BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I was thinking about that this morning, how none of my cables have frozen up this winter. I changed them last year, prophylactically; maybe that's why.

Thanks for the reminder, but perhaps you should re-allocate some of the time you spend playing on the internet to taking care of your belongings, before you hurt yourself or somebody else.

A little harsh, I think. I'm pretty sure @byogman is pretty busy even without playing on the Internet.

Reasonable people can differ, I guess. It takes less than 5 minutes to hang a bike up on a hook and let some WD-40 or the like flow into the cables. That strikes me as time well spent compared to the potential consequences of a brake failure.

I was a bit of a moron, I rather doubt I'm the only one. It's easy, if you ride often, to feel safe and become less diligent for it, especially prior to an exceedingly short and mundane ride. Anyways.

Just my experience, but I found that, when I started using continuous runs of cable housing rather than the start-n-stop runs common on many frames, I stopped having cable freeze problems. Minimizing the number of places that allow water to infiltrate in the first place seemed to make a difference, in that I usually froze up at least a few times every winter, but haven't frozen up since I started using continuous runs whenever possible. I'm sure I pay a price of additional friction, but I don't run terribly finicky shifters, so haven't observed any problems along those lines.

But think of the weight, man!

I make up for it by using superglue on the ends of the cables, instead of crimp-on cable ends. (And I usually thin my tires with a belt sander, to save those oh-so-precious grams of rotating mass.)

It's happened to me, but only when I was keeping my bike outside where I work and that one time I walked through ice covered water. Do you leave your bike out at home or did you go to work, leave it at a rack, and then come home? I've also had my lock freeze before, which was a PITA at the time. For a while, I carried a little pressurized can of lock deicer as a result

I have never had brake cables freeze. Before I get on a bike, I hit the brakes and check tires. I have also never snapped a road bike chain because we buy decent chains. And because I stretch them out first. I did snap an old chain on my single speed once about two blocks from my house.

If you post your address I will mail you five bucks and a high five for having such badass bike inspections unlike the other peons.

With one exception, my bikes live outside and while they have a roof over them, I certainly do ride most of them in bad and one in absolutely the worst conditions. I imagine that's not too uncommon a story. I've had shifter cables freeze on me before a fairly frustration number of times... part of the reason I rode a single speed for awhile. This was hardly the first time a brake cable froze either, it's just the first time I didn't notice until after starting to roll.

I have about 75 feet of downhill from my house to my driveway. This always includes a brake check. Better to have to bail into my own driveway than somewhere in traffic.

Some years back, I had my BB pawls freeze. The cranks spun forwards and back with no effect. Having no idea what pawls were (I was enlightened next day by the guys at Iron City) or that they were afflicted thus, I poured my thermos of hot tea onto the cranks/BB and functionality was restored...until it happened a couple of days later.

I've even frozen hydraulic brakes while riding. Rode through a stream and water splashed onto caliper, freezing the pistons open. Scary!

Shooflypie, if you're talking to me, which is does, my address is 123 GoFuckYourself Lane. Take that five dollars and shove it up your ass. It takes two seconds to check before starting a ride. As for cables freezing during a ride, I have been fortunate and have had nothing like that happen.

Tough crowd. Thanks for the reminder!

Never thought of anything freezing on my bike and it hangs on a rack outside for over 8 hours. A few times I have ridden around 0 degrees F and still no issues. Good to know it can happen though. Thanks.

I haven't had cables freeze on the ride so much as my derailleur got covered in road gunk or snow, then the gunk froze, and I lost the ability to shift. Typically this happens more often when I'm riding home from work after my bike sits out in the cold all day after being covered in slop. I actuate the shifter cable, but the derailleur doesn't spring back to the smaller cogs. I can shift up to larger cogs, but shifting down to smaller cogs doesn't work well. My rim brakes just don't like to actually stop me when everything is super cold and there is moisture to lubricate and contaminate my brake pads. Not having a hose outdoors makes it hard to keep my bike in tip top shape during the winter, but I just said screw it and am running my single speed mountain bike for commuting till the snow stops for the season. Very few issues with this setup ever.

I have the luxury of being able to bring my bike into my office, so things get to dry out at least once a day. No freezing issues to date, but gunk in the derailleur does happen (making for lazy shifting). I have disc brakes on my commuter; no issues to date. I'd say keeping rust under control is the biggest headache.

FWIW, I've had most of the above troubles on one bike or another, and most recently on the motorcycle's underparts, namely the foot brake and shifter, which both require pushing one way with a foot and expecting a spring to pull it back, which it can't.

