Riding in the snow

[lph]

Over here studded tires are de rigeur once winter comes, not som much for dry snow, which can be ridden on safely with regular mtb tires if you're lucky and careful, but for ice. We regularly get wet or damp snow that compacts to ice as soon as anyone even walks on it, so riding without studded tires is an accident waiting to happen. Even dry snow can get very slippery unless it's very cold.

I've mostly used the Nokian Extremes, which are heavy duty, but have studs also along the sides. Very useful when I need to weave my way through badly plowed sidewalks and messy roads. I tried switching to lighter tires with studs only down the middle, but felt they were only good on flat, clear surfaces. Now I'm using Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro, which are at least as heavy duty as the extremes. All studded tires will pack with snow and "skate" if there's a dry powder layer on top of something harder.

I see people downtown on cleared roads riding cross bikes, presumably with studs since we're inundated with snow at the moment. They must be using fairly lightly studded tires.

PS. If you have good balance and aren't sure if you need studded tires, just put on on, in front. If the rear wheel slips the bike may go down from under you, but you won't go over headfirst.

PPS. You can hack studded tires by putting lots of zipties around your rims. I don't think they last very long, but it's a cheap way to test it out :-)