Originally Posted by gmacrider
I live in calgary and this will be my 5th winter of bike commuting. Each winter there's only been about 5 or so days where I would've liked studs, the rest of the time traction is fine. So I haven't really felt the need to buy studs.
However, you don't get Chinooks in Winnipeg to melt the ice, so I suspect you may really appreciate some studs, at least on the front wheel. You might consider getting a cheap spare front wheel and putting studs on it. If conditions look slippery, just switch wheels and off you go.
I'm with you man. I've always entertained the thought but studs are just too slow unless your on ice most of the time and its not the case on my commute (although dropping down into the valley is treacherous right now). The spare wheel is the way to go, although the expensive way to go, but hey, you just need to buy a crappy wheel since winters have a way making all wheels crappy fast.