Greetings all,

I've been a bike commuter since the 70's, on some combination of road and mountain bikes, but in the last few decades I've avoided more inclement weather conditions. I'm now considering riding through the winter again, and have obtained a set of Nokian studded tires for use on ice and snow. However, much winter and late autumn riding is on bare roads. I don't want to use my narrow slick tires for those conditions though, as the roads then tend to be caked in sand, wet leaves, and various other debris. I've been considering the idea of a third kind of commuting tire, one for use in the dark months when the roads have such hazards, but short of needing a full-on snow and ice tire.

I'm thinking that the ideal characteristics for such a tire are something like:

• Most importantly, a rubber compound made to work well in low temperatures
• Moderate tread to deal with gritty roads, but not a full-on knobby
• A reflective sidewall for better conspicuity in the dark
• Still tolerably light weight to avoid the 1100-gram type winter tire lethargy
• A wider tire in the 26 x 1.75-2.0 range.

I've been looking around for such tires, and have found these. I've read every review and forum thread I can find about them, but the CST's in particular seem to be not well discussed, except in that off road tires from CST are said to be good quality, and CST owns Maxxis.

I'm really liking what these CST Crucibles appear to be. Does anyone have experience with them? I can't find a single thing on this forum or others about them. They seem ideal: 26x1.75, reflective strip, kevlar band, fairly light, moderate tread. It's really hard to tell if the rubber compound is going to be stone-hard at low temperatures and slide all over, though, so I'd love to hear from someone commuting on them in sub-0C temps.

Various others I'm considering (and have more info around the forums about), all of which have a reflective sidewall stripe:

1. Continental Contact 26x1.75 - These look pretty good too. Heavier than the Crucibles, but not very expensive.
2. Schwalbe Silento HS 421 26x1.75 - Also looks good. Anyone riding these?
3. CST Salvo 26x1.75 - I like the knurled center tread, but these are quite heavy. Hopefully, quite flat resistant... still, one would come ahead using lighter tires and some Mr Tuffys.
4. Continental Travel Contact - I'm dubious about the lack of center tread, and the knobbies on the outside seem useless for pavement commuting where in the cold you won't be leaned over that far anyway.
5. Michelin City Tire 26x1.85 - Again I'm dubious about the inverted thread pattern for this use, although these get generally good reviews.
6. Schwalbe Marathon Deluxe - Absurdly expensive compared to other choices.

Any other thoughts would be great to hear - especially about which might have rubber suitable for cold weather use. It's all but impossible to figure that out from the forum threads or reviews I've found.

FWIW I generally ride my road bike until the first significant snowfall. Typically that means late November/early December and by that time there's been plenty of mornings with temps below freezing and the wet leaves have mostly come and gone. I even encounter the occasional small patch of thin ice.

I find that my road tires work fine for that although you do have to be careful on the leaves and the ice. The tires you've listed might be great options for those conditions but I personally don't feel I need a specialized tire. The situation where I ride might be different though. They usually clean the streets here after most of the leaves have fallen. There's not a lot of sand to deal with until spring.

I don't know what's cheap/expensive for you but have a look at these:

Schwalbe Marathon GreenGuard Wired Tire for €16,72 each:

https://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=...1;product=1037

bike24.de ships to the US as well (that last price is shipped to your door with VAT removed and all US duty paid):

Thanks for the thoughts tjspiel. I commute on my road bike with 700x23's for much of the year, but I think what draws me to wanting a wider tire for the fall/winter is the combination of darkness and sand/etc, along with riding on very busy (60 mph/100kph traffic) roads. My main concentration is given over to the automotive traffic, and in the dark I'm afraid I'll miss a small patch of something that will send me down on a narrow high pressure road tire, where I might get through it with a wider tire, bigger contact patch and some tread.

Curiously, the internet seems almost entirely devoid of reviews for several of the tires in my list.

For anyone else interested: I managed to locate some user reviews of the Schwalbe Silento II tire here. Small difficulty: they are in Hungarian. The general consensus (attempting to read through a machine translation) is that they are fine dry pavement tires but do not do very well on wet pavement, where they become slippery.

And never forget this wisdom, brought to you by google translate:

"If you'd be wrong sarasab from the cams are not cut out of the mud, but since it does not rub the mud. Because it's not worth the aszfaltott, dry and crumbly state slowly leave."


Every bike commuter should know this. Always be careful when your cams are not cut out of the mud.

Cold but no snow, You Mean 33F or more.. 1C+?

If you have two bikes you can choose between each day, that would make things easier. Studded Tires if there is any (even 5%) chance you will cross any ice, re-frozen runoff, black ice, etc. Other Tires if it is cold and really dry.

Last winter, there were stretches of time where it was bitter cold here, but there hadn't been precipitation and wasn't going to be any... just white salt caked on the road... and the Other Tires were a nice, easier changeup from the harder pushing studded tires. The studs will save your bacon on ice, though.

The tire width is an interesting issue you raise. Both of my tire sets are 32mm width. I wouldn't want to go any narrower than that on my particular commute, because I ride at least a couple of miles of jointed concrete pavement with lots of unsealed joints, and those wider longitudinal joints can grab a narrow tire and throw a rider down. Nighttime makes them a little harder to see, and night riding is common for me in winter. With 32mm width, the joints are pretty much a non-issue on my commute. Do you ride concrete pavements with wide, open joints running parallel to your direction of travel that you have to be careful crossing?

