Today was my first commute using studded tires. There was some snow this morning, but it was mostly wet. On the way home it was mostly dry with no snow to deal with. The tires were loud and felt very slow. Of course, it could have been the 30km/h head wind too, but nonetheless, I do not enjoy riding on the studded tires.

So here's my question: how well would semi-slick road tires (like the Continental GP's Continental Grand Prix Road Bike Tyre | Chain Reaction Cycles) work on wet roards? I currently have these on my flat-bar road bike.

Or would it be a good idea to get something like this: Continental Grand Prix 4 Season Vectran Bike Tyre | Chain Reaction Cycles

I'm thinking of slapping some fenders on my flat-bar road bike to use as a wet weather commuter while I have studded tires on my foul-weather commuter.

The slower commute is always better than broken bones. Stick with the winter tires. Consider it "Winter Training"

In the wet, those road lines become like glass... so keep that in mind...

- Andy

If you don't ride in compacted snow or on sheet ice, forget the studs. A little ice in the morning is not that hard to deal with, and as you noted, studs are a b*tch when you don't need 'em.

I was caught in a helluva snowstorm that shut the city down many years ago in TO, but IIRC, you guys get salted up there, right, so unless there's actually fresh snow, you got a slurry (brown sugar?), just wet, or dry. It's like it is here in SE Michigan. In those circumstances, the opportunity to put studs to use are infrequent enough that yeah, you'll probably want a regular tire.

I'd suggest taking a look at a cyclocross semi-knob tire. I've used the Kenda Kwick K879 semi-knob (see pic) for many years; it has low shoulder knobs and a diamond-plate center section. The do, as [MENTION=135350]moochems[/MENTION] mentioned, cut through the slop fabulously. I used to run studs, but got tired of that crap awfully fast. I was checking out some new 45 North 700x42 studs at TreeFort the other day...for a sec, just before I regained my senses!

Anyway, look at tires like the Kenda Kommando Pro, Conti Cyclo X King, and the Maxxis Mud Wrestler. I'd bet any of those would be solid performers; my thinking is that the more open and lower knob patterns will resist packing up, and that some bigger shoulder blocks offer a little more bite when turning/leaning.

That's definitely a nice winter tire for northeast weather. As previously noted, i have the kenda kwik trax on rear, and i rode it in some icy slush the other day & it was super effective. I have a freedom cruz on front (stock from factory) & it works well as a front tire, but if i ever had the chance, i'd get the kwik trax for front too at 1.5 and the 1.75 on rear.

- Andy

I have one commuter set up with studs and another with continental winter contact tires. I like them a lot for the kind of cruddy wet roads with a few patches of ice and snow you often get in the winter.

If you don't have snow or ice to deal with, regular slicks with no tread are fine in the wet. Unlike car tires bicycle tires won't hydroplane. Living in Vancouver our roads are mostly wet from Nov through Mar so I get lots of experience riding on wet roads and my tires have no tread. I obviously go slower on corners in the wet and if it's close to 0C, slower yet on corners. Hitting the odd patch of icy or compact snow while going in a straight line isn't normally an issue unless there are deep ruts.

To those who have some experience with studded tires what does a decent set of studded tires cost? I could see keeping a set on a spare wheelset to try occasionally. I know I could search for this info but if someone here can provide a ballpark number I would appreciate it.

Cost varies a lot between models and sizes but they aren't cheap. The Kenda Klondike's can sometimes be found for $60 or $70 a pair but it's not uncommon for studded tires to cost from $50 to $100+ a piece.

If your local bike shop stocks them and you can wait until spring, you can often get really good deals on them. I got mine at 50% off that way.

Thanks. Those would probably last me a lifetime as there are only a handful of days in a year I'd actually use them. Do the studs last as long as the tires if you ride mostly on pavement or would they need to be replaced?

Greg the schwalbe winters I decided to go with are 70 each at my lbs. The marathon withe winter with twice the number if studs were 95 each.

I find with shipping and taxes and tariffs my closest lbs was almost as cheap as online, and they are there if I have an issue.

I will pick them up in a few days so I don't know about life on pavement. I will mount them up the next cold snap and probably leave them on until February.
[MENTION=381746]mcours2006[/MENTION]. Bike tires don't experience hydroplaning since the contact area is so small. Bike tires really don't need tread at all on pavement but it makes people feel better.

I haven't ridden studs (for a while!) but I hear from everyone that carbide studs last basically forever but steel ones wear out fairly fast. (Roofing nail studs wear quite fast. At least the roofing nails of 40 years ago.) There's at least one thread here (Winter Cycling I believe) on studs. Givewn how much the tires cost, it seems to me that carbide is the way to go.

Ben

Having used inverted tread, i gotta totally disagree. Treaded tires grip so much better in wet.

