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.
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
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