gerv 

If no wind or tide were involved, the sea would freeze over just like a lake. However, normally the ice is very rough. You would have a difficult time even walking on it.

I'd stick to fresh, inland water if I were you.

rodar y rodar

That`s what I was thinking, but apparently people do bike and even skate on it. Must be a very slow freeze that slows down the movement before it gets solid? Or a very well protected bay?

mikewille

There's a guy in my neighborhood who does this, his driveway will be spotless, but all
winter long there's a plateau of frozen debris in the street blocking his driveway. Moron.

noglider 

That's illegal in my town.

PaulRivers

I will freely and immediately admit I have not read through the studded tire thread, as I personally am in a position where I just prefer to buy them due to the time/cost tradeoff for me, personally.

And people have been making and using home made studded tires for offroad use for decades, sure. If anyone was going to put them on their mountain bike and just do off-pavement riding, I would absolutely agree that it's a cheaper way to go if you're willing to put the time into it.

But you're the first person, outside of the studded tires thread, that I've read claim that their home made studded tires -
1. Don't have more rolling resistance on often-bare pavement
2. Last more than a year on often-bare pavement
3. Also provide similar traction on often-bare pavement, or on really icy pavement

Traditional advice has been that non-carbide studs (or the steel screws one would use with home made winter tires) wear down on often-bare pavement to fast - much faster than the tire wears out, and at a dangerous speed because you don't really notice they've worn out until they've completely worn down and you slip on ice that you expect them to grip on and go down.

It also seem obvious that if you have screws sticking out of the tire and coming into contact with the ground, and those screws are much bigger than the little studs on commercial tires, that you will have significantly high rolling resistance.

You've said that your home made studs are on the edge of the tire where they don't come into contact with the pavement unless you're turning, so they don't wear out and there's no additional rolling resistance. If that's the case, I don't really understand how they provide as much grip - what happen if you hit the brakes on ice without any studs touching the ground? What happens if you're trying to bike up a hill that's covered in ice? If you lose traction, start to lean, then your studs hit the pavement, how much less stability do you have vs carbide studs that stay in contact with the pavement?

I also don't know what kind of surfaces you're riding on versus what I, or your average winter commuter, would be riding on. If your roads or the paths you ride are rarely fully cleared of snow (to the pavement), that would result in a lot less wear than the majority of us who spend > 50% of our ride time on bare pavement with no ice or snow. And perhaps your routes don't happen to have hills you have to go up covered in glaze ice (isn't a regular thing here, but it does happen every year in the spring when snow melts then freezes) or there are other aspects of your route that are significantly different than mine or regular commuters.

I also don't know anything about the level of risk you're comfortable with. A couple of weeks ago there was a thread where people kept saying "Oh, you don't actually need studded tires in the winter, you'll be fiiiiiiiiine, I do it all the time, I fall down a couple times I year but it's not a big deal". I think these guys are the same mountain biker types that are comfortable breaking a bone every couple of years - just the price of the spot.

On the other end of the spectrum, there was a thread this week where someone just wanted to bike across campus, completely on plowed and maintained campus trails, and felt they "needed" Nokian Extremes in order to be safe, any less studs or smaller tire wouldn't be "safe" enough...

So yes, while I do appreciate all the advice, pictures, and detailed instructions you've posted, I haven't heard much other feedback about riding home made studs for the typical commuter from other people on this forum and I feel like the subject needs some more experience and opinions before it's anything other than "enthusiast" advice.

JohnBrooking

Like: Not having to scrape a windshield in the morning!

SortaGrey

I realize your just havin' some fun... butttt.... take a real bad fall just once.. have some 4 wheeler just about run over you... you layin' there wondering who shot the pigeons.. if there's really an afterlife... .

Ice is fun for skating... ice fishin'.. making sculptures.. chilling my drink... but for bikes it SUCKS.

Someone who's taken a BAD fall.................