sheet metal screws?
 

is this the way to go for winter riding, or should i use something else? need to know ASAP

They will work. But don't ride them on the road, they wear out ultra fast. Also, a very rugged tire liner will be needed. After you have taken the time to put enough in to do one tire, you might want to have bought some stuuded tires. Innova makes some that only retail around $35 apeice.

well, i mean, i want to do it for the price of the screws.

you could but it will take lots of time to do it, and you will have to get some anti-puncture layer installed between the screws and the tubes.

The tread pattern of the tires you want to use is very important also. Use tires with the biggest knobs you can find. Running the screws through small knobs will ensure they get ripped out sooner than later.

ill try, i just need to know if regular sheet metal screws will work, because i want them to cut into the snow.

Studs will be of no help in snow, unless it is hardpack. And even then, the studs may be more of a problem than just big tires. They tend to cut down on a tire's ability to float on the crust. Studs work best on ice.

I am on my second set of home made studded snow tires. I used some small headed phillips screws on a pair of 1.5 Specialized Crossroads. The screws only stick through the knob about 1 full thread. The first set were with the same type of screws on 1.9 knobs. I use an old pair of slicks with the wire bead removed as a liner. The 1.5 tires are too narrow. That's what I used this morning and I had a tough time with the semi-frozen snow ruts. Wider is better. Also, I ran a set of studs down the middle of the front tire thinking it would give me better traction. NOT! Instead, my front end was very unstable! I'm very much a "do-it-yourselfer". I think I'm going to buy my next set of studded tires. That's what my experience has taught me. Hope I didn't burst your dream! Try it! You may get something to work!

i hope everyone knows im talking about dirtbikes, cause im not sure what this whole forum is about, but. when i was watching Winter X Games 8 earler this year, they said that they just regular sheet metal screws for it, and thats why i thought it would be a good idea.

Yep, This is a bicycle forum. Ice racers use hex headed sheet metal screws that can be sharpened with a file. Extra inner liners are used to prevent punctures as stated above.

Use self-starting-screws. I've heard these screws have hardened tips. Also you can get them shorter so they don't stick out so far out of the knob. I've ridden them on pavement (not very far) and they seem to hold up just fine. I did a tire for about $12 (two boxes of screws).

Make sure the screws don't stick out straight up and down but tilted to the side and like jharte says don't put them in the very center of the tread.

When I looked at it, I just didn't see how making your own studs makes sense economically. I bought a pair of Nokians for $100 from Peter White. To make my own, I'd have spent $35 for a pair of cheap tires at my LBS, then another $15 for tire liners, then at least another $10 for screws. So I'd have $60 plus at least a couple of hours labor into a set of studded tires guaranteed to last no more than a season. Add $10 a season plus time, for the 4 seasons that a pair of Nokians are said to last, and I'm up to $90. 4 hours of my time is worth more than $10. That's not counting the time it would take to go out and get all the junk I'd need to make them.

I just rode through the first slushy roads with them the day before thanksgiving. They seemed to work great, but I didn't have any real ice, so the jury is still out. But I'm sure they can't perform worse than a set of sheet metal screws with the points worn off (IE more than 2 days old).

re you guys using hexes pointing in or Phillips headed screws pointing out?

I just made up a set of tires using 3/8 stainless screws @$4.26 a box of 100.used an old pair of MB tires with large grips,they went in fine,I can get bad
old 26x1.9 tubes from the bike shop to make liners out of, so they should be fine, i also put a coating of silicone sealer on the tires and brushed it out with a paint brush and rolled it through some small sand,this works great for ice and snow and the cost is very small!!! good luck!

points in or out?

We screwed Sheet metal screws into the knobbies on a friends 250 Elsinore a hundred years ago during an ice storm, and I was doing wheelies on ice. So they should work on a MTB. Nokians are the way to go though.

I was doing that only 30 years ago. That must have been world's first Elsinore. :lol:

points out
 

Points go from the inside out! pre drill the hole first,smaller than the screw threads diameter,3/32 is what i used, i think, take your time and try to get it in the center of the lug,i put 100 in my front tire,all on the sides and about 50 in the back on center. joe

Yeah it was a '73, bought new in a crate in '75 for 600 bucks. Seems like 100 years ago! That bike was mental! When the power came on ,you had better be paying attention. I had a '75 Husky CR 250 that was much more rideable. Those were some fun times.:beer:

Wow! $600 seems impossible now. Even then that was a good deal.
I had that exact same Husky. I should have kept it forever. :(

I'm still kicking myself for selling that bike. It was a Heikki Mikkola Replica. I had that and a 750 Triumph Trident up on the Cape, when my 68 Impala/dirt bike carrier got stolen and totaled. So it had to go. 800 bucks to a good home. If I ever have enough money for another toy, I'm getting either another Husky or a KTM. They are street legal from the factory now.

Maybe i'm just not "Hardcore" or "X-treme" enough, but I don't really see why you should bother doing this when you can get a variety of Nokians reasonably affordably. I mean, maybe if you're the kind of guy who builds their frame and wheels from scratch just for fun..

Well, to put it this way, especially around Christmas, I don't have ninety bucks lying around. But I do have some old knobbies. And we have plenty of pan headed self-tapping screws at work. I could buzz those screws into a tire with a cordless drill in about fifteen minutes, for free, and be on my way.

Good to get all these tips. I should have come here earlier.
I took an old knobby tire and drilled holes all around on both sides off center. I pushed short bolts through and used a lock washer and nut on the outside. I lined the inside of the tire with duct tape and haven't had a problem, unless you count the ice... Actually the tire works pretty well on packed snow. I'm into the deal about $7 and a little over an hour.
Does it make a difference with front suspension? Will the front studs dig in better if I have it locked out or maybe pumped up a bit stiffer?

My studded tires are on their second season and still look and work great.

I used Robertson headed sheet metal screws and mounted then on the outer edge of some inexpensive 1.75 Kendas (20.00 each), used an old tire tube as a liner, and have been flying along happily through everything a Canadian winter can toss at me.

The build time was about 40 minutes which included the removal and re-mounting of the tire and the screws cost $10.00

So... $50.00 and some time is what I have into my winter tires.

I run my tire pressure so the studs are just touching the ground (about 45 psi).