Originally Posted by Machka
I'm not trying to be difficult here, but I can't see how studs would work in frost and freezing rain - there's nothing for the studs to dig into.
Freezing rain coats the road with black ice. A clear frost layer on the road also provides pruchase for the studs. Freezing rain that freezes on you but not the road will not be helped by studs, nor will a rime ice coating on the road (opaque frost).
Maybe your definitions of freezing rain and frost are different from mine. But you are right -- if the studs can't dig in to something, even a thin layer, they provide little benefit.
There is another instance where the studs won't help. Suppose the snow on top of the ice is dense enough and sticky enough to keep the studs from digging into the ice.
I basically think of my Nokians as winter tires. The combination of a knobby tread and studs will provide benefit in nearly all slippery winter conditions, even though the studs themselves do not always give a benefit. There seem to be other knobby winter tires with a hydrophyllic tread compund that lack studs but do well in snow.
It really does not sound as if the studs would give nearly the benefit where you are as they do where I am.
Where they really shine is black ice. Black ice becomes a smooth, dreamlike, delightful riding surface. We get a lot of black ice, whereas it may be rare up there.
Paul