Raleigh Tarantula - Winter Bike

This bike was built specificaly for winter riding... and I live in Madawaska County, New Brunswick, Canada... so I mean WINTER... 10-15 feet of Snow, -25 degrees celsius, etc. I really like the Sugino crank which weighs a ton but could probably survive a nuclear attack. I also like the frame. These early 90's - Made in Canada - Trantula frames have a very interesting geometry. They are a nice mix of commuter, touring mountain bike and light trail riding frames. If I find another one of these I'll turn it into a nice day tour off road bike. What is interesting about this bike is that it is about 90% built with parts I found in junk yards over the summer. It's not the prettiest or the fastest, but it's built to last.

I used it all winter of 2009. The Nokian Extremes 294 are awesome. I would recommend them to anyone who lives in a rural area - were roads are often covered in ice and snow. For city riding I would say they are probably overkill. The bike worked fine. Only problem I had was intense corrosion around March when temperatures start to increase and salt on the roads starts to make everything want to jam. A little grease and light oil fixed that right up. I just put a wire brush to the drive train and derailleurs in the spring. To those for who the esthetics of their bike is very important don't used it in this kinda a winter weather... corrosion is absolutly invevitable. I use cheap components - friction shifters, axel mounted derailleurs, etc. - that are easily replacebale - really like the old Shimano Tourney. Keep a spare chaine handy. A good trick I learned was to use oil for high air pressure tools. It's light and is usually certified to work at very low temperature - like -40 celcius. It is especially important to put a lot of it in the freewheel... which can stop engaging when the lever inside the mechanisme stays down when frozen. Grease your componets a little and your chain... this is really important in spring. I keep my bike in the cold... I don't bring it in and out - corrosion increases big time with the change in tremperature. It's really love winter riding and plan on doing a lot more of it in the coming years.