Originally Posted by
ThermionicScott
There are a couple of "lessons learned" to take from this: one is not to use tires that just have the studs going down the center (Nokian W106's?), and the other is not to lean the bike as aggressively as you do in the summer. Moving the center of gravity away from over the wheels is just begging to have the bike slide out from under you.
Yep, those would be the lessons. Mostly.
Those plus the fact that ice can fool you in that what you think is mostly bare pavement with good traction can, in fact, be pretty slick. This was not a black ice condition, but I expected more traction at that point than was actually available.
I do like the tires most days though. They are my first set of studded tires and they are two of my favourite things ever. But no tire is going to be ideal under the many and varied conditions one encounters in winter. These tires are at their best on hard frozen snow pack. They are OK on ice. They have no float when things start to get soft. They are heavy pushing on dry pavement. Fortunately - hard frozen packed snow is my most common winter condition here. For my next set of winter tires though, I think I will opt for wider tires with more studs on the sides of the tread.
That, ... or a fat bike ...