elunty

I know there are some Edmonton commuters on these forums, and i want to ask you your opinion on studded snow tires. Do you really find them to be absolutely necessary, or could you live without them (use normal 26er MTB tires instead).

gerv 

Probably a question that should be asked in the winter cycling forum. However, if Edmonton winter road conditions are like mine (and pretty sure it's close...), I'd think about studded tires. It certainly helped me get on the road for many more winter days.

IanHelgesen

Studs definitely help. If you don't want to pay for commercial ones, EBC has some DIY tire studding workshops in November/December (and SixtyFiver has posted the instructions from them over in the winter cycling forum).

Sixty Fiver

There is a good reason why we run a few tyre studding workshops at EBC every year...

I ride here 12 / 365 and most of the time I get around okay without studded tyres but have a 26 inch studded tyre mounted up to a front wheel that I can swap into my extrabike or fg in a few minutes if the conditions warrant. I have never found much need for a studded rear tyre unless I am hauling big loads and want that extra rear bite when braking.

As far as tyres go, the tread type is often less important than the compound as many of the knobbiest tyres get rock hard in cold temps and offer really poor traction while many slicker tyres remain supple and get great hookup.

I run Schwalbe Hurricanes on my fg and have run these through the winter and have been very impressed with their cold weather performance... the tread compound stays supple in the coldest temps and the fg is very stable on the worst of roads.

elunty

Hey Sixty Fiver, i read that EBC sells lots of used bikes for pretty decent prices. Are the bikes usually in good condition (able to be ridden all winter), or are they pretty shady.

TuckamoreDew

I don't continue my regular commute through the winter. I do a little bit of winter riding for fun though and try to get out a couple of days a month.

I haven't yet used studded tires but I think they'd be very handy early in the winter and early in the spring. That's when conditions seem most icy to me, what with the cycle of thawing during the day and freezing at night. The little bit of winter riding I do later in the winter when the snow is down for good hasn't seemed very slippery.

If I did commute through the winter I would definitely use studded tires as I'm a big believer of safe riding during my commute. Anything that reduces my chance of slipping in front of a car sounds good to me.

zeroderby

I commuted one full winter 2007-2008 and I now only commute a handful of times a month during the winter. I like having studs. I live in Edmonton. I haven't tried winter conditions without studs so I can't really say. That probably doesn't help much.

Sixty Fiver

We have a full range of bikes for sale at EBC and one has a choice between building up a bike themselves or purchasing a bike that has been built up for sale which costs more but we tend to put a good deal of work and new parts into the bikes we build up and they tend to be better than new by the time we are done.

Worked over a nice Kuwahara Aries tonight which is a chromoly framed rigid mtb and installed a new crank, cassette, chain, and brake pads and got the bike all tuned up... will be asking $120.00 for this one.

Nice road bikes don't last long and they sell for 100.00 to 150.00 and every once in a while we have had total gems come in... we had 2 Trek 1000 road bikes come in last year and these sold for 400.00 and 500.00, just sold a Miyata 1000 (sans wheels) for 350.00, and nice vintage three speeds sell in the 100.00 to 150.00 range.

If one wants to do a little work one can roll out of the shop with a pretty decent bike for around $100.00 and we don't bother much with bike shaped objects since we have a steady flow of nicer donations to work with.

Coolest bike we have at the shop right now is a 1965 Triumph with an SA 3 speed and dual drum brakes... will be tuning that up tomorrow night and figure this bike, due to it's vintage and nice condition will sell for about $160.00. Considering that the bike will be getting overhauled by the best old 3 speed guy in the city and it's a pretty good deal.

groovestew

I have studded tires for my all-weather bike, but didn't ride last winter. I did start riding again early this spring during the freeze/thaw cycles (like TuckamoreDew mentioned) and was glad to have them. Just be aware that studded tires won't prevent all slipping, as I took a minor spill on ice last fall with the studs on, so be careful.

neil

I did half of last winter on studs (homemade ones from the EBC workshop), and half on standard knobbies. Adding the studs added significant rolling resistance and weight to the tire, so cycling is more work, but it's also much more stable. Even the brown sugar I can roll into and as long as there's snow pack underneath, the studs bite and I keep control.

Riding the knobbies was okay, but required going much slower, and with significant risk of falling on any road where the pack was uneven.

I only studded the front wheel.

Sixty Fiver

Good point that studded tyres do not make you invulnerable... have had few winter wipe outs unless I was mountain biking and the most memorable was when I was running studs front and rear.

The studded tyres did save me from what would have been a more horrific crash as it happened at really high speed as they let me have a controlled wipe out and the ice chips I generated sliding down the street could have made a bucket of margaritas.