheels, thus more expensive replacements/consumables, so a more affordable mile-eater makes sense, especially with UK grinding paste conditions.
When I lived in France and went out with non-racing club riders the winter bike concept wasn't as well-developed, although many of the cyclotouristes used 'guards all year round because it was an Audax rule-of-entry back then.
BTW : A lot of MTB'ers put their full-sus machines into hibernation and use a hardtail for the worst of autumn/winter.

Living in Northern Ontario, Canada; we have fat bikes with studded tyres for winter riding, keeps us riding 12 months a year….heated gloves and heated socks too…good to -30°C..

I think it depends on the price of your bike. If I had a 2k or 3k bike, I wouldn't use it in winter. But I can't afford anything in that price bracket, so I'm OK lol

I am mainly a gravel rider and have a summer and winter wheelset. 28"×1.75 and 27.5x2.8". Really helps with the mud.

I live in wales,i cycle through crap and bad weather all year! 😂

If your summer bike has nice components (hi spec), winter muck will reduce their life drastically. Winter bike should be easy to replace parts (cheaply) and tyre choice is important for grip, comfort and safety. People should swallow their egos when riding a winter bike. Speed doesn’t matter. Comfort matters.

Full mudguards with a long flap ,if have friends, or sit on the back.
No proper mudguards on a group ride is just rude.

I have two bikes but tend to ride the same one all year round. One reason is the tracks I ride aren't too challenging but can be full of puddles and I value my full mudguards. I've had so many days when I've been soaked from the spray off the front and back wheels without them. If I had to deal with mud then I'd have to take them off in case a build up of mud caused problems.
Personally I prefer the look of a 'naked' bike but I like to stay dry.
I do have a second set of wheels and tyres.
Since fitting mudguards I've found chains and cassettes last longer.
Nice ride and a great subject of discussion.
Thanks for taking the time to share your ride.

I ride all my bikes through winter the key thing I've found is you HAVE to wash and relube it straight away after a ride putting it away salty gritty and wet is what does the damage.

Happy cycling mate

Would love to metal detect that old path all of them years of people travelling, great video.

Only things I change for winter riding is chunkier wheels and a different chain that gets changed come the spring.

It's an interesting topic and initially, I thought not but I can see the attraction after consideration. I have a rebuilt 1984 Colnago Profil CX and that never goes out if there is even a whiff of rain in the air. I don't have a winter bike as such but I do have multiple bikes so I have options when the weather is bad. I think if you have a bike that is special to you, either sentimental or due to the high cost, it's much more likely you are not going to want to take it out in the winter. Ride safe. Jay

For my road riding I like to have a winter bike, all mudguards and fatter tyres. My current one has lasted brilliantly, it doesn’t seem to want to dissolve like previous ones. It’s a silver Boardman cyclocross bike with added mudguards. Weighs a few kilos more than my summer bike but handles well in all conditions. Most importantly, it’s proven reliable and robust. It’s also comfortable for the long cold steady miles. Hopefully I can keep it going for many more years.
For my mountain biking I have one bike all year round, it’s muddy summer or winter. Just the quantity of clothing changes 😂

I watched this video on mute, I dont want my wife to hear any blasphemy that may get me booted for too many bikes.

I don't ride in winter any more. Done that for many years. I don't enjoy it any more. I might ride on a dry bright day though if there is no salt on the roads. Having said this though riding in summer, autumn and spring can be pretty grim as well, the British climate is so bad.

The best thing I ever did was get Rohloff geared bikes with belt drives so even when the weather is shite during summer I don't have to spend hours cleaning and relubing the transmission like you have to do with a derailleur geared bike to stop it sounding like a combine harvester rusting and jamming up. Derailleur geared bikes are high maintenance and a PITA if you ride a lot of miles and every day in all weathers. Ok on hot dry summer days with NO rain but the slightest drop of water and they are problematic.

If there's lots of snow then I go out for a few hours on my Kona fat bike which also has a Rohloff hub.

In the days when every bike was made of steel and the roads were thoroughly salted it made sense to have a winter bike. Mine was about twice the weight of my track bike, it was fitted with mudguards, rack and occasionally panniers and with a less aggressive riding position with higher, wider bars. It made for more comfortable longer conditioning rides. Then they 'invented' mountain bikes so of course I had to have one of those as well 😆 I still have 4 bikes, although each is ridden sedately for pleasure these days!

As soon as the frost hits and they start salting the roads, I ditch the road bike and get on the hybrid. Why? A new cassette for the road bike is £90 where as a new cassette for the hybrid is less than £30. Not sure if you need a winter bike when you have a mountain bike but, the same is true for cassettes and chains. When the roads are salty you want to be killing cheap kit and not the dear stuff.

My winter bike is Zwift. I used to go out in all weathers when I was younger, caked in mud, freezing cold and loved it. Nowadays I’m a fair weather road biker.
I got a Boardman road team in 2011 and rode it in all weathers to work and back until a few years ago and other than a new chainset as the FSA worn, it has served me well. Cleaned up it looks new. 
I fancied a new bike so went with the SLR 8.9 a few months ago, as the road team had done me well. So the road team sits on the trainer and the SLR is hung up ready to go just in case we get a good day.