Hillborne Question (fenders, brake type)

[Jay]

I like my Roadini a lot.  I would like a bike for winter / wet weather / touring that is as close to the Roadini from a fit perspective, with drop bars, but with a bit more clearance so I can run fenders nearly full time, with perhaps a 38-45 studded tire in winter, and something in that range the rest of the year.  The new Hillborne looks good.  Not sure what works best with fenders in terms of mini-v (for drop bars), canti's or maybe something else.  Goals with the brakes would be: short pull for use with levers like Tektro RRL Ergo, clearance for fenders and as big of a tire as I can fit, and ease of adjustment.  I wouldn't be removing the wheels often, mainly when switching tires for winter vs. rest of the year, and seldomly rest of the year.

Any other bike options?  Has to be for drop bars (for example, Appaloosa too long of a top tube to use with drop bars; for me at least, as I don't like a long reach).

Thanks!

[Ian A]

I'm going to throw in a vote for an 80's mtb. I ride my with 2.15" studded 26" tires under fenders and single speed. Currently with flat bars, but ride it for years with drops. I kind of like of like it with the flat bars for winter riding and it actually does service as a lock up around town bike in the summer running Big Apple tires (2"). 

Pros are cheap, fun to ride, love the single speed winter maintenance and perfect for grocery runs. My bike is a late 80's Rock Mountain "fully rigid" that has gone quality in its bones.

IanA Kitimat BC

[Ian A]

* good quality in its bones. Sorry, on mobile.

[John Johnson]

Hi Jay,

Have you looked at the black mountain cycles monstercross? Not too far off in geo, clearance is great and pretty similar geo to the roadini. 

There's also the roaduno, with 46mm clearance (43mm with fenders) but you'd be limited in your gearing choices.

Cheers, 

John (outside fontainebleau)

[Mathias Steiner]

 Ian has it right. I would not (and do not) subject a nice bicycle to snow/ice/salt riding. It's not even about the money, it just doesn't feel right.

Once you have studded tires, the ride is a mess. On the upside, you stay alive. So I have a bike just for that purpose. Maybe I should say a "frame". It's a '93 Rockhopper, TIG welded, and replaced everything except the bottom bracket, the headset, and the seat post. Now I have a cheap dynohub up front, a 3spd Nexus IGH in back, fenders, a Northroads bar with Tektro levers and a V brake up front. GREAT winter bike. Total outlay for the parts was maybe $150, maybe $200. Used and/or cheap; got Belgian rims from rosebikes.com when that still worked and they cost $20 a pop; spokes were cheap, too. The IGH I had lying around. Should have gone singlespeed for even more simplicity, and I'm torn on the coaster brake. For SS or IGH, look for an early 90s Spesh; they have semi-horizontal dropouts so you can adjust chain length.

It's not the kind of bike where I'd go two hours into the countryside. Horses for courses. What road salt does to a bike is just sad.

[Patrick Moore]

Someone please start a thread about Rivendell-esque winter beaters, with lots of photos.

It has been 10 years since I owned a real beater, since I work at home and have good relations with the local grocery stores I use that let me wheel my custom errand bike inside for shopping, but I have fond memories of many — from severely demoted 1992 XO-1 to an even more severely demoted and fix-ified 1995 Riv Road custom, thru paleolithic long-stayed, flexy (Cadillac!) Raleigh Technium fixed gear to various early ‘90s drop-bar conversion mountain bikes to a Dahon Hon Solo folding fixed gear, not including many other 3 speeds and mixtes and Collegiates that didn’t stay long.

+1 IMO for fixed or single speed, or IGH. We don’t get much rideable snow here in ABQ, NM, but recall riding in ~4” of wet snow on my Matthews “road bike for dirt” and having snow so pack up the cassette that the chain wouldn’t track properly on the cogs.

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[Ben Miller]

"I would like a bike for winter / wet weather / touring" 

Not sure exactly what you mean by "winter", but if you are talking snow at all, here is my take. To me, that is the perfect use case for disc brakes. Not only will they stop better with snow-n-ice-covered rims, but also make your rims last longer in the wet & dirty conditions by not using them as braking surfaces.

