Hm. I'm riding on Haakapeliitas, and I've ridden without incident on wet icy surfaces that I had trouble walking on. Certainly I didn't take any corners at 30 MPH, but on the straights I didn't take any notice of the ice.

People think I'm nuts for riding a bike on the ice. I think they're nuts for driving a car on it.

So, do all you winter commuters use regular tires on snow or do I need to get something special? I have 700 x 32 semi-slick (I think that's how they are described) tires right now.

I actually witnessed a rainy day in LA on a business trip. It was unbelievable. One reason for the bad driving though is the lack of drainage. We have storm sewers here to handle the runoff. You So Cal'ers don't have those. Still - it was surreal for me having lived in the Southeast my whole life. We get rain almost daily at certain times of the year.

I use these, which are 26" tires for a mountain bike:



If I were running 700C wheels, I'd probably use these:

Depends on your winter. I have the Hakkapeliitta W106s pictured above, and I'm happy with their performance. They work well for riding on hard surfaces (pavement, ice, hard packed snow) with relatively little loose snow on top. Think maintained roads, semi-maintained MUPs for example. A frozen lake or a stretch of frozen sea with little snow cover is a blast! But for trails / deep snow I'd get a wider tyre with more studs. And a mountain bike instead of my hybrid winter beater.

--J

When I first moved to California from Connecticut, the tv was interrupted for hours one night with "Storm Warning, tune in at 10" nonsense. Now where I'm from, that means some serious stuff is going to fall from the sky. Here, "Up to an inch of rain is expected". Oh my, pack an umbrella and don't leave the car windows open. I still can't get over watching people freak out over a drizzle. And the people I work with can't believe I still ride to work in the rain.