I bought Nokian Mount and Ground 26x1.9's specifically because they have the carbide studs that can endure being ridden on pavement. My commute is mostly clear road. But, I cross a bridge every day that can get very icy and I don't plan to chance it. So I just geared down my fixed gear from 70 to 63 gear inches, mounted them up and forgot about it. They'll come off when all the snow melts off next year.

it seems like factory studded tires are hard to notice a difference. i put a nokian on my front wheel. one year i made homemade studded tires with sheet metal screws in a 2.5" tire, coated the heads with permatex part# 6B and lined the tire with an old innertube cut to a width that would protect the inner tube from puncturing. the secret here is to pump the tire up to very high pressure. these studs were so agressive that it stuck to a carpeted hallway as i pushed my bike outside. it kinda wanted to go sideways on dry pavement. so i put it to the ultimate test and went to an outside ice skating rink and rode with so much traction as i poked little holes into the ice, i was easily able to ride wheelies on clear, smooth ice (I woudn't attempt that with factory tires) Factory studded tires are lighter but if you wanna ride on frozen lakes or river beds i'ld suggest making homemade studded tires. it takes a lotta work, a drill, and a 4x4 piece of wood, stood up on it's end to drill holes through your tire before you screw the sheet metal srews into the tire. but you'll have tires that will out perform any factory studded tires. i also suggest using them on a second set of rims/wheels, because they're so extreme that you aren't gonna wanna use them all the time. it does take more energy to push studded tires.

I have a bike with "quick release" wheels. I am thinking if I could get another set of wheels/rims I could switch back at forth to studded tires fairly easily... does anyone do this? I'm having trouble finding just wheels in the right size and its looking cost prohibitive (half the cost of a new bike).

Thanks to another Bikeforums member, I found a set of wheels for my bike for $25 shipped. They aren't pretty but the hubs just needed regreasing to feel smooth and all I need now is another cassette for a very quick change from slicks to studs. Looks like my studs will be getting put to use this week too as there is plenty of snow in the forecast. I'm going to swap my cassette to the new wheels for now.

Yep.

Yep you do or yep its expensive?

Yep i do.

Up here in Wisconsin, I have to use studs from Nov. to about Apr. they are a must for me. Not so good when they no snow or ice, but most of the time when the snow, and freezing rain hits I am away from the house to its good just to keep them on.

Super Geek

I just ordered a pair of Nokian Extreme 294's to upgrade from my old IRC Blizzard 112's. Not cheap, but I should get 3-4 years of use out of them.

An excellent upgrade, that's what I did.

The wheel swap is an easy solution.Very affordable too (in the front) unless you have a hub generator.

Just make sure your spare wheel uses a rim of the same width so you don't have to readjust the brakes each time you swap the wheel.

We have icey, rutted, snow packed roads from mid-November to end of March. Nokian Extreme 296 seem to me to be the only way to go. They last for years and are very stable. Yes I am slower but that is not why I am out there. That being said I haven't tried anything else other than my road bike with summer slicks.

For me it is all about the ride and not the speed or destination.

Besides, rolling down the road with studded tires just sounds cool.

ouch - my Nokian 296´s just let me down- I was riding along a dark path that was covered in hard packed snow like an ice rink with some slight ruts. To make it worse the snow was melting and there was a layer of water on top. The bike was twitching a bit and I was gradually getting the idea that this path was fairly treacherous when wham- I hit a rut (Edit could have just been a bump) and the front end slipped out and I went straight down on the ice .

I stayed off the path after that and went across the snow.

The bikes OK and no injuries but the take home message is don´t get over confident on the studs.

I run Nokian Extreme 296's and took a spill last night. Sounds like a similar situation, I was in rutted snow pack and the front wheel got away from me. I was going slow and fell in to snow so nothing was damaged other than my dignity.

I rode a friends bike the other day that has a 3.5 inch wide rear tire with no studs. It looks like a knobby motorcycle tire. That bike was extremely stable snow...much more stable that my bike with the Nokians. The Nokians are wonderful on ice, but rutted uneven packed snow can be very treacherous and I don't think the studs help much on that kind of surface.

you don't need studs for snow. you need them on ice. "wiping out" in a frozen rut wouldn't be an effect by the type of tire. A frozen rut (if hit at the wrong angle) will make anyone probably "wipe out" thats kinda like wet roots or any other natural terrain obstacles

the snow had melted and refrozen and had turned into an uneven layer of ice but the Nokians still slid out

336 extra-long studs, and about twice as many on the edges. Just in case you run out of other ways to spend money

I think what happened was the hitting the rut pushed the tyre over to a part i.e. the outside edge where there were no studs showing and then the tyre being on its edge and the bike being slightly unbalanced just skidded out.

Reading the ice bike site I see that they recommend very low tyre pressures (like for snow) in these type of conditions. I had my tyres running at higher pressure (glare ice mode). This was perhaps my mistake. I will try it again with low pressure this time.

I bought Nokian Hakkapeliitta tyres with 240 studs last week. The grip is amazing. On my test ride I rode down a hill with packed snow and tried brakeing to full stop. The stopping distance was not much greater than on dry pavement, pulling the front brake hard enough I could lift my rear wheel.

I had 2 spiked tires in my hand at MEC in calgary. The bike dude flat out talked me out of them, and said I don't need them for commuting and should only be used if i plan on going on lakes with them. I know a rear spike is probably over kill for commuting, but i had $300 in my pocket that i wanted to spend on myself. Maybe someone at bow cycle will let me buy spiked tires.

Sure, studded tires may not be necessary on light, fluffy snow, but at least where I live, that light, fluffy snow does not stay that way for long. Once the cars get out on the roads it turns to packed snow/ice. So while I won't be running any races on a frozen lake any time soon, I will be using studded tires for any commute this winter that has a chance of snow (like tomorrow). Look at it this way, studded tires won't reduce your grip in conditions where they are not necessary (when compared to a normal knobby tires) but they will increase it on ice. It's a win-win situation if you can disregard the slight amount of added drag and weight (they add about 3-5 minutes to my commute compared to slicks).

Just like you should not get your tire in a rut on the road, like a train track, you can't get through a deep rut in the ice with any kind of studded tires. The tires have great traction on the ice, but the tire gets in a rut going close to the direction you are going and the rut grabs the tire. If the rut is deep enough and solid enough there is nothing you can do about it. That is NOT the tires letting you down.

Too bad the ruts can be hidden by snow.

perhaps rut was a bad choice of words but the tyre was deflected and then SLID out. From my perspective I did feel a more than a little (and not very gently) let down. But don't worry I am not blaming my Nokians. Everything has its limitations. I will ride home on them tonight just with a little more care on bumpy melting ice.

When I am riding over 3" deep frozen footprints in the ice I run 22 psi in the front and 25 in the back. Not only does it give more traction but you have a little more suspension to make the bike easier to control. You just have to know your limits to keep from hitting something really really hard.

Hey, is it even worth putting knobby or studded tires on a trike (tadpole config)? Maybe just on the back, for traction, eh?