My commute was 25 miles each way, 1400 feet (426m) of ascent each way, with no transit option. Last winter, a surprise blizzard rolled in during the week. My ride home took me 2.5 hours, rather than my usual 1:40, but I managed to stay upright the whole ride despite riding on slicks. Fixies and foul weather, better together!
Make sure to melt all that off and regrease the chain before rust sets in!
I went through two chains and a set of rotors this winter due to ice and salt.
Psssh. That chain got nothing and liked it! :D Okay, in all honesty, I would clean and lube the chain when it started making noise. But I would run it down until the chainring and cog were nubbins. Then swap in some new cheap replacement bits every two years or so.
Ice, sand, and salt separately are magical kryptonite to bike bits. Together, they are an anti-bicycle Voltron. There’s a very popular trail where I live and the surface is mostly a super fine rock dust that absolutely chews up bicycles. It’s so uncannily destructive that it defies comprehension.
I learned the hard way this winter to store my bike indoors instead of in my barn so that the ice can melt between uses. I don’t think I’ll go through parts as quickly next year now that I’ve got a better game plan.
Last winter was so much easier because we didn’t have stretches of months at a time below freezing, and weeks at a time below saline freezing.
Salt, ice, and unsealed bottom bracket: creaking every 2-3 weeks!