A friend of mine riding his mtn bike on the local bike path--remember I said temps had warmed up enough here in NW Washington to melt most of the frost--hit a patch of black ice in a shady spot and went down. Hard enough to ding his helmet pretty good, but he's OK.

My Conti tires come tomorrow. Thank you all again for the good discussion. .Tim

I figure ideal winter-biking option is to have separate summer & winter wheels that are easily swapped & in that case seems to make sense to have both winter tires studded. Seeking out ice/snow reminds me of F1 racers that seek puddles to cool their rain tires if track is drying out. Actually when driving/biking I think the shallow snowy patches help resist lateral slip. Another good thing about bikes using studs or winter compound is that they can leave a nice straight rut for later less well-equipped bikers to follow.

I need some exercise, am going out today for a 20 mile spin. But have not decided yet which bike to use, one with studs or one without. But I do not want to get three or four miles from home and decide that I have to turn around due to ice and snow, so am leaning towards the studded tires.

I used to ride a LHT, had two sets of wheels for it. But neither had studs, only rode that bike in summer. One set was fast skinny tires and the touring wheels had more robust tires that also worked on gravel but were slower tires.