Problem is stud count. I ride Nokian Extremes and have never had an issue--- and we have no shortage of ice in the winter (more ice than snow).
The trouble with your logic is that if there is too much snow to reach the ice, your knobbies work just fine. You generally don't need studs at all for snow... which is effectively what you have in this case.
Originally Posted by
MJH2
Ara's got those at the shop. They're great tires, but the studs are fairly short and blunt. I could see why they'd be great on ice, but not necessarily snow-covered ice. Seems that once the snow was, maybe, half an inch thick, the studs probably wouldn't even be getting down to grip the ice. Cool tires, though.