Snow Biking @ Team Estrogen!

[Duck on Wheels]

Some folks bike here with "studded" tires on their bikes, but I don't trust that. On a car, the studs don't help in slushy snow, they only really help on certain kinds of ice. And doesn't it take a good bit of weight for the studs to "bite" into the ice? Still, the few cyclists I've seen out there in the snow seem to be doing all right. My doctor that I had an appointment with this morning said he'd biked to work (I came running in 10 minutes late with yak trax on my boots). He said you just need those tires, and the studs have to be not only in the centre tread but also up the sides a bit.

[lph]

Duck, you have been missing out - studded tires are the only way to go!

I've been riding on studded tires since our first and very brief encounter with snow and sub-freezing temperatures in late November, and feeling like a right idiot most of the time. They add friction, bad handling and certainly add weight to my poor bike, and we've scarcely seen snow for weeks. But I've finally got used to the idea that everything just goes more slowly and now I can ride with impunity over ice that have pedestrians crawling. In fact, if you're riding up a steep icy hill you have to be pretty darn sure you can make it up, because it's a LOT harder to stay upright on your feet if you have to stop and get off.

I have several hundred studs, along the middle and liberally along the sides. They don't help much in thick snow, though, once it packs up in the tires you're skidding along like everyone else.