Riding in the snow

[Melalvai]

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 :-)

That only works if you have disc brakes.

I have studded tires but this winter I finally decided they weren't worth it. Even in this unusually (for this decade) snowy winter, there are far more days without snow & ice on the roads than there are with. I'd use them for a few days after the snow and then it would melt and I'd be stuck with the studded tires for 2 weeks or more before the next snow. So I took them off and that was fine.

I biked for several years through the winter before I got studded tires but the winters this decade have been so mild. I always said as long as the roads were clear enough to drive on, they were clear enough to bike on. That has been mostly true. Of course, the bike lane may not be as clear as the rest of the street, but I just ride in the street in that case.

[velo]

Well, I don't ride my mountain bikes much and I have hard tail and a soft tail, so maybe the way to go is to get some studded tires for one of them. Our DPW is not good about clearing roads so the cars end up packing down the snow into ice slicks. I'm leery because I seem to come upon these patches suddenly and have had a few near misses. Thanks so much for the info.