Carbon vs Aluminium – Who Built the Best Winter Bike?

Winter bikes are excellent for those of us who like to ride outside through the colder months. They can save your fancy summer bike from being battered by the harsh winter weather which, if you apply ‘cyclist maths’, might save you money in the long run.

Building a winter bike is also brilliant fun, but would you buy off the peg like Felix, or pluck whatever you can find from the parts bin like Liam?

And is carbon the frame material for you, or does the dependability of aluminium get your vote?

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:41 Frameset
02:11 Groupset
04:34 Wheels
07:03 Mudguards
07:58 Lights
09:26 Outro

Image Credits:
Carol Yepes – Getty Images
DrPixel – Getty Images

You Have The Wrong Bike, Here’s Why
→ https://youtu.be/PqOWH2EVZZQ

Jack’s Top 5 Cheap Winter Cycling Hacks
→ https://youtu.be/jCjHjbRp6hs

Best Kit For Winter Cycling | Jack & Joe’s 8 All-Time Favourites
→ https://youtu.be/FsjmyOUOkSM

Who Built The Best Winter Bike? | Joe vs Jack | BikeRadar Diaries
→ https://youtu.be/_acrf8v8k2w

The Perfect Winter Road Bike – Building Jack’s All-City Mr Pink
→ https://youtu.be/Dmu123bLtx0

How Not To Ride A Winter 24-Hour Race – Kielder Chiller 24
→ https://youtu.be/t9e6jGsp8bE

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Winter bikes if you ride outside during the winter then they will save your nice bike from being destroyed by the terribly cold conditions but which approach should you take when building one up do you start with an aluminum frame like I did or do you get a fancy

Carbon bike like me why not dive into the comments to tell us who built the best winter bike and of course don’t forget to let us know where we got it wrong before we start on the frame details don’t forget to subscribe and if you enjoy this video give it a like we

Do appreciate it right let’s start down here the main difference between the bikes is the frame material I have aluminum while Felix has gone all Posh with carbon fiber but carbon for winter Felix well I will say there’s absolutely nothing wrong with carbon fiber in the winter while it might be seen as

Delicate by some Modern carbon frames are perfectly capable of standing up to whatever winter throws at them carbon brings a host of benefits and this canondale synapse frame which I bought a few years ago is tuned to offer plenty of comfort and that is ideal for winter

When a lot of surfaces tend to be at their worst this Frame is also pretty light and stiff making it a bit easier for me to ride the climbs when well my fitness isn’t at its peak while Felix’s carbon frame is indeed very fancy there is a certain dependability that I love

From an aluminum frame it feels solid it feels ready to tackle the winter with me and while I love riding my super light Athos in the summer part of what makes it feel so good is that my winter bike is quite heavy yes it does feel a little

Bit harsher but this is mostly mitigated by The Wider tires that I like to use in the winter I also love this straight top tube because well it’s easy to fit a massive frame pump underneath and I swapped that for a skin suit which is a very good deal in my Opinion there’s also a big difference between the group sets that we’ve chosen although they are both mostly altegra 11speed I’ve got the Mechanical group set here which is ideal for my pensent for super long rides I haven’t felt the need to change it it’s got a compact

Chain set and a huge 1134 tooth cassette on the back providing much easier gears the compact chain set is the canondale SI this brakes are an obvious winter bike choice for me and I’ve got these 160 mil rotors some of the eagley among you might have noticed already but the

Calipers are in facto 105 not altegra now what happened was the original calipers needed replacing after about 3 years these 105 versions I have to say they still look every bit as premium as the oldgas in my opinion and basically the same performance now before you call my Shimano altegra di2 electronic group

Set excessive you need to know that this is a proper part been build the rear deria did 20,000 km on my old Canon del Super 6 and I put another 10,000 on it with this winter bike the shifters come from an old cyclocross bike the cassette

Used to be on my hill climb bike and the power toax NG Eco power meter has seen years of use I think the only thing that I actually bought for this build was the Silver 105 brake calipers not bad I’d say I have to say electronic shifting is

