studded tires
 

How importand is it for me to get studded tires. I live here in boston and commute 13 miles each way. I am wondering where i can buy the Nokian 294's. Thanks for the help

I would have had studded tires when I was car-free for several years around Denver. Getting slammed to the iced over pavement several times a year hurt. If I could have afforded them then.

I got mine from www.bikeman.com

Thanks but what tire would you recomend that dosen't cost more than a car tire.

Good luck with that. Decent studded bike tires, carbide tipped and all, are pricey. biketiresdirect.com has a cheapie Innova steel studded tire for $25. I actually have that tire and it's been fine for my purposes but it depends on your type of riding.

They are cheaper.....you only need two of them.

That's funny, but i used to have the same logic. Funny thing is that your studded bike tire on ice is WAY more critical than the tread on your car tires. For one thing you have four car tires and only two bike tires. Secondly, your car isn't going to slip sideways and tip over, throwing you to the icy ground with a horrific thud.

Don't get me wrong, i like good car tires but thinking you shouldn't spend just as much on a bicycle tire is silly. The ramifications of failure are much greater on the bike in my opinion. And lastly, $68 for a car tire these days is pretty cheap. Especially if you have a newer car with the huge tires. Those things are damned expensive.

A good studded tire, the best ones even cost way less than a broken clavicle. Besides we've all bought 80 dollar car tires w/out flinching. I just got the w240's and they are love. $75 @ peterwhitecycles.com. Here in Eastern MA we only need 'em 15-25 days a year, so switch them out as needed, you'll get more time out of them that way. I have my studs on a foul weather bike and use my other bike, the...err other foul weather bike on dry days.

The cheap ones wear out quickly, they are not worth it.

You don't HAVE to get the most expensive Nokian, they do make other models, that would probably more appropriate for commuting anyway. The Mount and Ground model is $56, Hakkapeliitta W106 are about $50, A10s are $45-$50 (all at peter white cycles).

I haven't found that to be true. I have the cheap Innova steel studs, I'm in the 2nd winter and anticiapte a 3rd.

That may not be as many as you'd get with the Nokians but at $25 a pop, not bad in this rider's opinion and of course none of this means much without mileage totals.

You will get five times the wear from the Nokians. It depends on how many miles you end up riding on dry pavement. The tungsten carbide studs don't get any shorter, the tire casing eventually lets the stud sink into the casing more.

I certainly would never compare Innovas to Nokians. I just think that for a rider on a budget that doesn't put in a ton of miles each winter, the $25 tires are a decent buy. That's been my experience so far. I sure hope to get Nokians when I need another set.

I agree, if you also can stay off dry pavement most of the time that will help them last longer too. For off road with snow or low mileage they are OK.

Since I am 50 miles from Boston, ride in Boston and know what the weather is like, and the OP is commuting in Boston I know he will be on pavment a lot more than he would like, so he would wear any studded tire very very fast. Having ruined a set of IRC Blizzard steel studs in one year (not riding a lot on the pavement) and now entering my fifth year on my Nokians, I wish I had saved the money for the cheaper tires. So have some of my friends.

$50 Blizzards one year-gone. (Me) Or any $25 studded tire. $25 to $50 a year.
$80 Nokians-mine will finish this year for sure. $80 / 5 years = $16 a year

He will never make one whole winter commuting in Boston, no way. He would probably wear out two pair. $25 tires ridden every day in Boston-easy two pair worn out. What ever his mileage is it will be 4-5 time more for 2.5 times the $$.

I have both on my bike. I started with the Innovas and they work just fine. I ride about 45 miles per week and since putting them on in October I must have ridden at least 400 miles with them. Since I live in suburb of Buffalo NY we tend to get plenty of precipitation. So far only one snow fall has stopped me from riding, and that was mostly because there was enough snow on the ground (at least a foot) that I'd have to ride in the middle of the road the whole way to work and I might come accross a few snow plows along the way... not my idea of a good time. By the afternoon the roads were well plowed and I was able to get riding again the next day. I've seen plenty of icy days were the blowing snow 1st created a nice layer of ice on the road only to cover the remainder with an inch or two of fresh snow. That was my first real test of the Innova tires. The roads were super slippery, but the bike handled fine. I kept checking my grip by using the rear brake every so often. I just could not believe how I could be getting such good grip. On foot the roads were brutal, but the studded snows worked wonderfully.

Now for the bad part. Right around Christmass the front tire exploded while it was sitting next to me in my office. WOW that was loud! Luckily the building was mostly empty, it sounded like a small explosive device went off. I know the pressure was set to spec, and even if the tire heated up a bit inside, my rough calulations using Boyles law showed that the pressure should not have increased by more than 5 PSI... certainly not enough to explain the tire blowing on its own. After closer inspection I found that the bead had failed. I called the place I got the tires from and they were out of stock for at least 2 to 3 weeks, so I ordered a Nokia W106 tire from Peter White since he had them in store. I could not believe that the tire got the next day! I placed the order around 4:30 PM and was told it would not even get it ready to ship till the next day (perfectly reasonable). UPS ground from NH to NY state is normally 2 days. I just sent back the tire and hope they will exchange it for Free. A bead should not fail within 2 months of use. I am very glad that did not happen wile riding.

