Even in Minnesota you don't need studded tires every day during the winter for commuting. In fact most days you probably don't but you wouldn't know that by this past week. In Minneapolis, a lot of people keep on riding their skinny tire road bikes all year, - though I'm not one of them.

If you're not commuting every day and can sort of pick and choose the days, then just stick to the days with good road conditions.

I probably wouldn't do a 32 mile commute because I'm chronically short of time as it is and it wouldn't matter even if it was in the summer. The other problem is that for me that would be a long time riding in the dark. I don't mind it for an hour or so but I think it would turn into drudgery pretty quick.

I might do it if I thought of it more of as a recreational ride that happened to take me to work.