Originally Posted by
Yellowbeard
A thought: none of us mentioned choice of routes yet. Definitely makes a difference. They use so much salt here that a plowed (main) road is usually ice free. Even during my icy winter I probably could've gone without studs if I'd avoided side streets and shortcuts. Shortcuts in particular were often solid ice, usually full of boot holes, while the main roads were gritty, salty, slushy but ultimately free of ice.
Slushy stuff never seems to cause me much trouble, my worst enemy around here is churned-up snowstorm snow.
Since I always ride with studs in the winter I cannot say from personal experience, but from threads on this topic in the past a number of people would usually chime in to comment that they thought this same thing - "I'm riding well plowed roads, there won't be any ice." Their stories then always ended with "So one day I hit this patch of black ice that they somehow missed, or formed after they plowed and salted or something and completely wipe out...".
That's kind of what I was alluding to with snow - a pile enough snow deep enough to cause you traction problems is dang visible. Ice...not as much, especially "black ice".
Funny story - after doing a bunch of research on studded tires, I finally bought a pair. I went riding, did the cringe expression coming up on some ice, but rode through it - traction was great. Rode through some more ice - also great. My dad got interested in winter riding, bought him some studded tires. Went riding. Even rode around a hockey rink for a bit just to try them out - awesome! Still had traction (not as good as a dry tire on dry pavement, but enough). That night I drove over to a friends house, walked around the back of my car, and bam! - almost fell flat on my ass on some ice. I saw the ice, but had totally forgotten that my shoes didn't have studs on them.
