Originally Posted by
dscheidt
You can disagree all you want. The actual performance data, though, is clear. Top quality studless tires are better, except on ice, in a very narrow range of temperatures, centered on freezing. Twenty years ago, that wasn't true, but technology has improved.
The things that racers use on frozen lakes are different, with much longer spikes. They work, but destroy pavement.
Being an engineer, I get data. Being an engineer, I also get how data doesn't always match reality. I've ridden studded tires on ice from above freezing to near zero fahrenheit and there is little difference in how they grab (always good). I also live in a climate where we get major ice from November until April and where we get *real* black ice on the roads from car exhaust because it's too cold for salt or calcium chloride to work. If studded tires were allowed here, we'd all be using them on our cars as well as snowmobiles (for those of us that have then, I don't).
There is a difference if you have perfectly flat ice - think ice skating rink - but that isn't what icy roads or trails are like.
J.