How to get your road bike winter-ready?

Cycling is a good and healthy way to travel and have experience. It is suitable for your heart and circulatory system, helping to eliminate more than 500 calls every hour. Especially if you like the winter, riding at this time is the best for your health. 

However, there are also some problems with your road bike in winter. As a result, you need to know a few efficient ways to avoid destructive issues and how to get your road bike winter-ready.

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Top 6 Best Ways On How To Get Your Road Bike Winter-Ready

how to get your road bike winter-ready

#1 Get it serviced

The first thing you can do for your bike to have a perfect drivetrain is to give it a check. Making sure it can run smoothly is essential, mainly if you’ve left your bike since March. 

Firstly, lubricating the gear and brake cables, making them run well in their outers. Then, it is suggested you relube the inner cables after popping the outers out of their stops. However, keep in mind that lubing internal cables may be more rigid. Also, cassette them for signs of wear and replace the inners and outers if necessary. When end caps are fitted to your cable, outers will increase weather resistance. 

Furthermore, checking the chain and inspecting the bearings makes your bike work better on long roads in winter.

Last but not least, if you are skillful enough, looking at the hubs, bottom brackets, shifters, and brake pivots. They would benefit from some TLC.

By contrast, if you want to save time or cannot do all the jobs, there are always local bike shops available. 

#2 Sort your tyres

The second thing riders should prepare well is high-quality tyres if they do not want to fix the puncture every 20 minutes riding and ruin your bikes in a short time. 

To avoid this problem, it is highly recommended that you choose a dedicated pair of winter tyres with additional puncture protection layers. Moreover, wider tyres, such as 25mm or 28mm, are worth investing in for their comfort. The wider ones can work at a lower pressure and offer better grip in wet conditions. 

More importantly, although bikes with tubeless-ready wheels and tyres might be more expensive, they are easy to convert in winter. 

#3 Fit Mudguards

Another thing that makes both you and your partner comfy is a pair of mudguards. 

Primarily, a typical winter bike may already have mudguard eyelets, allowing you to fit heavy-duty mudguards. What’s more, if you own a standard bike, there are still many clips on mudguards in the market. You only need to be sure you’ve tyre clearance enough. 

When fitting a mudguard by yourself, you should drill a hole in the bottom of it before attaching an extra strip of material. Furthermore, to avoid riders behind you being covered in mud, extending the mudguard downwards is suggested.

#4 Get good lights

In winter, the daytime seems shorter than night, and the weather is gloomier with the low sun. For this reason, good lights are an intelligent choice for riders. 

For most riders, a set of blinkies will probably be enough.

Many people prefer more than one rear light on their bikes through the dark months to more details. This is to prevent you from cycling in the dark when one rear light is ruined. 

Concerning the front light, it is not as crucial as the posterior one. However, it is still a useful accessory when you are using your bike to commute or riding on the glow of street lights.

#5 Keep Bicycles Clean

Not only in cycling but any exercises, making your vehicles clean is crucial, which may affect others’ judgment on your character whether you are tidy or not. Besides, making sure your bike clean will help you easily keep track of any mechanical defects. 

Ideally, you spend five minutes wiping down your bike after every ride. 

After one or two weeks, you can take a little longer to give the drivetrain a proper clean. Some specialist bike cleaning products such as chain cleaning tools or degreasers help you get rid of the muck and wipe the chain clean and re-lube.

In the long term, this will save you a lot of money. 

#6 Buy a full winter bike

The last piece of advice for anyone loving riding in winter is to bike an off – the – peg winter bike. Instead of buying each essential component and wasting time fitting them on your bike, why do you not choose a specialist winter bike if your money permits? This kind of bike is well-equipped with eyelets for full mudguards, wider tyre clearance, all-weather reliability, and affordability. Besides, the bike with super-light and a higher price will be able to subject better wear and tear. 

The off – the  – peg winter machines are quite popular in the market, but there are some famous brands you can choose from, such as Specialized Diverge, Kinesis, Genesis, Enigma, and Ribble.

how to get your road bike winter-ready

How To Get Your Road Bike Winter-Ready FAQs

Can you use a road bike in winter?

Of course, if you do not want to spend all your daylight in the monotony due to being alone in the basement on the trainer, choosing a winter bike is a good option. Besides, you can stay outside to continue road riding, keep in contact with the group cyclists, and maintain fitness. 

How cold is too cold to ride a bike?

Below 32 degrees Celcius is defined as “really cold” in this column. However, for some cyclists, cycling in any temperature below 10 degrees Celcius is freezing. 

Is cold bad for bikes?

Primarily, low temperatures do not damage your bike. Contrastly, if you keep your bike in cold weather for a long time, it may reduce the battery life of your cyclo-computer and other electronic devices. 

Final Words 

In conclusion, above are some best ways on how to get your road bike winter-ready.  Besides, the article also gives you some necessary pieces of knowledge to ride in winter. Hopefully, you will have the best road bike winter after the information!

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