By coincidence, shortly after I finished with my report, the second TC Winter tire arrived. This one is commonly advertised as TC Winter II, although the name of the tire is stated simply as TopContact Winter (now written together). The thread is very different from that of TC Winter I. The latter tire has a thread that is typical for touring tires and even Haka W106, with just a touch some finer mesh substructure. In TC Winter II a fine mesh structure dominates the whole thread. There is some medium-scale structure and no larger structure in the thread. Very interesting and contradicting the expectations of the ice-bike site as far as what thread would perform best in winter. My report on this update to the tire will obviously have to wait at least couple of weeks...
I look forward to the report. One thing, on the web i see no reference to the new tire having any of the "grit" in the rubber, can you tell if they have done away with that?