+1 to what @Benzo said. Most issues I've experienced have been with stuff freezing up/rusting up when I got to work and having issues on the way home w/ shifting.

You don't need a hose outside this time of year. Leave a bucket of soapy water inside next to the door you bring the bike into. Before you bring the bike in, hit it with a brush (tampico if you can get one) and bring it inside. If the bike is outside full time don't do this.

A big squirt gun will do instead of a hose, inside..

One of those hand pump garden sprayer's that you use for fertilizer or pesticides works as well. Just gotta keep it somewhere above freezing. Nice to have right by the door to spray off your bike before bringing it inside. I have a 3 gallon one and use it all the time. Also nice to take for after a mountain bike ride to wash off all the accumulated mud and gunk.

When starting a 10 degree ride last night, a friend looked at my muddy bike and commented, don't you wash that? I said "meh" and laughed. 5 seconds later he was cursing up a storm. His nicely washed and maintained bike couldn't shift. Water had got into the cable housing and froze.

I have yet to do this, but the upcoming weather seems like a good reason to start: I would use (per Benzo) my garden sprayer filled with anti-freeze to wash off salt and gunk. My only worry is that it will freeze anyway (given the low temp, and vendor oversell on the operating range.) Note: I keep my bike in the garage. On the upside, I do get to keep my bike in the office so in theory it does get to dry out; well, on workdays. Has anyone actually tried this? (the anti-freeze) Another question: My derailleur shifting gets really random in the cold (even today). Should I just blast it with the White Lightnin' or do I have to do more (other than maybe some lube)?

Lubricate, lubricate, lubricate. I use some spray chain lube I got at Home Depot. I kind of think White Lightning is designed for warmer weather (it is sort of waxy, right, to keep from picking up dirt?) so you might need something lighter in the cold. I'm not sold on all this washing. Sure, if you bring it indoors, clean it up. But if it's outdoors and cold the chemical reactions that create rust are going to be running pretty slowly too, I'd guess. I wouldn't worry about washing when you need antifreeze.

Temperature shouldn't affect shifting. Sounds like there is water frozen somewhere, causing drag on the cable or preventing free movement of pivots. With even a tiny amount of ice in the housing, merely bending the housing slightly can cause the cable to get pulled or pushed. That makes shifting less precise or predictable.

I don't wash my bikes at all. I let any mud dry and then knock it off of the drivetrain at a later time. My mtb also has mud on the frame still from I don't know when. It helps that it is a single speed. It also helps that my daily commuter is a single speed. I use soapy water, then use simple green and water with the park tool chain cleaner every once in a while (just on the drivetrain, obviously), but I don't see a point in cleaning the whole thing all of the time. It seems to be working, as I mentioned, no issues with the brake cables that I run either. I do sometimes run a rag along the rim and brakes, but that is all. I should add that my husband is nice enough to break down the bikes once a year, thoroughly clean and regrease whatever needs it after rebuilding. It also helps to be able to have a beater bike with not so expensive parts that last a while in bad weather

Anti-freeze will work. It's pretty common in cross to use it in the pits. That said, it's an environmental disaster. It's hazardous to pets (tastes sweet, will kill them) so what are you going to do to contain the run off? If you can't keep a bucket indoors (and hence your bike) I don't see the point in washing.

Yeah, anti-freeze is toxic to animals and generally not good to introduce freely into the environment. I would think something to try would be windshield washer fluid in a hand pressure sprayer, and kept in a warm place to help melt ice. As far as I know WWF is just an alcohol mix that dissipates relatively harmlessly. Then as people have said, lube.

Ah, I see that I misidentified the fluid I was thinking of. It's not "antifreeze"; I should have specified "windshield washer fluid" (WWF). I agree that antifreeze (or the more familiar to me, "coolant") is a really bad idea: it's toxic to humans and animals. WWF contains alcohols, typically methanol. While still toxic, it will dissipate readily enough. In any case, up to now I've been generally waiting for warm days (>50°F) and using water to clean things off, maybe using a brush. The past week had me starting thinking about alternatives. I agree with @stefb that period zips with Simple Green, using the Park chain tool is a good idea (but lube asap!) I'll have to check into the shifter sluggishness a bit closer. It is the case that it noticeably increases maybe a mile out from my (warm) office...

If cold/ice/slop is bollixing up your shifting, the mostly vulnerable point is probably this little doodad under your bottom bracket, right where your front wheel throws the most crap and goo; Rather than randomly hosing the whole bike in hopes of getting to the problem, you could try focusing on cleaning and lubing that area and see if that gets to your problem.