Can you winterfy just any road bike, which ones can you

DePurpereWolf

So, for a winter road bike, you would want to have full mudguards and thicker tyres.

But lots of road bikes seem to not have enough space for the mudguards because of the calliper brakes.
Can you have mudguards with calliper brakes? I guess you can have those clip on ones that stop near the calliper brakes, but that doesn't seem very sensible to me.

Also, lots of road bikes don't have enough spacing in the forefork to allow for thicker tyres.

If you want a winter road bike, are you limited to cyclocross frames with V-, or cantilever brakes? Or where do you have to look for in road bikes to be able to winterfy them...

Lumen

Best options are either clip-on mudguards (which are much better than nothing) or an audax/touring/winter trainer frame with clearance for mudguards and long-reach caliper brakes.

There are a good selection of bikes like this, depending on budget.

At the posh end, my choice would be a custom Enigma Esprit with mudguard clearance and eyelets. These are now made in the UK with a 2-3 month lead time.

Cheaper than that would be a Ribble Audax or similar.

Or something like a Giant Defy.

ednwireland

look for winter road bikes or audax frames most places have then, stuff like ribble winter training frame, kinesis do them as well (racelight tk and gran fondo)

my only road bike at the moment is a steel frame 25mm tyres and full sks mudguards bought as a commuter years ago (standard sora brakes as well work fine on it)

Lumen

ednwireland wrote: »

kinesis do them as well (racelight tk and gran fondo)

Had a Kinesis TK, lovely bike. Head tube a bit shortish.

petethedrummer

My Giant SCR takes 28C tyres comfortably. I use race blade mudguards and they are perfectly adequate. There are full mudguards available for it too. The lower end bikes generally have plenty of tolerance for things like this.

Morgan

Like you say, a lot (most?) modern road bikes can't be "winterified" properly. However, there are still plenty out there that can.

All you need are some mudguard eyelets and a bit more wheel clearance (often requiring longer-reach brakes).

e.g. Kinesis Racelight / Gran Fondo, Giant SCR (maybe Defy) etc.

Gary Fisher have a range of road bikes out this year with some neat touches - like removable mudguard eyelets:
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/gary-fisher-2010-road-launch-22559

ednwireland

not sure i'd put them on a carbon frame but remebered about these if you havent got mudguard eyes but clearance for a full guard.

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/product-Unbranded-P-Clip-Rubber-Coated--Black--Per-Pair-5058.htm

Turbulent Bill

Why don't road bikes (as a rule) have eyelets for mudguards or pannier racks? I'm looking for a road bike for commuting and weekend spins, but very few have these. The Giant Defy is an exception (and even has its own custom full-length mudguards), but the various Focus, Canyon etc. models don't. You're stuck with audax or cyclocross frames, neither of which I want.

I'd understand that having eyelets on carbon frame would be tricky, but this should be a doddle on everything else.

DePurpereWolf

I don't really think it is the eyelets that is the problem, the fork is so close to the tyre that you can't put anything in between it. All for the sake of benig that much faster, lower air resistance, less weight, etc. etc.

I'm just trying to find out what to go for, an audax or tourer or winter road bike or cyclocross. The differences between them seem to be a bit blurry.

For a commuter bike I just can't go without mudguards in this country.

BostonB

my last pimping of charge bikes for the evening...
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Charge_Juicer_Mid_2010/5360044279/

Lumen

DePurpereWolf wrote: »

I'm just trying to find out what to go for, an audax or tourer or winter road bike or cyclocross. The differences between them seem to be a bit blurry.

IMO audax will be racier than tourer, geometry-wise.

Cyclocross will have non-caliper brakes, which are definitely no way near as good as calipers.

Budget?

Turbulent Bill

DePurpereWolf wrote: »

I don't really think it is the eyelets that is the problem, the fork is so close to the tyre that you can't put anything in between it. All for the sake of benig that much faster, lower air resistance, less weight, etc. etc.

I'm just trying to find out what to go for, an audax or tourer or winter road bike or cyclocross. The differences between them seem to be a bit blurry.

For a commuter bike I just can't go without mudguards in this country.

The Defy mudguards are split either side of the fork, so interference isn't an issue. I don't know if third-party mudguards of this style are available, or if the Defy ones could be bodged onto any road bike.

My commute brings me past a waste recycling centre, where the trucks spew dirty water all over the road. Having that thrown up by the tyres ain't nice...

Bambaata

i just use my road bike all winter and pop on the SKS mudguards. its also on 23mm tyres and i got through all winter without any puncture and only 1 fall and the fall was a group fall where we all hit a fully iced over road. wide wheels wouldn't have done anything to prevent the spill.

DePurpereWolf

Budget is 1000 and a brick+morter shop in Ireland.

I'm either going for a race bike that can be winterfied, or a hybrid with internal gear hub.
(I know, to totally different bikes).

To be honest, I'd probably have the mudguards on most of the time, just as I have my rainpants with me all the time.

blorg

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

The Defy mudguards are split either side of the fork, so interference isn't an issue. I don't know if third-party mudguards of this style are available, or if the Defy ones could be bodged onto any road bike.

Those guards are very clever. They look like they could probably be fitted on any road bike (with the addition of P-Clips if you lack mudguard eyelets.)

