Winter Cycling - Good 700c tire for city riding

Hi All,

I was in search of a good set of tires for commuting in Chicago. Here is the bike in question:


Its a GT Transeo 4.0, I am running Specialized 700c x 28c Armadillos at 110 pounds. THese tires are slick, and can be a bit dodgy in the rain. No way they are going on snow and ice. The bike came with 700cx35 tires with lots of tread. And I read about a guy with the same bike who runs 700c x 40c on singletrack with this bike. I will put fenders and lights on it before the snow comes. I don't think a studded tire is neccesary for urban riding, even one of the hundred stud tires would be overkill right?

schwalbe has a line of tires call the marathons that come with a varity of sizes (starting as small as 700x25) all the way to a studded winter marathon. theyre really grippy in wet weather and moreor less bulletproof. i've had one flat o nmarathon plusses in over two years.

a pair of snow/studded tyres will cost as much as a good mud/snow tyre. For snow you might as well get nokian W106 because the treading for schwalbe marathons just aren't aggressive enough to push the snow out of the way.

if all you expect is light snow precipitation and just slushy wet roads, then marathons will hold up well.

Okay,

I originally planned to find an old rigid forked mountain bike, like a Specialized Hard Rock. But this bike is basically a mountain bike with 700c tires. Besides commuting, I may be at my place in Michigan sometimes. It would be nice riding on some unplowed dirt and gravel roads. Would the 106 suffice?

ah, nokian W106 is good at snow/ice. the tread design makes it slice into the snow to reach the pavement below. it's only OK on unplowed, rutted gravel roads. for that sort of stuff you'd want a tyre that floats over instead of one that digs in.

at least that's how I felt on the unplowed mups during last winter's record breaking snow fall.

Okay guys, well I think I am going with the 106's. I'm buying this thing a set of full fenders, a rack, and lights tomorrow, and when I get paid next month (I'm 16) I'll order myself a set of 106's. I can't wait for the snow now.

Just transferred my 7 rail Cetma front rack from my Varsity to the bike pictured above.

If you need a tire that is more for dr riding, but can handle some light snow and ice, then consider the Nokia A10. This tire comes in a 700c*32 size as well. These are great for people who ride in cities where the roads are well plowed, but need protection against riding in light snow and icy conditions. Riding resistance is supposed to be noticably less with the A10 over the W106. The W106 is an excellent all around tire. It will definitely get you through bad weather. For deep snow I would want wider than 35mm. I sometimes hit some deep snow right in my community if they haven't plowed much and find that to be extreamly challanging on the narrow tires. The rest of the time the tires are great and have gone through ice and a few inches of light snow without any problem.

Happy riding,
André

I did a search using 'Chicago snow tire' and this came up first..
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=361859&highlight=tire+chicago+snow

For the real "skinny" on winter tires, see Peter White's very good article on studded tires. Selecting the correct winter tire is mostly determined by the type of surfaces that you will be riding on and under what conditions.

Our weather in S/E Michigan is a lot like yours. I will be riding on paved roads that are well plowed. I expect those surfaces to be dry or wet concrete 80% of the time and the other 20%; they will be snow covered. Therefore, I have bought 700c x 35c Schwalbe Marathon Winters; a light tread design that should be adequate for occasional snow, low rolling resistance for cleaned plowed surfaces and carbide studs for those ice patches that are inevitable on concrete and asphalt. I also like the fact that they are Kevlar construction.

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/studdedtires.asp

Alfie