Personally, I live in SF, so I don't experience wintery conditions. But I do have a bike I take up to the snow. It's a Crust Scapegoat setup with Towelrack drops and an internally geared Rolhoff and 27.5x3" tires . (Attached is an older photo of it in the snow, while I was experimenting with Crazy bars and 4" tires). It is super fun to ride all year round, and with wider tires I don't feel I even need studded tires. A higher than normal BB also helps in snowy conditions. I think the new Crust Derecho would also make a great frame for a winter bike: with clearance for 29x2.5", putting some 45NRTH Kahva 29x2.25" studded tires would still offer great clearance for excess snow buildup and it has a high BB too. Both frames can be setup as drop-bar rigid MTB's.

But if you are keen on sticking with rim brakes, I'd definitely recommend not going with mini-V brakes. Just not enough clearance for them, especially with fenders. Get regular V-brakes and either proper long-pull drop levers or just run them with short-pull. Or run cantis. I have Paul Moto-lites I am using with Tektro RL340 levers and they work perfectly and have plenty of clearance for a 2.25" tire. Conversely, I put Paul Mini-motos on my wife's Platy and they barely clear 45mm slicks. No way you are getting 45mm studded ties in there, let alone fenders.

Either way, I definitely do not think a winter bike needs to be a beater (though a vintage MTB conversion would be great too!) I fully support the idea of a nice, new frame being purposefully built up as a winter tourer. 

Ben in a very non-wintery SF

[Ben Miller]

Oh, I meant to add that if I was building up a current Riv frame to be a drop-bar winter tourer, it'd hands down be an Atlantis, no question. And then making a Clem work with drops would be a distance second. 

[Jonathan Carmack]

I’ve done many seasons on winter riding in DC/Virgina, a region that infamously over salts.  Never had issues with bad corrosion—with that being said I always do a fresh water wash after.  Cables, chains etc will deteriorate but honestly it’s pretty damn humid in the summer too so **shrug**

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[Julian Westerhout]

Jay, 

Where are you? I'm in central Illinois, and our winters feature snow, ice, and lots of salt. Decades ago I lived in SW CO -- very different -- lots of snow, but no salt, just cinders in some corners and hills. 

If you live in a place with lots of salt I agree with Mathias -- don't do that to a nice bike, even if, like Jonathan, you're willing to give it a good wash after every ride -- it will wreak havoc with all of the parts as well as the frame, especially if you store it inside and therefore expose it to the added condensation issues of the hot/cold cycles. In my case when the roads get salty and snowy/slushy I commute on a 1980s Schwinn MTB with Schwalbe studded tires, fenders and a 1 x 6 drivetrain --- I don't wash it until spring (I do lube the drivetrain regularly), and after years of that abuse it's slowly getting fairly corroded, but I do not really care -- it gets stored in my garden shed and gets locked outside at work -- it does not ever see the inside of a heated building, and it still works. 

If you live in a place that has good snow and no salt (and lots of grand off-road riding opportunities) then a case might be made for a nicer bike as an all-season bike. 

Regardless, winter riding in snow is a different exercise  (and is pretty good for practicing smooth pedaling and braking, as not doing that tends to end up with more slides and dismounts) and is a lot of fun (although miles and speed will go way down for most). 

Julian Westerhout

Bloomington, IL 

[Ted Durant]

On Friday, December 5, 2025 at 8:58:47 PM UTC-6 Jay wrote:

I like my Roadini a lot.  I would like a bike for winter / wet weather / touring that is as close to the Roadini from a fit perspective, with drop bars, but with a bit more clearance so I can run fenders nearly full time, with perhaps a 38-45 studded tire in winter, and something in that range the rest of the year.  The new Hillborne looks good.  Not sure what works best with fenders in terms of mini-v (for drop bars), canti's or maybe something else.  Goals with the brakes would be: short pull for use with levers like Tektro RRL Ergo, clearance for fenders and as big of a tire as I can fit, and ease of adjustment.  I wouldn't be removing the wheels often, mainly when switching tires for winter vs. rest of the year, and seldomly rest of the year.

I have been able to get a dialed-in fit that I like on my 3 Sams, much like my Rivendell Road and Heron Road bikes and my new Chapman light touring bike. I don't find that the Sams significantly slow me down compared to my "faster" bikes. I have been able to fit Herse 48mm tires, just barely, into my Sams, but the knobby version of those tires is a no-go. My guess is that 42mm tires with fenders would be about it, and not sure if you could put knobby 42s under fenders. I have a strong preference for cantilever brakes, especially the Shimano CX-50 brakes with upgraded salmon brake pads.