As to why road bikes don't have eyelets, well if you are buying a road bike with the intention of racing you aren't going to use them anyway. Race Blades do actually work OK, not as good as full length but certainly OK for wet spins. I do have full length Chromoplastics on my commuter and tourer. To be honest it doesn't actually rain that much in winter anyway.

A lot of entry level racers DO have eyelets, the Trek 1 series is another example. There is no particular problem putting eyelets into carbon BTW, especially if it has metal dropouts as many bikes (including Trek Madones) do. I have eyelets on a carbon fork.

At the end of the day it comes down to what is the purpose of the bike I guess. Watch out with cross bikes, a lot of them DON'T have eyelets because again, if you are actually using them to race cross you wouldn't be using mudguards. Focus would be a good example of cross bikes aimed at cross racers that don't. Specialized take more of a wider market angle with the Tricross and it has eyelets.

Once you struggle to fit Chromoplastics I can assure you, you won't be removing them regularly all right

All audax bikes will take guards but €1,000 in a LBS in Ireland might not get you into this.

BostonB

blorg wrote: »

...To be honest it doesn't actually rain that much in winter anyway.....

Thats true. But having mudguards means you can ignore the rain most of the time. Wet cold feet is miserable.

Turbulent Bill

blorg wrote: »

Those guards are very clever. They look like they could probably be fitted on any road bike (with the addition of P-Clips if you lack mudguard eyelets.)

As to why road bikes don't have eyelets, well if you are buying a road bike with the intention of racing you aren't going to use them anyway. Race Blades do actually work OK, not as good as full length but certainly OK for wet spins. I do have full length Chromoplastics on my commuter and tourer. To be honest it doesn't actually rain that much in winter anyway.

A lot of entry level racers DO have eyelets, the Trek 1 series is another example. There is no particular problem putting eyelets into carbon BTW, especially if it has metal dropouts as many bikes (including Trek Madones) do. I have eyelets on a carbon fork.

At the end of the day it comes down to what is the purpose of the bike I guess. Watch out with cross bikes, a lot of them DON'T have eyelets because again, if you are actually using them to race cross you wouldn't be using mudguards. Focus would be a good example of cross bikes aimed at cross racers that don't. Specialized take more of a wider market angle with the Tricross and it has eyelets.

Once you struggle to fit Chromoplastics I can assure you, you won't be removing them regularly all right

All audax bikes will take guards but €1,000 in a LBS in Ireland might not get you into this.

I can understand why a no-compromise racing bike wouldn't have eyelets as it's specialised (no pun intended!), but surely a bog-standard <€1000 alu road bike is also intended for wet-weather training, commuting etc. as well? I get the feeling that most road bikes are designed for sunnier climes...

As you said Giant and Trek usually provide eyelets in their lower ranges, but the likes of Focus, Canyon and Planet-X don't, even for similarly-speced bikes. Race Blades are an option but they're always going to be a compromise. For club spins or races on wet days, do they work well enough?

blorg

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

I can understand why a no-compromise racing bike wouldn't have eyelets as it's specialised (no pun intended!), but surely a bog-standard <€1000 alu road bike is also intended for wet-weather training, commuting etc. as well? I get the feeling that most road bikes are designed for sunnier climes...

As you said Giant and Trek usually provide eyelets in their lower ranges, but the likes of Focus, Canyon and Planet-X don't, even for similarly-speced bikes. Race Blades are an option but they're always going to be a compromise. For club spins or races on wet days, do they work well enough?

Well there are enough manufacturers that do provide them so are looking at that market... To be honest, it is not as if you can't easily get a sub €1,000 aluminium racer with eyelets, there are lots of them. Others are focusing more on racing and just don't see the need. Specialized don't do them on the Allez, they probably expect you to buy a Tricross if you want them. Plenty of people racing on sub €1,000 aluminium bikes BTW, they are perfectly capable.

As to Race Blades, yes, they work more than well enough. They are better at protecting your own arse than the person behind you but even with that they are much better than nothing. I have extensive experience with both Race Blades and full-length Chromoplastics and while the latter are a bit better I would never make a bike choice on whether I could fit them or not. Whether I could fit a rack would be far more important.

To be honest very few people use mudguards in races even if it is bucketing down. I do sometimes as I cycle there and back and don't want my arse soaked but TBH if I am sprinting for the finish I am not too keen on anything that makes it easier for someone to latch on to my rear wheel It is also one more thing with non-zero weight that can potentially rub or get caught although in practice this has never happened. Generally in races you are not too concerned with getting wet and dirty.

Club spins these days I think not so many people use mudguards. It used to be mandatory in audax events and would have been more popular with many clubs, but I don't think so much these days.

Lumen

The thing that bothers me, as an occasional group cyclist and epic wheelsucker, is that during a wet winter group ride on country roads you get splattered head-to-hip with diluted manure and other road crap kicked up by the un-browed wheel in front, therefore have to choose between taking the wind the whole way, hanging off the back, or getting a tow and being splattered. It's just not civilised.

Win friends and influence people - fit mudguards.

Which reminds me, Rflynnr and I were talking a while back about forming a wheelbrow appreciation club. We need an "Images of Practicality" thread for starters.