So how does the Nokia W106 compare. The read looks near identical. Even from 3 feet away most people would never notice that I have two different tires on the bike. The only real difference I can tell between the two tires are the following:
- The Nokia uses carbite centered studds. The Innova studds have warn smooth with the tread, while the Nokians continue to stick out a bit. As far as grip goes however the Innovas in the back still grip well so this doesn't seem to make much difference.
- The Nokia comes from the factory looking much nicer. The Innovas are covered with a nasty gray coating that I assume must be the release agent or some sort of protective coating. After nearly 3 months of riding it has mostly come off.

Both tires are very similar in design. It therefore came as no great shock that they ride the same. I could not tell any appreciable difference in the resistance or the snow grip between the two tires. Both tires also have the strip to use a bottle generator. Hopefully my bead failure is a fluke and does not represent a general problem with the Innova tires (wasn't there a posting recently with someone having similar problems with Schwalbe winter tires... and those are just as expensive as the Nokias). Otherwise if I had to buy them again I would get the Innovas. I can ride to work now, but don't know how long I will stay at my current assignment. If I get assigned to an other customer I may not be able to commute by bike. So investing $50 for a set of winter tires is reasonable. Does spending twice as much get your twice as good a tire? I won't know the answer to that question until I've put an other winter or two on the bike and compare how the two tires are holding up. At least I can say that I have not yet lost any studs on the Innova tires and they appear to work fine. At least at $25 they are not garbage, and therefore not a waste of money.

Happy winter riding. 8F last week, 64 F this week... that is just strange!
André

90% of my ride is on bare pavement and these Innova's are holding up quite well. As I said, in the 2nd winter with no noticeable wear. They are a decent buy for sure.

The Good: So the weather has been warm enough that I put the slick tires on.

The Bad: I promptly laid the bike down on a patch of ice on the way home tonight.

The Ugly: Injury was prevented... by the fact I was wearing moto pants with knee armor.

I have only used my Inovas 4 times or so for rides under 5 miles and will probably only use them another 5 times or so this winter. I'm guessing they'll last me several seasons even if I start using them more, so for $25 a pop I think it's a no brainer. It really doesn't make sense to spend more for the amount of winter riding I do, but it also doesn't make sense to not own studded tires.

I have had my Schwalbe studs on front and back for over three months now, they have worked well to the point now I am getting too used to ice and snow. I hit one of those huge ice berb things that form around the wheel wells of trucks and fall off. It was covered in a nice bit of fresh snow, darn near crashed but the tires responded well. I think I should slow down in the dark and pay more attention to the road. Schwalbe makes two types of studed tires I have the ones with the lesser amount of studs and they seem fine for the daily commute, got them at MEC mail-order about $50 each. For my money I am really glad I have them.

Let's say you only ride during the day, and can see ice much of the time. Let's say you go nice and slow.

In this situation, deep tread tires are best for road and snow. The studs are only good on ice, and they don't work as well as the deep treads on road and snow.

So I'm thinking I don't need studded tires...

Solveg, the studs on my hardtail are a first class aggressive knobby with carbide studs sticking out. They're good for just about any surface that isn't paved. Work fine, if slow, on paved. Further, I'd just about never have a flat tire if I managed to see and avoid every single road hazard.

You may not need or want studs, but I disagree with your logic.
Love the sig, by the way.

Well, but what if I ride paved most of the time? I mean, if there's clear road to ride, I ride on that....

(And I have never had a flat! I dodge everything I can...:o)

My car has studded tires. It's nice that I can afford them. I drive on pavement a lot. I still like having studs. No, I don't need them all the time but it sure is nice to be a little extra safe since I can.

To me, a bike is the same deal.

Kind of, but there are more considerations when your talking about a bike. For one thing, it takes more effort to ride with studded tires than with regular commuter tires. That means you either need a second bike or at the very least a second wheelset for it to make sense for a lot of people. Also, not all bikes can accommodate larger tires.

Still, even though we don't get that much snow here I'm really glad I have the right tires when we do get dumped on. I'm probably in the minority of year round cyclists here who have studded tires, but I had a spare wheelset (and a bike that would fit the tires) so I figured it wasn't that big of an investment to feel confident in my ability to stay upright no matter the road conditions.

My studded tires, and many others are deep tread knobbies with studs. They ride similar to other knobbies in the snow. (The tire makers know snow and ice go together :D)

There is practically an infinite number of different kinds of ice, and ice and snow combination conditions. Some ice you can ride without studs, some kinds are impossible without studs. No one knows what kind of ice you will get. You may never need studs, you may fall tomorrow because you don't have them. Who knows? I have one bike with studs on it all the time and many without them. Just switching to another bike makes things simple and easy.