Made my own studded tires in the past--ended up giving them away, and now I want to buy some decent ones. I'd be looking for 700c tires for my Bob Jackson Tourist (yes, I'm going to subject it to wet winter weather and salt, but it's been treated with frame saver and waxed, so I'm not too worried).

My 13.5 mile commute is on a paved bike path and residential/city streets that may or may not be plowed and salted. Little if any off road.

The difference seems to be that the Snow Stud has a more aggressive tread.

Which would you chose?

my main winter enemy is ice, not snow. i had schwalbe snow studs last year, but i found myself wanting a higher stud count and, because chicago's streets and san dept. is so overzealous when it comes to plowing, a little bit less tread for faster rolling when the streets are clear (the majority of the time here). so i got a pair of marathon winters for this year. the weather has been so fantastically warm that i have yet to put them on my winter bike.

studs are for ice, tread is for snow. decide which condition you're more likely to deal with on a regular basis and decide from there.

i will say that if the snow stud came with a higher stud count like the marathon winter, it would be a better all-around winter tire.

Marathon Winter should be faster on clear streets and should be better on hard ice due to more spikes.

The Snow Stud should be better in thicker snow due to a deeper tread design.

I have the Winters and would not want the Snow Stud.

Ice will be my biggest problem. Snow doesn't usually get very deep here, but if it did I'd switch to a bike with knobby tires.

I've ridden the MWs in 4 inches of snow at minimum inflation, and they work OK for relatively straight line riding. The studs don't help in snow. Knobby tires offer better traction in some snow conditions, and skinny tires that cut through the snow to the pavement are better in other conditions.

+1 - I can't comment on either tire specifically as I have nokians, but what Steely Dan said is right on.

I just ordered and received the Schwalbe Marathon Winters and, though I haven't ridden on them yet, I can tell they're going to be great on the ice. Since I teach, if the roads are snowy or not plowed, odds are school would be cancelled, so there's little chance of my riding to work in deep snow. But ice, that's always a problem, so I figured these would be a better choice. I got them at biketiresdirect.com, by the way, and though I had to deal with a return of a defective tire, they've been very prompt with the exchange and the (free) shipping. Can't wait to ride on the ice...

Mercian,
I ride the Nokian A10's. I believe they roll a bit faster than the Schwalbe Winters, but have fewer studs. I am happy with the A10's for Baltimore's mostly plowed streets with evening freezes and they're a little cheaper. Peter White has some good pics and descriptions of both.

I got a pair of snow studs on sale and we just don't get the snow here to justify their use; I switched to marathon winters and those are perfect for the black ice and very rare snow around here (snow is rare enough that it is left alone, not really plowed and certainly not salted, it never lasts more than a, well, a week or 2). I guess that's your question, how much snow will you be reliably dealing with?

Ordered Marathon Winters. Thanks everyone for your advice.

Sorry for reviving threads, but I thought it was better than making a new one. I recently purchased Schwalbe Marathon Winter 700x35 but I heard this tire is totally useless when it comes to going through snow. The place I live in Hokkaido (Japan) in Sapporo where roads are usually plowed. Roads are like this usually:

These gray part is all ice most of the time. Usually, there is a thin layer of snow on pretty thick ice. I thought Marathon Winter is suitable, but snow does pile up to 3 ~ 5 inches while snowing unless trucks comes and plow them. Do you think I made a mistake on purchasing Marathon Winter? (It has been shipped but it didn't reach me yet.)


As a comparison, I rode on my Cyclocross bike (2012 Kona Jake) and the tire it came with seems to do fairly well on snow, but obviously, it sucks on ice. How much difference would Marathon Winter do on snow in the place I live (above description).

Selecting tires always involve trade-offs. I take the opinion that snow deeper than a few inches is problematic for most bike tires. I’m not sure that I want to lose performance on ice and clear roads 90 days a year just to have a small improvement in deep snow 3 days a year.

I might be tempted to have a deep snow bike if deeper snow was a weekly event. I might add a 20 year old rigid mountain bike and install 26", 54-559mm Nokian Extreme 294 winter tires for those days when soft snow or rutted streets were an issue.

I've been riding Schwalbe MW for 3 seasons, and Ice Spiker Pros for 2. The MW are fine for the type of snow/ice in your picture. They're not so great in deeper or rutted snow. I ride my MW on most days when there's ice or packed snow (maybe 90% of the time), and the Ice Spiker Pros on my MTB when it's really bad (10%). If I had to get only 1 pair of studded tires, I'd get the MW. They're good all-rounders. In deep snow, nothing works all that well (although I admit, I've never tried a Pugsley or other very fat tired bike). In short, I don't think you made a mistake with the MWs if your primary goal is commuting on snowy roads.

my vote is for the Marathon Winters because you don't need the more aggressive tread. you need to get somewhere not climb a mountain. the "snow studs" will slow you down too much. you can play with the air pressure of the "winters" a tiny bit depending on your snow coverage.

No.

If you have 5 inches of heavy snow it's not going to matter what tire you're riding.

Okay thank you guys! I'm relieved that I didn't waste $120 on a pair of studded tire.

I went the "cheaper" route and am still waiting for the chance to try out my Nokian Hakkapelitta 106 tires. I'm far outside of Chicago in the burbs. I wanted to buy the Schwalbe MW tires but the price difference seemed extreme to me (I only have an 18 mile round trip commute).