Oh right. How quickly I forget the challenges of winter riding! This is another reason north road bars may prove to be a good choice for the bike I'm building.

There are a lot of delivery people in NYC on bikes. Many of them make their own pogies by just putting several plastic bags on their grips.

Ugh, ouch. How did it go back? If you have sheer ice studded tires stick to it no problem, but on roads you often have a lot of crap - snow that slides around, ruts on the road, etc.

I'd go with fenders if I could because that nasty black stuff you get on the road in the winter - that's nasty to get thrown up onto clothes.

In my experience - and people have disagreed with me and I don't feel that I have the experience to say I'm sure they're wrong - but in my experience there's been 2 types of bikes that are good for winter riding (in a northern climate like minnesota or illinois).

1. 700c bike with thin fulled studded tires like Schwalbe Marathon Winter's. I prefer straight bars, because it's easier to handle bumps and stuff (same reason mountain bikes have straight bars). If your roads are all well plowed and you only ride when the road are cleared curly bars might be fine to.

I tried fatter studded tires - like I said others have disagreed with me and I don't have a ton of experience with - but I did buy 2" studded tires and personally wasn't a fan. In snow they slide around a lot more (the skinnier 35c cuts through to the road surface). They didn't really handle more snow any better ime. Maybe they're better over rutted roads, but I didn't get much of a chance to test them with that before I went back to the 35c's.

2. Fat Bike / Pugsely / etc. In my limited experience this tire was fat enough to make a difference. Still floats on snow, but it's so fat it floats around slowly and is easier to control. I rode one on sheer ice (no studs) and while it did not stay upright on sheer ice, when it would start to fall over it was a slow enough fall that I could easily get a foot down (impossible with skinny tires on ice, when it goes down it's down).

I see a ton of fat bikes in the winter here in MN, and I can see why. A Pugsley still can't handle more than 6"-12" of loose snow, but it can handle most everything else.

That's my 2 cents...

[MENTION=131376]PaulRivers[/MENTION], thank you! You made me feel better about my current design. You may not have seen the thread I started last winter. I revived it yesterday.

[h=2]Teach me how to ride in snow[/h]
Now, what 32mm or 35mm studded tire do you recommend? Browsing Amazon, I see Nokian has one called Hakkapelliitta, and I had tires of that name (also made by Nokian) on my car many years ago. The price is more attractive than Schwalbe's. I see there is a tire called Innova. Never heard of it.

You just need ice, common in most of the US were they have winter. I like the nokian 700 x 35, and 26 x 1.95 for my winter commuters. YRMV.

MA rider chiming in here. NYC correct? The 700 x35's should do you fine. I'm assuming the snow and ice are occasional with lots of melting. I use the nokian hakkapelitta( sp) in 700 x 35 on one of my dedicated winter commuters. Works well. They have tungsten carbide studs, that's what you want. I currently have 4 and 6 years on 2 sets of studs. The Innova are junk, plain steel and throw away after a year. The Hakkas are heavy, like 900 grams, sort of like pedaling in wet tar, but work very well. The advantage of a mt bike with say 2" tires and a front sus fork would be rutted and bumpy bike paths. I switch out the bikes depending on my freeze thaw cycles and snow fall. Also play with the psi some, less air for more ice. @ 235 lbs, I run between 30 and 45 psi. The side walls are very beefy, like a downhill type tire.

Correct, NYC. Normally, stuff doesn't stay frozen for more than a week, but we had a period of almost 60 days last winter without a thaw. And I know you had it much, much worse last winter. Anyway, I think I'd rather be over prepared than under prepared this winter. I see the Nokian A10 is available in 32mm, so maybe that's good. I'll measure the frame and fork and take a guess at what the maximum tire width is.

Thanks for telling me about the Innova tires. I will avoid them. I understand that carbide studs are the only kind of studs worth having.

I would avoid the A-10, not very many studs. maybe a user could chime in here.

Wrong answer for Chicago.

One patch of black ice and you will go down hard and probably not be able to ride for several weeks while you heal. The only thing required is temperatures below 32 degrees.

Bikes and smooth ice are a nasty combination (if you don't have studs)

It is easier to ride in the deep winter because there is less ice. If there are freeze/thaw cycles than ice can be a nightmare. But if you rode in the winter in freezing conditions, you would know that! ;-)

Good info Paul

I think part of the fat bike appeal is that they are slow at everything, even falling.

I like skinny tire 700c wheels when its not too rutted, because they cut through the snow to the road surface. However, if it is rutted fatter tires (mtb) can handle that type of terrain better.

A10s are awful. Regardless of studs, the rubber is rigid and slippery. They have worse traction than non-studded tires on thermoplastic road markings.

Avoid the Innova. Last I knew it used plain steel studs. Okay for off-road, but they wear out quickly on the road.

My studded tires are Nokian Hakkapeliitta W106 in 700x35. Going into their 10th winter with little wear.

Going by what I've read here, the Schwalbes are nicer on dry pavement, and if you only occasionally ride in the snow and ice. The tread isn't as deep as the Nokians, so they clog up quicker. OTOH, the deep tread on the Nokians makes them harder to pedal, and they have only two rows of studs, not that it's been a problem for me. Upstate, I'd say the Nokians hands down. Where you are in the city, probably the Schwalbes, but I don't speak from experience with them.

Tell that to the ice last November when I wiped out due to not having studs. I promptly got some 45NRTH Gravdals and had an awesome winter of commuting.

I took a read through your thread.

I started writing a post on what tires to buy for what conditions and...it got long lol. It rambled to much so I started rewriting it to be more clear and concise. Then I found I wanted a short version and a long version. After more research and lookups...it was so involved, I thought I'd put it in a top level thread so it doesn't get lost. Here it is:
http://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...l#post18188237

Since you live in Chicago (a northern state with harsh winters), and don't want to invest in a whole new Fatbike. In my opinion it's between a Schwalbe Marathon Winters and 45nrth Gravdal tires. Since I haven't use the 45nrth Gravdal, you should buy those, so you can tell us how well they worked. :D :D :D

More details in the thread.

Thanks, that's what I've found to. Fatbikes are as close to a more stable 3/4 wheel vehicle as you can get on a bike and still ride it through snow (apparently 3/4 wheel bikes are troublesome to try to ride through snow). Skinny tires cut through the snow to the road surface if possible, they're faster and lighter, but don't handle loose snow as well if there's more than several inches of it.

I tried 2" tires a few winters ago by buying a pair, and was very disappointed in them. Seemed like they had all the drawabacks of fat tires (cost, floaty over snow rather than punching through it, heavy and slower) but none of the advantages (not floaty enough to handle more snow, not wide enough to prove more stability when the bike starts to slip). I don't know if there's a niche use for them, but it seemed like the best options were either a 30-40c tire, or jumping up into a full on fatbike.

Thank you, [MENTION=131376]PaulRivers[/MENTION]. I'm in NYC, not Chicago, but given last winter, I might as well prepare for a Chicago winter. Last night, I ordered Schwalbe Marathon Winter 35mm tires. They seem to fit my needs.

Cool, they're good tires. They're what's on my bike (45nrth didn't have any good options when I bought winter tires years ago).

I found the best price with Wiggle in the UK. I ordered them yesterday, and I see the order is already in NYC. Not only that, it went through Leipzig, Germany. What a world we live in!