An absolute godsend in the winter my hands get quite cold and being able to change gear with a simple click is much easier my gearing is a 5336 at the front and 11 to3 to cassette at the back that’s plenty for me on most Hills I have to admit though I was

Crying out for a smaller gear and I tried to ride up a 15% gradient uh with a full backpack I’m sure it’s I don’t know character building maybe yeah I’m not surprised yeah yeah anyway I’ve come to really enjoy some stopping power so I’ve got a 160 mm rotors up

Front when it comes to Wheels our bikes are very very similar carbon wheels prove themselves in 2010’s paru and now that disc breakes are a thing you’re not going to destroy your rims by riding them through a winter like you might do with a rim brake bike I’ve got a set of

The DT Swiss ERC 1400 diecut Wheels with tubeless schi Pro one tires in a 28 mm size I think this combination is absolutely amazing it’s really good for reducing the amount of effort I have to put in when turning the gears through the winter the rims are 45 mm deep and

Optimized for 28 mm tires they’re pretty light still at just under 1500 G for the pair whilst they offer an aerodynamic advantage over shallower Rim profiles the tires held up well although I’ve not put a huge amount of wear onto them yet so the pro ones I’ve got are very fast

And you’ll see them equipped on T to France bikes despite this though I found them to be surprisingly good at avoiding punctures yeah it might be a bit silly to have such premium tires on a bike to ride through the winter but with combination of these tires and wheels I

Think this bike really comes alive even though there are mud guards fitted to the bike tuis can be a hassle but this is a great combination in my experience just make sure you use plenty of sealant especially when it gets really cold while the winter is often a time for a

Slower pace of riding I use this bike to commute to work and I want to spend as little time doing that as possible so I’ve got some fancy Arrow hoops from hunt these are actually the wheels that featured in our tubless installation pro video so naturally I’ve got them set up with inner

Chupes there is good reason for this Felix uh I promise Clincher only tires are often cheaper and as a bike mechanics in Years Gone by I rate my tire changing abilities if I do get a flat then I know I can change it and I’m going to be

Rolling again in a few minutes tubist requires a bit too much upkeep in the winter for my liking so I’d rather just stick to my trusty inner tubes I think in this one we’re going to agree to disagree uh but what do you think let us know obviously in the comments on road Tubeless both of us Felix also swear on one vital accessory for a winter bike mud guards they keep you dry they keep the people that you’re riding with dry what is not to love yep and we’re both recommending full length ones too I’ve got the hugely popular SK k s blue Ms

Which are made of plastic they keep me dry they’re pretty quiet and I think they look pretty classy in this matte black finish adding weight to my bike is a set of Full Metal Kinesis fend off guards these were designed specifically for the Four Season disc frame set and

As a result they fit perfectly the coverage is good even over the 30 mm Tire on the rear and there are also holes down here so that you can make your own mud flaps Both of us also have lights because winter riding often means cycling after dark these are big lights too up front I have exposures tooro Mark 14 it is an absolute beast and at the back I have a couple of magic shine lights the big one

Is the CME 300 and the little one is from the 150 combo if you want some help with buying bike lights then why not check out our buyer guide there’ll be a link at the end of the video meanwhile I have the magic shine RN 3000 for the front lights and

I’ve got the exposure boost front light for commuting at the back I’ve got the matching exposure boost rear light the Boost lights are excellent and you can read my review on these on bike radar.com the link is in the description the magic shine light to be fair has

Done me very proud and it’s even survived a 200 m ride through the night and then Felix we come to the all important factor the color you might think that a dark color is best for hiding the dirt that comes with winter rides here in the endlessly rainy UK but

Felix and I have both gone for bright colors just makes me happy yeah orange for you and a very very dashing shade of pink for me actually different shades of pink depending on where you are on the frame I think this was a Friday job well there are two different takes on Winter

Road bikes neither of us will agree on who built the best bike obviously so we’re going to leave that down to you to decide was it the lightweight carbon machine from Felix or there are the parts been build from me let us know in the comments below before you go make

2024 the year that you subscribe to the channel give us a like if you enjoyed the video and we will see you next time again more that yeah