If you only have one bike, I would recommend switching to the studded tires before the first Ice Event and then bearing down and riding those suckers until spring. It's slower and more work, but the safest bet. I have Nokian A10's, and they are dependable, safe tires.

If you have more than one bike, you have the luxury of equipping them with different tires and choosing each morning based on what's optimal for that commute there and back.

Good luck, post your experiences as you figure your approach out....

Not meaning to confuse you, here is a good selection of 26" commuting tires.

I'm basically thinking of the range below 5C, down to maybe -20C where I give up and drive. There are quite a few mornings where I live which can be 0C, -10C, or -20C, but with no snow or ice on the ground. Plenty cold enough for snow, but none has fallen. Still, the bike lanes tend to be in a less than ideal state, with stuff kicked over there from cars, sand and grit, etc. They do clean them sometimes, but apparently less often than in the summer.

<nod> That's very much what I have in mind. Well, with different wheelsets anyway. I have a bunch of bikes, though just one for commuting in the dark. But I plan to buy another wheelset for it to keep a studded set and an "other" set mounted and switch as makes sense for the day, precisely as you say.

95% concrete, 5% asphalt. No major near-parallel vertical features, outside of car tire tracks when there's snow. Otherwise, it's pretty good and well maintained pavement for the most part. I made my commuting build based on a MTB frame, so that I could run 26x2.4's if I end up wanting lots of width for studs.

BTW, my first ever major bike accident, circa late 1960's, was due to such a parallel vertical feature, so I have a healthy respect of them. Broken bones teach well

Thanks for your thoughts, Bluish Green!

Thanks for the link! Handy to see specs for so many tires available in one place.

I'm not sure I understand the problem with the Nokians. Most of the studded tires do well without snow around. If there's no snow, air 'em up and they roll on the center of the tread where the studs aren't. If snow and ice show up, air down so the studs can make contact.

Last September, I bought a set of wired Marathon Mondials for my commuter for the fall and spring when there is often debris on the road. They're great! They roll well, they're cheap, and (almost) indestructible. Very reassuring tires. In your size (26x2.00), they weigh 720g. Not light, but not as bad as a studded tire or the pluses. BTW, I also have a wheelset with Marathon Winters for when we have snow and ice. These tires are okay, but I don't ride them everyday since they're so heavy and slow.

Continental makes something call a " top contact" for winter riding. No studs, cold weather grip, some tread. No personal experience with them though.

I agree with TJ, regular tires until the first snowfall. And as soon as possible in the spring.

Beyond commuting I do road rides until then and will at any point I can in the winter on 23mm slicks.

But, if you are looking to replace I will say I've had recent good luck with 28mm Panaracer T-Servs with the reflective sidewall on my commuter.

I just use my summer slicks until about Thanksgiving weekend and then switch to Nokian studded with studs just in the middle. This is what you need for black ice and slippery conditions. They help some in soft snow too but studs aren't needed for that. If you decide to get studded tires, the ones with studs on the sides are for deeply rutted and frozen iced up roads. The side studs help you weave about in and out of those ruts made by cars that freeze over. If your on plowed roads, get tires studded only in the middle to give you traction and safe handling on unexpected ice patches. Keep them inflated to max at all times to keep the most efficiency possible.

I noticed that. I ended up thinking that if there's actual ice on the ground, I'll want studs, and if there's not, I'll want something better for pavement than the Top Contact. It's an interesting tire for some types of riding, I can see. Its big advantage seems to be that it uses a winter compound rubber, so presumably it works nicely in cold temps.

Where I live the temperature between early morning and mid-day can be quite a wide spread, which makes some aspects of commuting a little annoying sometimes. Clothing, in particular.

Interesting; for some reason that wasn't even on my radar. Thanks for the tip.

Where'd you find T-serves with a reflective sidewall, BTW? I couldn't find any on Amazon, at least in 26" size, and Panaracer's site here doesn't list them either. I wonder if they make them any more.

It looks just about perfect, if i could find some with the reflective sidewalls. *Edit* Looks like Cambriabike has them with reflective sidewalls, but only in 700c. Their 26" version doesn't. Ugh :-/.

Yeah, mine are the 700c versions, I ordered through QBP (any local shop should be able to do that). I've always been partial to Conti Gatorskins on the commuter but when the T-servs became available with the reflective side walls I switched back, as I had had them before and knew they were a solid product.

I really don't know if they make the 26" with reflective sidewalls, They should if they don't. My wife's commuter has 26 x 1.25" T-serv's on it but they are older and before they offered them in reflective in any size. Pretty good all around commuting tire though. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Update: I found this line of city/urban tires from Maxxis (i.e, CST), which looks great. Reflective sidewalls, lightweight, kevlar band for puncture resistance, light/moderate tread, available in both 559 and 622. The only reason it doesn't look perfect is the hard durometer center rubber, which I'd like to be softer, but it seems you can't have everything.

Suomi Tires apparently makes some fantastic looking urban tires too with softer rubber made for Scandinavian country climates, but as far as I can tell, they are entirely unavailable here in the 'States. In fact, the entire internet barely has any mention of them, although their hardcore winter tires are relatively popular.

Thought you should know at least one reader laughed out loud when reading your post about a week ago.

As karma would have it I fell last weekend and originally thought it was one of those freak not being able to unclip and get your foot down falls. Happened to stop by this thread tonight and realized that I must have forgotten to cut the cams out of the mud.

It'll get you every time.

Hope you are OK!