The harshness of winter riding is undeniable for any Minnesotan (or the bike of a Minnesotan). We've had a lot of snow this winter and with the snow comes a lot of ice in the gears. Frequently I find that the chain won't engage a gear I shift into because there is too much ice on it. The technique for dealing with this is to pedal rather gently to shave off the ice. If you hammer down on the pedals you'll likely just skip over the gear and never get the ice off the gear.

One way to deal with this is to skip the multiple gears and go with a single speed set up. Local customer (nationally known musician) Ann Reed went the single speed route this fall.