home made snow/ice chains vs home made snow/ice spiked tyres

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home made snow/ice chains vs home made snow/ice spiked tyres

14 posts & 11 voices | Started 5 months ago by grimupnorth | Latest reply from FunkyDunc

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grimupnorth - Member

evenin lads,

just had a crack at making snow chains, as per pics below.

tested them out last night on millstone hill (aberdeen)

really good, grip on the climbs thru ice/snow was fantastic.....coming back down the hill was awesome.

for a first attempt I'm fair chuffed with 'em.

I had doubts about how well they would perform over bare rock....better than I expected was the answer.

I'm interested in how chains would compare against those spiked tyres, inc the homemade spiked tyres that people make.....how would the spikes fair on ground where theres no ice/snow???

anyone know? gies a clue!

cheers

EDIT: hold on pics look tiny, let me see if I can resize.

Posted 5 months ago #
grimupnorth - Member

Posted 5 months ago #
hammyuk - Member

Now that is a lot nicer than the cabletie method and I'm guessing a LOT cheaper than spikes at 60p each!

Posted 5 months ago #
BadlyWiredDog - Member

What happens if you flat?

Posted 5 months ago #
grimupnorth - Member

@ hammy, £4.79 per wheel for 2m of chain (from homebase) & 1 bag of tie wraps £3.50

@ badlywired, dread to think buddy, reckon it's a shove back to the car

Posted 5 months ago #
DavidB - Member

Go tubeless then flats not such an issue as you can repair without removing tyre

Posted 5 months ago #
cynic-al - Member

Any reason for the inconsistent/random spacing?

FWIF I'd have thought the durability of the proper stuff (over a basic steel chain/screws) would win every time.

Posted 5 months ago #
razor1548 - Member

"Any reason for the inconsistent/random spacing?"

Look again.

Then again. Then again... until you get it!

Posted 5 months ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

This will be the third year I have used my bought ice pike tyres that just work 0- seriuously good. faff free and not that expensive - this is what I have
http://www.thebikechain.co.uk/Continental-Spike-Claw-120-26x2.1-200911270100/

Posted 5 months ago #
grimupnorth - Member

Any reason for the inconsistent/random spacing?

FWIF I'd have thought the durability of the proper stuff (over a basic steel chain/screws) would win every time.

------

just thought I'd try something different al.

rear wheel is chained every 2nd spoke, 16 chains in total.

front wheel thought I'd try something a wee bit different, still 16 chains but just a different arrangement.....chain, chain, gap, chain, gap, gap, chain, repeat

Posted 5 months ago #
Highland28 - Member

I bought some Schwalbe ice spikers the other week, having tried them on my dads 5. Thought I would just get one for the front as they are expensive and I am a student, Nextdaytyres kindly gave me 2 though found them very good when i tried them, fine over any ground, however a little skittery over the bare rocks round the puffer route.

Posted 5 months ago #
Northwind - Member

I'll be matching my homemade spike tyre against a Schwalbe snow stud this year. If it ever snows again anyway. Be interesting to see how they compare.

Posted 5 months ago #
cupid stunt - Member

Nice one

Posted 5 months ago #
FunkyDunc - Member

I'm surprised they work that well, the whole point of snow chains on a car is because they are pretty smooth so therefore can not dig in to the snow, bike tyres dont have that problem. On ice I'm surprised they offer much more grip too because surely the spacing on the rear also leaves enough time for the tyre to contact, defeating the object?

I've always found that any normal tyre works fine in snow, especially those with more lug spacing, but I think on ice I would want proper spiked tyres.

Posted 5 months ago #

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