Originally Posted by
Burton
Several posters here have referenced: 'on dry roads'. My understanding is that studed tires were primarily aimed at snow and ice and that nonstudded winter tires perform better on dry roads so I swap wheelsets according to the road condition and temperature. Anyone else doing that?
You are right and I swapped wheelsets for a couple of years when I was rolling a single speed set up. It worked okay but eventually that got tiring too.
The thing is my commute has a few short sections that are in the shade almost all the time due to the low angle of the winter sun and they just don't melt off with any regularity, These are 100- 300 feet long, some downhills that can be shear ice all winter. The remaining 7 miles of the commute is dry blacktop a lot of the time. So not having the studs is treacherous, but only in a couple of areas. I've been on the ground in those spots more times than I care to mention, so... when the majority of my commute is dry, I roll with high presssures, when the weather turns and most of it get's covered I soften them up. But I keep the studs on and just grin and bear it.