I have a commuter with rim brakes and a "good bike" with disk brakes. Used the good bike while the beater was being fixed up for a few weeks last winter, and totally messed it up in the snow and slush. We don't get extreme cold, but rain, snow and a lot of fluctuation around the freezing point. I'm keeping the good bike away from these conditions now. My main beef with disk brakes is that they're harder to fix, while I can troubleshoot and fix rim brakes with my eyes closed. My commuter just gets so much regular hard use that it has to be easy maintenance.