So I read that article on the front page and it sounded familiar, as in I had the same thought summer of last year. I’m not a trainer fan and needed a bike that could survive snow, ice, rain, debris, whatever I threw at it. One other thing that many don’t consider when winter riding is the fact that riding is so cold because of the speed you’re going, so I thought if I could make the bike slower, it would be much more bearable while riding in the 30s.
I decided to use a mountain bike as the basis for my uber bike. I took a fully rigid frame and had it power coated and had the caliper brake mounts removed (it had disc brake mounts already also). I decided on hydraulic disc brakes for the power obviously but also the reliability in adverse conditions, especially since the line is completely sealed, unlike mechanical brakes. For the drivetrain, I decided to go with an internal hub, since the gears would be protected from the elements and the drivetrain would essentially be as reliable as a single speed. In the snow and ice I’ve had problems with water and snow freezing up the cassette and making shifting impossible, I also would have to clean the thing like clockwork and all those pulleys and derailleurs were a pain in the ass. I bought an Alfine 8 hub and laced it to some white rims I bought. Additionally the Alfine 8 was easy to shift even with large gloves on. Since the drivetrain was so simple, I could go with a simple chain, so I opted for a KMC rustbuster chain, which is coated in zinc. It didn’t get one spot of rust the entire winter, and required no attention.
I bought the biggest tires that would fit, some nice knobby continental cross king 2.4s. These took up the bumps from no suspension and when I would ride them at low psi would make the rolling resistance such that in the winter I could get a solid workout without flying down the road at 25 MPH. You can see I bent the seatpost with a pipe bender because I like steep angles. You can ride with some aero extensions on and the geometry is quite close to my tri bike. Lastly there is a quarq in single speed configuration on it because whats a good training bike without power? So thats my uber training bike, here are some pics.
I like the drivetrain. It would seem to me that a bike like this could really use lights though. Perhaps I missed that. I’d go with a generator hub since you said you are concerned about windchill and wanted something that would increase drag anyway.
So I read that article on the front page and it sounded familiar, as in I had the same thought summer of last year. I’m not a trainer fan and needed a bike that could survive snow, ice, rain, debris, whatever I threw at it. One other thing that many don’t consider when winter riding is the fact that riding is so cold because of the speed you’re going, so I thought if I could make the bike slower, it would be much more bearable while riding in the 30s.
I decided to use a mountain bike as the basis for my uber bike. I took a fully rigid frame and had it power coated and had the caliper brake mounts removed (it had disc brake mounts already also). I decided on hydraulic disc brakes for the power obviously but also the reliability in adverse conditions, especially since the line is completely sealed, unlike mechanical brakes. For the drivetrain, I decided to go with an internal hub, since the gears would be protected from the elements and the drivetrain would essentially be as reliable as a single speed. In the snow and ice I’ve had problems with water and snow freezing up the cassette and making shifting impossible, I also would have to clean the thing like clockwork and all those pulleys and derailleurs were a pain in the ass. I bought an Alfine 8 hub and laced it to some white rims I bought. Additionally the Alfine 8 was easy to shift even with large gloves on. Since the drivetrain was so simple, I could go with a simple chain, so I opted for a KMC rustbuster chain, which is coated in zinc. It didn’t get one spot of rust the entire winter, and required no attention.
I bought the biggest tires that would fit, some nice knobby continental cross king 2.4s. These took up the bumps from no suspension and when I would ride them at low psi would make the rolling resistance such that in the winter I could get a solid workout without flying down the road at 25 MPH. You can see I bent the seatpost with a pipe bender because I like steep angles. You can ride with some aero extensions on and the geometry is quite close to my tri bike. Lastly there is a quarq in single speed configuration on it because whats a good training bike without power? So thats my uber training bike, here are some pics.
Nice, how would you rate the 8 spd Alfine? Is the gearing wide enough? Are the ratios about right? Any maintenance\reliability issues?
Yeah I’ll probably need some lights at some point for it, but I ride during daytime hours now, although its starting to get pretty dim when I’m done some days. I looked into putting a dynamo hub on the front, the problem is that they draw in the single digits in terms of watts, so it wouldn’t really make a difference in terms of drag and they cost a lot more than just a standard front hub.
I’d say a good estimate is that 300 watts gets me 20 MPH where on a tri bike that would be around 26 or so, my steady workouts are around 300 watts so its a big difference, the biggest thing though is the fact that at these slower speeds I can still maintain my power on down hills and I’m not all over the brakes riding on up and down country roads and through intersections, it makes it much easier to just focus on doing my workouts and holding power.
I adjusted my Salsa La Cruz a few years ago (forward seatpost, clip on aerobars and matched to geometry of my tri bike) to ride rail trails at night, ride trails in winter and sometimes in the summer when I need a break from fighting traffic. I use some very wide cyclocross tires and a low psi to slow my bike down.
Now I’m waiting for the first person out there in ST land to convert a Surly Pugsley to a winter tri bike!
Strangely enough, even though I built this as a winter bike I ride it more than any other bike I have, its always ready to go no matter the conditions. I worried about putting the alfine on the bike since it was not necessarily built for this purpose, its more of a commuter hub, but after putting at least 700 hrs on the hub in the time I’ve owned it with quadruple digit sprints and sustained workouts over 300 watts it is quite strong and very reliable, never has failed me. There really is no maintenance for it, since no dirt is getting in the hub.
As for the gear spread, its completely sufficient, it has a gap of 307%, so if you had a single gear on front, it would be like a hub from 10-31, or its like a standard double with an 11-25 cassette. You can adjust how large the rear cog is depending on how strong you are as a rider, at 90 rpm I’ll be doing 300 watts in 6th gear. The thing is, a normal double has like 15 unique gears and while this has the same spread, it has 8 unique gears, but they are linear and you don’t have to thing about switching chainrings. The spacing seems fairly even and I don’t ever feel “boxed into a gear”. I would highly recommend it, it has been a bike that has exceeded my expectations.
I definitely considered the Pugsley but the frame, rims and tires are very specialized and therefore quite expensive, at least relative to what I put this together for. Additionally I thought the Pugsley bike would be too specialized and I thought this would suffice for what I needed while allowing me to do other normal things with the bike, but I would still love a Pugsley for when it gets really snowy, if you have the right bike, riding in the cold and snow is actually a lot of fun!
Yeah, pretty nice though, in my experience its the drivetrain that takes a good beating in the winter, mostly because it gets salty, wet and dirty and its not very easy to clean it when its below zero, you need a hot bucket of water if you want to attempt it. With my bike, when I got back I would fill a watering can with hot water, “water” down my bike and put it into the basement. And the chain cost 10 bucks so it didn’t matter if it rusted up, but I am still using it after a year.
