My Winter Bike

Well, it’s that time of the year again. North East Essex has pretty much the lowest UK rainfall, but in the winter months, the roads rarely seem to fully dry out. A great feature of this part of the world is the large network of minor roads that link farms and villages, allowing cyclists to keep off the main roads and away from traffic. Unfortunately, because they have a great deal of agricultural use, they are often covered in mud from tractors and soil washing off fields when it rains. These roads aren't all that well maintained and have a lot of potholes, cracks and fissures, which may be covered by mud or puddles and can be difficult to spot, particularly at night. Consequently, it’s well worth having mudguards and a set of strong wheels, and a second bike built to accommodate them will mean that your lightweight pride and joy will have to contend with nothing more challenging than the odd spot of ultraviolet light.

The Roberts Twins

My winter (well pretty much three seasons of the year) bike is the blue one in the photo, one of a pair of frames ordered at the same time (c.1993) by my brother and I from Roberts Cycles in Croydon. We both wanted straightforward lugged road frames, made from Columbus SL tubing, an alternative to Reynolds 531 at the time. According to Chas Roberts, we did not really need custom frames because we have arms and legs reasonably in proportion to our bodies and an ‘off the peg’ frame would have served perfectly well. Custom building does have other advantages though, giving more choice over any desirable features, in my case a bike with clearance for mudguards.

The frame was designed so that there would be sufficient mudguard clearance using short-reach side-pull calipers at the full extent of their reach. At the time, Shimano made a long-reach side-pull (from the 105 groupset), which would have given more clearance, especially with larger-diameter tyres, but I was keen to use all Campagnolo kit, so short-reach it had to be. With the benefit of hindsight, I would have gone for the 105s as accommodating 25mm tyres and rattle-free guards has always been a problem. I'm not a big fan of cantilevers and it’s only recently that Campagnolo have made a set with the correct leverage ratios to match Ergopower levers.

One key essential in a good winter bike is a strong pair of wheels. I had a set built with Campagnolo Record hubs, 36 DT stainless double-butted spokes and Mavic Open Pro rims. These wheels have inadvertently been crashed into all the road defects mentioned above, yet remain completely true and need relatively little maintenance, just requiring a splurge of grease through the injection ports each autumn. The design is a big improvement over their relatively heavy steel-axled predecessor, using strong yet light wide diameter aluminium axles and the cup and cone setup is very easy to adjust. I think Campagnolo have stopped producing them in polished alloy, which is a pity. Tyres are 25mm Continental GP 4000S. I’m becoming a big fan of wide-diameter lightweight tyres as they manage to combine comfort and grip, especially in the wet, and don’t seem to produce significantly more rolling drag.

I’ve settled on Salmon mudguards, because they are the only ones I have been able to find that don’t run underneath the callipers and consequently give more clearance. The front guard stops at the brake caliper and the rear has a linking bridge that goes over the rear brake. It looks a bit clunky, but it does work. The guards are narrow strips of polished alloy and despite not wrapping round the tyre, keep water from splashing up my back and up into my face. My feet do catch some spray from the sides, but that’s what overshoes are for after all!

I now avoid ice!

The Roberts is my longest-lived bike and is still in regular use, although because of my equipment OCD, only the steel of the frame has survived without change. The bike is significantly heavier than my Ti Burls (22lb vs 15 lb) and isn’t as stiff, yet the weight is only apparent when you step off one and get onto the other: once rolling for a few minutes, it is still all you could ever really want in a road bike. The bike will take me through the winter very nicely, although I do make a point of washing it after a ride, particularly if the roads have been salted. I do draw the line, however at going out once the temperature drops below zero. Two winters back, I came down on a patch of ice caused by water running off a field and freezing. The fall was instant and unavoidable, given the camber of the road, and resulted in a rather bruised hip and a nasty bang on the head (saved by my helmet).

If I was starting building again from scratch, I would think long and hard about a Ti frame (light and rust-free), hydraulic disc brakes (they’ll work in the wet, will be maintenance-free and allow bags of mudguard clearance); I’d be tempted by even wider tyres – 27mm Dugasts would be nice – and the rather lovely hammer-finished Honjo mudguards. To top it off, belt-drive and a geared hub (e.g. Alfine, Rohloff) would make the bike pretty much maintenance-free. Hmm, I’ve got to say I’m really tempted!