Does/has anyone here used them for winter riding? I currently have touring tires (panaracer pasela) on my bike, which has made the ride to work exciting the last few days (we got 18 inches of snow since Tuesday night). Since studded tires are too expensive, I am on the look-out for traction, which I thought I might find in cyclocross tires.

I could switch to my mountain bike (ridged, basic mountain tires), but it is small for me, doesn't have space to mount my lights (I have two, and one needs space for a switch), and needs new shifters and brakes. Would this be a better option?

CX tires aren't going to stop you from falling on the ice. Yes, they grab loose snow and slush better than road tires. But they have no advantage on ice.

MTB tires aren't any better on ice.

Comparing the expense of studs to the expense of falling on ice in front of a soccer mom on the phone in her minivan, and I think you'll agree that studs are the cheaper option.

how good are studded tires?
it gets me up an iced over hill, where FWD cars and 4WD cars/trucks with all season slide off to the side.
true story.
but studs really are only 25% of the equation.
other things to consider:
Tire width, tread aggressiveness and where you intend to use them.

short list of CX tire or knobby tire performance in winter. If you're absolutely set on getting knobby tires, get ones designed for mud with a soft compound.

ice = no good
packed snow = not the best, but managable
packed snow hit at an angle = no good
ploughed roads = ok
salted or sanded roads = ok
front wheel getting stuck in a rut = no good
powder snow or deep snow = use really fat tires with aggressive treads
slush = ok

While they are no better on GLARE ice, I find soft-compound CX and MTB tires are more effective in icy conditions because they cover a bigger footprint, and hence are more likely to be able to stick to whatever non-ice things are mixed in with the ice, such as gravel and pavement bits that stick up through.

But they are not in the same class as studded tires.

If you must go cheap, or just can't afford it (i fall into both of these categories) you can try for the Innova studded tires. They are cheap tires that have mixed reviews. Generally, people aren't saying that they do not work, they are just saying that the stainless steal studs (rather then Carbide) wear down too fast.

Seems that you'll be lucky to get one season out of them rather then the usual 3-4 seasons out of Nokians/Swalbe studded tires. Here is a good thread i found on the Innova tires.

https://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in.../t-268951.html

I just got myself a pair of Innova 700x35c so heres hoping for one full season of grinding down metal

Innova sells restudding kits. So they're not necessarily disposable tires.

I just put some self tapping sheet metal screws in my regular tires (continental ultra sport) and they seem to be working fine. I just ended up having to use an old tube to line the inside and I had to cut the screws shorter with bolt cutters. There's a bike shop by me that sells some cheap cx tires though for $10 and up. I might pick up a pair of those and do the same thing.

Hmmm...I can get cx tires for $10/each plus $5 for screws. I have tire clearance issues (38's are about the tallest I can go), so that may be an issue. Problem with going with the Innovas is that for $5-10 more each, I can have an equivalently-studded Nokian which lasts 3x as long .

I can do all but a 1/2 mile of my commute on bike paths (it makes it almost 1/3 longer, but it's better than being hit by a car), but last night, on the way to Target, the roads were attrocious. Needless to say, I was wishing for something better than even mud tires (I was limping along on my Mt bike). Well, if anyone has any more thoughts on CX tires, let me know.

Do cyclocross tires play well with fenders? I'm in the market for winter tires, and I'd need to get no wider than a 700x30; 700x32 tires with minimal tread barely clear my fenders.

really depends on the clearance offered by the frame.
fenders take away a good 6~8mm of clearance. 5mm if you file some notches into the fender where it bottoms out on the frame.

this for instance is the largest (700x35mm) tire my 27" conversion frame will fit with fenders. The tires do rub the fenders over some bumps, but it doesn't bind and it doesn't rub when just going straight. there's only about 1~1.5cm of clearance left as shown, but the fenders bring it down to around 5mm.

I have a set of 700x 35c studded tires. Early each winter, the road conditions get bad and I chicken out and install the studded tires. They are better on black ice but the rubber compound doesn't do so well when the temperature drops to -15c or colder and I end up slipping around. They also have a tendency not to shed warmer, wetter snow, bunging up the fender area causing great drag.

After the roads gather a little gravel, I switch over to 700x32 Ritchey Trail Mix tires and usually finish off the winter season no matter what mother nature throws at me, even conditions as bad as those that forced me to the studded tires. Great tires with an aggressive tread but easy to pedal.

I get about 200kms use on the studs to the 3000kms on the Trail Mix tires each winter. Its all how you ride I guess.