Longevity of studded tires?
 

Our first snowfall was pretty rad and provoked me to splurge on a pair of Nokian Extreme's (which are lovely). Since then, however, we've had little snow and i've been riding on mostly pavement. My commute is roughly 15 miles round-trip a day, should i be concerned about wearing these out in no-time?

Nokian tires use carbide tipped studs. They'll last a long time and riding on pavement isn't a problem. However, you'll want to me more careful with them than you would a standard MTB tire. Jumping curbs, riding down stairs, etc is a good way to loose some studs.

thanks! now i won't be concerned with cashing out on an extra wheelset.

I'd leave them on, considering where you live. Carbide studs (unlike steel) are very,very tough. If you take the Extremes off, you are almost guaranteed to cause immediate freezing rain, followed by a foot of snow. Seeing as I live in the next state over, I wouldn't want you to do that. I just put Extreme 294s on my mbt and plan on leaving them on at least until March. Granted, I'm a little bit farther north than you (MI tip-o-the-mitt) and probably get more lake-effect as well.

I have about 2,500km on a set of schwable carbide studs.. mostly pavement, they're going to last about 7,500km before the central studs are worn out which leaves the outside studs mostly unworn which are the important ones to catch you from sliding out... so the tire will still have life left in it after that.

Also consider you're sparing the other set of tires from that use... so the summer set should last you a lot longer.

Considering you can get 2 to 3 seasons out of a car studded tire, yours will last a while.

I've ridden Nokians for 3 years and the studs just rounded off a little, they're still fine. However, I did have two problems; one, I ripped out a dozen or so, and two, some of the studs started pushing INTO the tire and punctured the tube. I had to finish the season with a tire liner. You think studded tires are heavy, add a tire liner.

Which Nokians? Were they the Extremes?

I bought some replacement studs. I can't recall right off where I got them but if you really want to know I could find out. It might have been Wrench Science out of California. They are not that hard to replace using pliers and a small flat-bladed screw driver.

I've never had the studs wear out on a Nokian, but all of them eventually rip out at the sides. Tape works for a while to keep them functional, but I've gone through about one tire per winter. Mind, they get abused alot under me! But I've had the same set of summer tires (Michelin) for three years now so it isn't all me. THey might last longer at a higher PSI, but they seem to work better if kept on the low side. I suspect that's why I'm tearing them.

You mean the sidewalls are tearing? Maybe it has something todo with your rim width?

I though they were wide enough, but maybe not.

If the rim isn't wide enough and you run it at a super lower pressure you put more wear on the tire through a rotation on the outer-edge of the wire-bead. The rim pushes into the tire and this rubs the outer sidewalls. If the rim is fairly wide there is less twisting of the bead because the rim sits further out and doesn't sink into the tire, instead it sits on the stronger sidewalls.

Anyways, hope that makes sense... might explain why you're having these annual failures, unless you are racking up a looot of miles!