Conti VS nokian
 

So, My current tires are no longer reliable. I bought a set of cheap ones 2 winters ago, and they've had their run...

Right now, I'm looking at either the
-CONTINENTAL Spike Claw 240 Studs
-NOKIAN Extreme 296 Studs

The nokians are of course much more expensive (TWICE the price) than the Conti, but I'm wondering if it's really much more secure than the contis to be worth it's price.

Take in mind here that with Montreal's winters, I may be doing a lot of pavement (I know I did last winter), so studd durability is a factor. But there's a possibilty I might have to do a lot of snow/ice as well.

I need:
-safe when needed
-Durable studs
-good price/quality ratio

Anyone tried both tires perchance? :)

I'm not familiar with the Conti's, are they tungsten studs? If not then Nokian all the way. I have the 296's and they have mind blowing grip in all winter conditions. Only down side is that they weigh a ton and are unbelievably slow rolling on dry pavement.

If you have a lot of dry pavement to contend with and decent distance that you must traverse then perhaps the Mount and Ground would be a better choise. I can live with the 296's as I only ride about 12km per day in the winter.

I'm about 65 miles south of Montreal. I know all about the lack of snow last year.

My two year old Nokians 294 extremes ( http://www.suomityres.fi/bike/images/extreme294.jpg held up pretty dam good on all that dry pavement. I think they will last for another two years.

I don't have the spike claw from Continental.http://www.conti-online.com/generato...e_claw_en.html They do weight less then 294.

294-950 grams---294 studs

spike claw-900 grams---240 studs or 840 grams with 120 studs

Thats not much and they look very much like the 294s The one thing I see the spike claw looks like it would have better snow shedding ability with fewer studs and the knob's are spread out farther.

Bennyben,

The Nokians are the only studded tires with carbide spikes, so they are the only ones that will last through many Winter, especially when riding on asphalt. In other words, the Continental may be as good or even better when new and the Schwalbe (relatively cheap at MEC if your bike uses 26") is very very good, but only as long as you ride in snow or ice, i.e. on packed snowmobile trails or iced-up lakes, for example.

For riding on Montréal streets, I'd suggest you stay with Nokians, but rather go with the Mount & Ground (160 studs) or the Hakkapeliitta (106 studs). I have the 700c Happapeliittas at home and, when I install them, they are great for the few days we have iced ruts as well as for ice patchs at night, and the thread design bites well in snow or sleet. They even work well on the chemin Olmstead (the gravel road on Mt. Royal), which is usually only partly cleared. And on the day we had something like 5 cm of ice under 5 cm of water in the streets, I had no problem riding to work, except for water spray, that is.
The only thing to remember is to be careful when you put your foot on the ground. Spikes are not as effective when you offload the bike... and you don't have any under your feet.

BTW, you have all the dimensions and explanations of the different models on Peter White's website.

Great link to a review below.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/article2340.html

I went with the Extreme 294 based on this article.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...4/IMG_1712.jpg