- Andy

Slicks are fine on "clean" wet. Add a bit of sand/grit and a light tread is better IMO.
This time of the year, you may have leaves (or remnants) to deal with.
We seldom get snow where I live, but Winter roads are much "dirtier" than Summer. If riding when dark out, you simply can't see the road well enough. I got badly "bit" on a motorcycle once because a county crew sanded an intersection because they "thought" it might snow. I've had a limp for 35 years since.

Thanks for this insight. I don't have a lot of experience riding on anything other than dry and warm weather, so your insight on this is invaluable.

Would you say that any tread is better than no tread at all, then? Even something like this:
Vittoria Rubino Road Bike Tyre | Chain Reaction Cycles

I've never had the experience of sliding on a two-wheeler, thankfully, but I'm normally pretty cautious when I'm on a bike. When in doubt always slow down. But I get very nervous when I think the surface on which I'm riding has reduced friction.

You pretty much have to decide how "dirty" your streets are.
A very light tread is going to wear smooth after awhile, so you pretty much have to go to "some" amount of "overkill"

Wrong. Theoretically and practically (from my own experience). We are talking about pavement, no sand, dirt etc. Something thread can't grip into, since it is harder than the tyre.

Good point. I don't mind replacing them every season though. They're cheap enough to do so. I don't put a lot of mileage on any one bike. The mileage is pretty evenly distributed amongst all my bikes.

Winter is tricky if you live where the temperatures fall below freezing: at any point, rain or slush may turn to ice and minor amounts of snow may be compacted by car/truck tires into slippery "glare snow" (while following a plow truck home last night, I noticed that the blade, in addition to removing the top layer of snow, also compressed and polished a layer of snow under it into shiny "glare snow"). When the surface you're riding on is hard and slippery, textured tire treads may not have enough bite to cut into the surface for grip when you need the grip for braking or turning. For that reason, I, thinking of what I would do in your situation, would recommend studded tires, even some with fewer studs which would provide a compromise between heavy, slow, high-stud-count tires and lighter, faster, stud-free tires in terms of both tire weight and ride quality/speed.

On the other hand, I question the rationality (certainly mine if not those of others) regarding recommendations for the number of studs on a tire based on the average winter conditions of the rider's location. At times, it sounds like that we recommend low stud-count tires for people whose location may rarely see ice or slippery surfaces and high stud-count tires for those of us for whom summer is just a season of poor skiing. Ice is no less slippery whether it is a freak ice storm in January in southern Florida or in July in Alaska or December in Montana. If a high-stud-count tire is the only way a cyclist traveling at a particular speed on an ice patch around a corner can stay upright and in control, then it doesn't really matter where they live or the normal conditions of their winters, their riding style, speed and the slipperiness of the icy patch on the corner is all that matters and should be the determination of how many there should be on their tires to keep them upright around that icy corner.

I guess that the only thing I can add to this is that, even if there is a freak ice storm in Florida, it won't last long and so a rider without appropriately-studded tires to stay upright in icy conditions should take the one or two days off from riding when these conditions occur once every 10 years or so. On the other hand, a winter cyclist in an area where there are weeks or months of slippery conditions would be wise to get a high-stud-count tire because they will need all of the studs many, many more times in the winter than the Florida-ite.

Slicks are best on pavement, wet or dry. Tire advertising for cars has convinced people they need tread. At least one bike tire manufacturer has gone as far as to admit that on some of their tires the treads only purpose is to appease the customer and has no practical function.

Slush, snow, mud, dirt, etc. are a different story.

Studs only help on ice and "hard pack". They have little value in fresh snow and probably lead to worse traction on bare pavement. They aren't so bad on bare pavement that I worry about it at all. However, riding a studded tire on a wet steel plate that you sometimes find in construction zones requires some care.

Since a lot of winter riding is on bare pavement anyway, I question the value of studded tires in areas where you only occasionally see a small icy patch or two.

Have you looked at Continental Top Contact? Continental Bicycle -Top CONTACT Winter II Premium

For winter riding, these are great on everything, except ice. A lot less rolling resistance. I run a studded tire on the front and Top Contact on the rear for winter riding in Minneapolis.

I agree.

In my area there is little snow and ice. I got a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Winter studded tyres and they are seldom used. I could do almost just as well with regular knobby tyres. However, these do make me feel safer, especially late at night when I can't see really well and am not sure where there is frozen snow/water. Though I'm seriously considering putting just the front studded, with the rear being regular knobby tyre.

I think if cost wasn't an issue we'd all opt for the higher stud count. But as joeyduck wrote, an extra $20-30 per tire for the higher count is not insignificant. It's no different than trying decide on anything else, be it tires, cars, bikes, etc.

I get what you're saying, but I do think there's a difference in both the amounts and the types of ice you will see most often between one region to another. If rutted or uneven ice is common, you'll want more studs than if what you typically experience is smooth ice.

You pay a price for extra studs, both in terms of dollars at the cash register and in ride quality. And while more studs improve traction on ice, they either don't help at all or make it worse on almost everything else. You can test this pretty easily. Compare how much brake force it takes to skid a regular tire on bare pavement vs a studded tire (when studs are actually contacting the road).