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First commute on studded tires

I found a pair of studded tires at one of the swaps a year or two ago and put them on a bike in the midst of general tire changing and patching a few weeks ago.

Today was the first day it really seemed to make sense to take that bike out (9 miles round trip.)

Pretty sure these are the tires:

http://www.amazon.com/Innova-Studded-Black-steel-studs/dp/B001CK2IXY

I may have paid $30 for the pair . . .slightly used I think.

In situ:

Impressions:

They definitely work. I tried torquing down and braking on various ice sheets (put my foot down to check that they were indeed slick) and it seems to be close to impossible to get any slippage at all to happen.

I was a bit wary of losing studs after reading reviews of people losing some percentage of their studs with each ride, but I was unable to find a single missing stud.

That's the good news. The rest of my impressions are less positive. Here they are in descending order of gravity (or ascending order of piddliness.)

-If you're looking for maximum rolling resistance, this is the way to go about it.

On dry pavement it takes about twice as much effort to get from A to B per my totally subjective assessment. I'd guess I was able to cruise along at about 10 mph without going anaerobic.  If I had to move quickly for a short period I doubt I could get much above 16-18 mph, and I doubt I'd be able to hold that for much more than 1/2 a block.

-If you rely on your hearing to any extent to know when cars are coming up behind you, you may be in trouble with these as the sound of the studs on asphalt is loud, and very similar in pitch and timbre to the sound of an approaching car.

-the bike will only go in the direction the front wheel is pointing.  I few times I got a bit of a start by trying to make a subtle course correction by leaning (wasn't even aware I do that) and noticed that the bike does not respond to the input, but continues to stubbornly follow the front wheel's alignment. A little like being on a track.

-on dry pavement (which is most of a ride even on icy days) you feel the entire time like you're wearing the studs down second by second, which is kind of an icky feeling.

-by about 1/3 into the first leg I had gotten comfortable with the idea that I could just  ride on over ice patches and cast my worries to the wind . . . but I wonder if that's such a good thing to habituate to?

I think there was more but I'll update as it comes to me.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by S.Presley☠ on January 28, 2012 at 3:51pm

Interesting stuff...thanks for the info

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on January 28, 2012 at 4:22pm

Great personal write-up on studded tires Howard.

Here is a bunch more info on studded tires from Peter White if anyone wants to do some more reading/research on them.  PW makes a lot of good points and observations too.  Bear in mind that he's a dealer and that does color his judgement.  

I think Howard's post here adds much to the info from PWC.  Thanks!

Permalink Reply by David P. on January 28, 2012 at 10:25pm

If your tires have carbide studs then you can forget about wearing them out, as they'll last you practically forever. If they're not carbide, then yes, they'll eventually wear out. I've had a set of studded tires for several winters now; sometimes I've only used them a few times in a season, other times I've ridden all winter on them. But, as you see, they are slow, heavy and noisy and tend to suck a bit of fun out of your bike's handling....until you get to ice. Even when I am riding on dry pavement most of the time, I like having them to avoid surprises. All of the ice sheets I encountered tonight were a perfect reminder. 

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on January 29, 2012 at 1:31am

Yup! Pretty much sums up my safe winter riding experiences with my 700c Nokian carbide studs.

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on January 29, 2012 at 9:34am

Thanks for sharing your experience h! I've long considered studded tires to be a novelty - like perhaps something one would use for kicks on a frozen lake or something, but not worth the bother and expense for commuting. But I never imagined that riding on them would be as bad as you describe. The sound and the rolling resistance - hugely obvious now that you mention it - never occurred to me.

I guess they might be useful for commuters who live in areas with hills and which don't plow and salt to the extent that Chicago does.

Thanks for saving at least one of us the bother of trying them ourselves.

Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on January 29, 2012 at 12:03pm

I have a studded tire in the rear and none up front. I need the studs for traction for generating power only. Try a regular tire up front; it will reduce the noise and probably help you steer better.

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on January 29, 2012 at 12:10pm

Hmmmm . . . not sure about that; I've heard it said by people who seem to have pretty deep cycling knowledge that if you're going to have only one studded tire, you want it on the front, as you'll go down lighting-fast when your front starts to slide but generally have time to correct or bail when the rear starts to slide out.  Sounds sensible to me, especially considering my last fall on ice (~2 years ago) was of the lighting-fast-front-tire-slipper-outer variety.

I didn't find the steering to be a huge problem, just thought I'd include it to try to illustrate the feeling to those who have never tried studded tires

Permalink Reply by blair on January 29, 2012 at 12:39pm

Thanks for sharing!  Definitely helpful!

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on January 29, 2012 at 1:43pm

Riding with these on during the winter keep me safe from all those sheets of ice when hauling my trailer around town. I found it makes me a stronger rider when spring comes around and they come off.

Permalink Reply by Brendan Kevenides on January 30, 2012 at 8:36am

I have two bikes I generally ride in the winter.  One has studded tires and the other doesn't.  The one with studs allows me to ride safety when conditions really wouldn't allow me to ride at all, like when there is a ton of ice on the streets.  But everything h' said above is true.  I wouldn't want studded tires on my only bike.  It would just be a drag for the times when they are unnecessary, which is most of the time.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on January 30, 2012 at 9:18am

I'm thinking of cleaning up a coaster-brake single-speed step-through I have in my garage as a winter beater and throwing a set of Nokians on it.  I'd probably put an X-FDD dyno-brake hub up front for safety/lights/brakes while I was fixing it up.  That would give me something to jump on when there was really bad conditions (these days that is only  a few days a winter)  and leaving the studded tires on it all the time. 


That would free up my daily driver to just wear knobbies in the winter and slicks in the summer and not have to worry about needing to put studded tires on it in case the weather is really bad. 

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on January 30, 2012 at 12:36pm

I took studly to work today because I was running late (first  time for everything!) and it was ready  to go, and on the way here the perfect analogy came to me: Like riding a bike on a giant glue trap.

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