Tires for compacted snow
 

I'm running my winter/gravel road bike with 700-37 Conti winter tires. I mostly ride when the roads are clear, though I do go through patches of snow, slush and even bits of ice. There are many times when hours, or a day after a snowfall the roads have snow on them, and it's been compressed from the cars. I'm wondering what sort of tire works well on such a road. I'm assuming studded tires are more for ice (which I usually stay clear of), but are they good for this type of snow (versus my current tires)? I can go bigger in volume, which I think might help (probably up to 40-42mm). However, there are not "that" many days when the snow is like this to maybe warrant a purchase...and swap tires, etc. But I ask to be informed as it might influence things...

I also found Conti Winter very universal, using them even for quite dip snow. When riding on the road and being afraid of an inadvertent slip, even on a compacted snow, I turn to Nokian W240, but pump to them to some pressure to reduce losses.

Studs help quite a bit on packed snow, in my experience.

Marathon Winters are my choice, for the icy and hardpacked, or loose / slushy plowed roads, or up about to 3-4 inches of newly fallen snow I encounter on my urban commute.

If you have zero concern about ice, then I would use a moderately aggressive cyclocross tire (or these might be narrow MTB tires/gravel tires) in as large of width as you can reasonably run on your bike. In packed snow, you can't cut down to the pavement with a narrow tire. So, you want to float on top, and the aggressive tread will give you traction to move forward and hopefully not wander around so much (side-to-side). Personally, I run a fairly aggressive 40mm studded tire (Nokian Hakkipulita W240) for this reason; it performs better in snow. That said, I am unwilling to give up my studs, as days with yesterday's warmth and overnight cold can make corners rather treacherous.

Finns Know Snow and Ice .. Suomi Tyres ... Nokian 106

x2 for this advice -- those are great tires and roll really well, even on bare pavement

If you want even less rolling resistance, a favourite combination of mine is a studded Winter Marathon up front and a studless Conti Winter in the rear. Best of both worlds.

any suggestions for non studded tires for road bike?

road conditions vary quite a bit between wet->slushy->packed snow. road are well salted so ice isn't an issue

last winter i ran normal road tires and it wasn't too but i'm thinking investing in better tires won't hurt.

cyclocross knobbies , One Cannot Race on studded tires , and races do continue in spite of snow.

But they wont be 25mm or less.. more 32 .. need CX type clearance on the frame.

Continental TopContact Winter studless tires are fabulous. Not as much traction as a studded tire, obviously, but they are soft rubber with lots of siping that grip well, even on icy roads, but have very low rolling resistance. On my cx bike, I pretty much always run one on the rear wheel (but I often use a studded tire up front for cornering, and use another Conti Winter in the front for the "shoulder seasons").

I like the Marathon Winters as well. What width do you use on the cyclocross?

I've observed that front tire size has limited effect on winter rolling resistance while contributing greatly to bike stability. I first noticed this while running a fat bike fork and 4.8" tire on the front of my touring bike with 700x35 in the rear. I expected to be very slow but could fly along surprisingly fast. So this winter I replaced the Nokian W240 on the front of my mountain bike with an aggressive 26 x 2.35 Ice Spiker Pro, which was a huge improvement.