Rick Conroy, who characterizes himself as a frequent Bixi rider, finds the bikes good for wintry conditions.

“They’re built like a — they’re tanks, you know?”

The 700 Bixi bicycles docked at 80 terminals in the city’s downtown core are all-season bikes, built to withstand the scorching temperatures of this city’s summers along with the mercurial plunges in the winter.

That’s down from the 900 that roll along city streets in the summer.

The frame is aluminum, which doesn’t rust and is light, making the bicycles easier to manoeuvre. The tires are thick and were selected to withstand Montreal’s often bumpy road conditions.

Big tires, easy to handle, and good brakes unaffected by moisture are the features that prompted Conroy’s comical characterization of the bicycles. And every bike, designed by Michel Dallaire Design Industriel Inc., for public bike systems in cities such as Montreal, Ottawa, London and Toronto, has the same structural elements.

“This bike, like any other bike, if it is maintained properly, it will have a very long life,” said Michel Dallaire, president and founder of the Montreal-based company.

Maintenance is in the hands of Bixi Toronto. Winter-specific maintenance consists of replacing the bikes’ chains, which rust due to the water and salt on the roads. Aside from that, upkeep is done on a regular basis, regardless of the season, said Michael Felice, operations manager.

Crews will visit 20 to 30 stations a day, he estimated, looking for bikes in need of repairs, which are done on the spot or in the warehouse, depending on the complexity of the problem.

Because the bicycles are constantly changing locations, not all of them are serviced every day. About 1,000 trips are taken a day during the winter. 4,000 a day are recorded in the summer months. But users can signal problems with the bikes to the main office.

Felice said complaints about the system are largely regarding its scope — the bike stations are only located east of Bathurst, west of Parliament and south of Bloor — not the condition of the bikes.

Conroy uses the bikes at least once a week. The service’s limited network decreases how often he uses it, but if he’s heading into the downtown core he will plan to take a Bixi.

“A big advantage is I don’t have to worry about maintenance and salt damage,” he said.

Sean Yilmaz, a Bixi member for just under a year, said he ventured out on a Bixi in snowy conditions over the holidays and found navigating turns on the bike to be difficult.

But he usually doesn’t use the bikes when it’s snowing, and last winter was particularly mild, so he didn’t have problems getting around.

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Yilmaz noted the handling would probably be the same or worse on any other bike, and extolled the value of the system.

“It really changes the way I see the city,” he said.