DogBoy

noise is not that bad. Its kind of like the dapple of a light rain. If you are riding in snow, you will see dramatic improvement with either knobby tires or winter tires (tires with studs...assuming they are also knobby). Studs don't help much with snow, but if you slide down onto ice, they help out quite a bit. Its like the difference between a sidewalk with glare ice and one that has sand on the surface of the ice.

Anyway, studs help with ice, knobs help with snow. A slick studded tire (if such a thing exists) would probably not be any better in snow than what you see.

I usually never see snow deeper than 3-5", with a constant depth more like 1-2". The roads are clear very quickly, and if you ride in the tire-paths of cars, snow doesn't accumulate very much.