Here in SE Wisconsin I commuted for decades on a variety of bikes and found that skinnier tires work way better than fatter tires in snow-or-slush-on-pavement. Studded snow tires 32-35mm wide were fabulous. As for the effects of salt, yeah, my Heron Road prototype (which was my commuter for many years) got itself a repaint a couple of years ago, and the area under the front derailer clamp was a mess. But it came out fine, and if you use an oversized derailer clamp on a plastic shim, you significantly limit that problem area. The biggest winter wear items, in my experience, are chains/cogs/chainrings and rims. As noted elsewhere, disc brakes solve the rim wear problem, if it's much of a problem (it never has been a big deal for me). I also commuted on a Quickbeam for many years, and I agree with others that a fixed gear is a pretty nice thing for snow riding on reasonably flat terrain. I ran 35mm studded snow tires on that bike under fenders. 

I have a Breadwinner G-Road that I recently set up for winter road riding. It currently has 48mm knobby tires under fenders, with plenty of clearance. All the bosses have been greased and filled with bolts, regardless of whether they have anything attached. Disc brakes are nice stoppers, but hella loud when it's damp, which it pretty much always is in the winter. I'd rather have good rim brakes, honestly. 

Ted Durant

Milwaukee, WI USA

[Jay]

Thanks for the replies!

I'll start by saying I wasn't as clear as I should have been with my post.

I'm an hour outside Toronto.  While we get snow, and they salt, etc., I've been riding in the winter for close to 20 years and I pick my moments.  I do not commute; it's purely for fun.  I watch the weather like a hawk.  I try and ride outside 2-3x a week in the winter, but when the going gets tough, I may miss a whole week of riding outside.  Even though I have studded tires, those are for select days.  Our winters usually go like this: in November, hardly any snow and I can ride outside as normal, all but a few days at worst.  In December, we do get snow, and they may salt, but within days that's all gone and it's just cold, sometimes mild (pour on the riding).  January/February are the worst, maybe 10x a month, some for just 45 minutes and I drive my bike in the car to where I know the roads are good.  Roads may be wet when I ride, and the studded tires are for safety (black ice; or when a think layer of snow).  If roads are dry, 43mm GKSS or similar are great.  And gravel roads a 20 minute drive from where I live, they plough them but there is always a think layer of snow, no salt, those are great for studded tires (I'll ride those Sat/Sun, when I have time).   I'm not riding (by choice) in deep snow, slush, or lots of visible salt.  I think the key is that when I get home on a 'wet' day, I spend up to 20 minutes cleaning the bike really well.  For example, when I left my house this morning with the Roadini, roads were dry and they said no snow for 2 hours.  Flurries started 15 minutes later, I pushed on, and after 1.5 hr ride the bike was a disaster (snowy roads for the last 20 minutes).  I pulled out the garden sprayer, filled with warm water, cleaned it, dried it multiple times, lubed the chain, tri-flow a bunch of moving parts, and now it looks new. The inside might have some 'residue' in there (I've seen it when pulling out seat posts), but after a day like this, the bike always gets cleaned, and that's worked for 20 years.

This post was about comfort.  Roadini is most comfortable bike I've ever owned.  I want a bike no less comfortable (why ride in discomfort?), with full fenders, two wheel sets, one with studded tires.  I've went years trying to make a second bike work in the winter, always fighting fit issues, no more I say!

P.S. I do like disc brakes in winter, but even today with a snowy ride home, the salmon pads stopped fine and I clean everything after so now I'm thinking, rim brakes can work for me in the winter.

P.S.S. Good to know Canti over mini-V should I got with a Hillborne, fenders, and 40mm (ish) tires.  I continue to investigate.  May not happen this winter, but maybe next run of Hillborne's.

[Jason Fuller]

I was going to add, mini-v's won't work with fenders and larger tires but looks like that was covered.  I run full size V's with Cane Creek 'drop V' levers and this combo works great, lots of power vs canti's.  I wouldn't hesitate to get a Homer either based on your needs.  Sounds like it would be great even outside of winter to have your fender-free Roadini and a befendered Homer/Hillborne for varied weather or perhaps longer rides where you need to carry more