I live in Sunapee and ride year round, just rode 83 miles yesterday and am going to have over 85 today. August 2011-December 2012 I rode nothing less than 1500 miles each month. I've not used studded tires once and haven't had any kind of problems. Not even while riding with 3-4 inches of freshly fallen/current falling snow. The only problems I've had is always getting caught by snowplows right as I get to the leading edge of a guardrail...never fails. Fortunately, they are nice and wait for me to get past the guardrail before they pass me. I will fess I am further north and in drier snow and less ice so they aren't as necessary around here. Where you have ice to deal with I would agree with you totally on the need for them. Around here I just don't see ice very often...other than on the frozen lakes