Firstling

With Salsa and Surly both building fatbikes my interest has been renewed. What is holding me back (besides the chief financial officer) is that I am used to riding on ice with studded tires.

Is there anyone out there with a Pug who has also ridden a bike with studs? how do they compare to each other?

Would there be any point to putting studs on a surly tire for ice biking?
or would it be a complete waste of time.

irclean

I don't care how fat a tire is; if it encounters ice it's gonna slide. You could use DIY studs on an Endomorph tire, but that's a lot of money to spend on a tire that you're going to "ruin" with studs. Alternatively, both Schwalbe and Nokian make studded tires over 2 inches wide... not as big as the Surly tires, but a big footprint nonetheless. Best of all they'll fit in most MTB frames (although full-coverage fender fit could pose a problem). If Surly ever decides to make a studded version of the Endomorph then I'll be Pug shopping, too!

GriddleCakes

From what I understand, the lugs on the endomorph aren't deep enough to hold a stud. We've got quite a few of the fat buggers running around here in the winter, and none of them run studs. When I asked the guys at Speedway Cycles (specializing in fat tired bikes and home of the Fatback, a locally designed Pugsley alternative), they said that there just wasn't enough rubber to stud the tire.

The Pugs riders that I've talked to admit that it's a snow bike, not an ice bike. That is, it doesn't perform any better on the ice than any other non-studded tire.

Hezz

My understanding is that the 4 inch wide tires with wide rims work really well on snow at low pressures and OK but not great on ice. You can run them down to 5-10 psi if you have to and they will make a large footprint which helps to some degree. If you have a fat bike you may be able to run an Endomorph on the front and the widest studded tire you can find on the back. Probably around 2.5 inches wide. Any tires with deep enough treads can be studded. And if your willing to sacrifice the tire there are ways to stud any tire from inside the casing.