Originally Posted by jharte
The tricky thing about studding narrow tires is that the tires won't ride on top of the snow. I studded a pair of 26x1.5 knobbies and rode them in the snow to work. The tires seemed to find every frozen rut. I went down a couple of times.
I have also studded 26x1.95 knobbies. With a wider, more agressive tread, the tires have an easier time riding on top of the snow...
Using narrow tires successfully depends a lot on the type of snow. I have used quite successfully 700x32 slicks a few times (with a real width of 29 mm, or 1 1/8") in snow. The 1,5" knobbies don't dig as efficiently in snow and tend to float only sometimes, so they would work fine on roads but not offroad (I presume, because I don't offroad that much and not at all in winter). Narrow tires fare best either in light fluffy snow (i.e. easy to cut) or when there is a layer of wet snow on unfrozen ground. In that situation, the best tires are those that allow contact with asphalt.
One small detail: most people who ride in snow with narrow tires talk about 700x23 to 28 slicks maximum. IOW, your 26 x 1.5" would be considered as wide tires by those folks!