coldfeet

Yeah, thats the route I take, at least the Nose Creek part do you use a narrow plastic box on the back of your rack? If so you've certainly passed me several times. ( never claimed to be fast )

I used to go down the side by the weir, but had to can that till they stop digging up the river, now I go through Pearce Estates, then through the Bird Sanctuary bit, thats where I need the Ice Spikers.

Tequila Joe

I have a narrow trunk box between my panniers with a PB SuperFlash hanging off of it. Next time you see me, shout out "Tequila!", it'll be cool to chat with you. That weir construction has taken a looong time hasn't it?

I've been commuting on the Nose Creek MUP for years, maybe we've crossed paths often. Up until a few months ago, I commuted on a black Specialized Langster fixed gear and wore a black & yellow back pack.

T.J.

coldfeet

Doesn't ring any bells, I'm the slow git on a pannier equipped 80s Blue Miyata tourer, of late, it's been my habit to stop for some coffee on the bridge over the creek near the zoo. When the snow starts, I'll be using probably the same panniers on an unidentifiable kona running discs and rigid fork. Going out today to get some tape to wrap the frame, and start mounting tires, fenders and whatnot.

jeffpoulin

Nice to hear the marathon winters perform so well. I bought a set (700x35) last July since I regretted not having studs last winter. My touring bike has schwalbe marathon XRs which I love, and the winters are XRs with studs, so I figured they'd do well. No snow here yet (Geneva, Switzerland) and the first snow last year wasn't until December, so I still have awhile to wait.

electrik

The winter marathons are great for cutting through brown sugar, 0-5cm of fresh fall and icy side-streets. Primarily I use them for negotiating residential streets here that can become pure ice rinks because the plows don't salt them in time. They are not snow tires though, so bear this in mind and when dealing with loose pack snow they can be a bit tough to handle(26" ones anyways). Even with super-low psi, due to their low volume they are too bumpy on pedestrian heavy MUP trails that have not been plowed. Anyways, pretty relatively rolling resistance, protection from ice-patches and good enough to beat out anything but a "large" storm... if it snows enough though you should consider swapping in a tire with more "float" but that will only by 5% of your winter riding, I hope!

Tequila Joe

Update:

I bought a set of Nokian W240 for my CX bike so I now have practical comparisons & observations between the Nokian W240 and Schwalbe Marathon Winter. Take this with a grain of salt though, because the Schwalbe are on my hybrid commuter and the Nokians on my CX.

Firstly, the Nokian have marginally more rolling resistance than the Schwalbe. Although this was the assumption, I was a surprised by how well the aggressive tread rolled. The assumed trade off for the increased rolling resistance is better handling in deeper snow and the Nokian handle fresh fallen snow marginally better than the Schwlabe. Both tires seem equal in 1" of fresh snow but the Nokians are better in snow up to 2". Fresh fallen snow 4" deep gives both tires difficulty. Nokians are also marginally better in 1" of rootbeer slurpee type snow that has been packed and churned up by cars. In 2" of this stuff, both tires have difficulty and wash out if you turn to quickly or are off centered on your bike. On glare ice, they seem about the same but I haven't really pushed the Nokians yet. On dry pavement, the Schwalbe corner better, the knobs of the Nokians squirm a bit.

I lost 2 studs off the Nokians during the 50km break-in on dry pavement. One was off the front tire in the middle row and the other off the back tire from one of the side lugs. I haven't lost any more studs in the last 150km but i've been babying them. Time will tell. I haven't lost any studs off of the Schwalbe after more than 1000km.

Cheers!
T.J.

chasm54

Thanks for this review, I found it very helpful. We're experiencing an unusually early winter here, with more snow and ice already than we'd usually see in January/February, so I'm going with studded tyres for the first time. I've ordered the schwalbes and your description of their performance is very reassuring.

rumatt

Bump for additional opinions on these tires. I am having a hard time deciding.

I ride 95% on plowed or clear roads and trails: Favors Schwalbe marathon winter 35c.

But I occasionally hit stretches that are plowed very poorly and contain packed snow/ice/slush. Favors Nokian W240

Does anyone the W240's wish they'd bought less tire? Schwalbe folks seem pretty happy but I have several posts say they wish for better handling in snow. I am drawn to the 240's but if the Schwalbe's can get me through the rough spots there's no point in continually dragging the 240's around on the dry.

rumatt

Does anyone have any first hand experience in the rolling resistance difference between the W240 and the Schwalbe?

People claim it's higher, but is it really?

Cyclist0383

In my opinion it's much higher.

rumatt

Got my Nokian / Suomi W240's and took them for a ride. The amount of grip was fantastic. They handled the terrain below with no problems at all. It was pretty great..

On the negative side, there was a good amount of vibration coming up through the bars when biking at speed. That wasn't as fun. I'm not sure how much of that is from the studs vs the tread pattern, or how much better a Schwalbe would have ben. I was at 45-50 PSI so I'm going to drop it way down and see if that improves things.

Another observation is that I think the tires are more capable than the bike (it's cross bike). If I'm going to be doing any amount of biking over really rough surfaces with chunks of ice and snow it would be a lot more pleasant with a suspension and steeper head angle.

SeKoivisto

I was told, that Marathon Winter has less rolling resistance than Nokian W240 when I was buying a pair of tires. If I remember correctly, Nokian W240 was told to have a little bit better grip than Marathon Winter. My choice was Nokian because I didn't care about rolling resistance and favored grip.

Myosmith

I haven't used the Nokian, but I'm impressed with my first winter on the Schwalbe Marathon Winters (700 x 40). I didn't ride in a lot of deep snow except to try out the limits of the tires a couple of times. On ice or compacted snow they performed admirably, I never felt a lack of control when cornering or stopping. They did fine in 1-2" of fresh snow but I wouldn't want to rely on them on a heavily snow covered trail. IMHO a great winter street tire.