are studded tyres any good or are they just a gimmick?

very good on ice/compacted snow.

make your own with some small screws and gaffer tape and some old tyres.

fantastic. I was riding on sheet ice / boilerplate and could turn and brake like a normal tyre on tarmac even when you couldn’t stand up because of the ice- mine are proper conti ones with 120 ti studs per tyre

Mine are crappy bodged screws-through-Nevegals and even that makes a massive difference (as in, a “didn’t crash, would have several times” difference) And still probably not as good as the real thing.

Also they make a brilliant noise and they look proper mad max.

are they OK to ride in normal weather conditions? or do you change to them when it gets icy?

Do you think you could make them with pop rivets or would they wear out too quickly?

On ice – great.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjGMgoftPU4[/video]

Off ice – draggy, noisy, expensive.

Depends how much you want to ride on ice? I got some Ice spikers and Snow studs. Reduce by 1 the number of excuses I might have to stay indoors on the bad days so worth it for me. So far lasted 3 years, and I’ve lent them out to 2 puffers. Still look new.

#Edit – I forgot to say the difference is exactly like: walk on sheet ice with normal shoes. You’ll fall if you turn, run suddenly. Then imagine doing the exact same where someone has evenly sprikled the whole sheet with sharp sand. Basically, you have a whole pile more grip, but not perfect. You can still fall. But you have to be daft to provoke it.

Yorkshire Pudding – Member

Do you think you could make them with pop rivets or would they wear out too quickly?

I tried that, with stainless rivets… Didn’t work very well at all tbh, they lacked bite. I had the definate feeling they were slippier on un-iced surfaces than a normal tyre too. (oh, and putting 120 rivets in a tyre exploded my hands 😉 )

Nice one thanks for trialing that for me! Saved me wasting my time on a useless winter project! 😆

DIY:

DSC_0486 by ir_bandito, on Flickr

But gaffer tape wasn’t the greatest, I’m going to get some proper tyre-liners this winter to stop the screwheads getting to the inner tubes.

It’s worth saying that the tyres on bought studded tyres are nowhere near as long as those screws.

Indeed, I have some Conti spikes and to prove to a race official that they wouldn’t do you any more harm than a normal tyre, I put my hand on my spinning tyre and stopped it. The studs are virtually flush with the tyre tread so it’s just a friction burn like a normal tyre, that beast above would rip you apart

I have a winter project that I started, about 100 screws on a Conti Vertical. Didn’t get round to trying it or even lining it and very much doubt I ever well. If any wants it they can have it for the cost of a pint and postage (or you can pick it up from near Stourbridge, West Mids).

Always just used ordinary tyres in the snow, just stick to the softer stuff ie nothing that has been mega compacted down, but I’ve never found that an issue off road anyhow.

However I do run the same tyres all year round so I guess for some folk I’m weird anyhow 🙂

I fancied trying the screws through an old tyre approach until I got worried about the damage it would do to my undercarriage if hanging off the saddle and getting buzzed off the tyre. Think it’s only happened once or twice before but the damage screws would do coming into contact with my gentleman parts scares me far too much! 😯

It is so good cycling past cars stuck in queues because of ice & snow.

Had one epic grin moment last year when a copper got in to a total panic when he saw me approaching fast a sharp bend on a hill. There had been a crash because of black ice & I just sailed past.

Consider the Schwalbe or Nokian over the Conti’s. They are more expensive but the studs are tingsten carbide and so should last a lot longer.

Been using Schwalbe Ice Spikers for the past two winters and they’re ace on both hard-pack snow and particularly sheet ice. Nothing special on softer snow, but then nothing is. They were superb for riding back lanes in the Peak on days when the trails were just drifted to hell. A little heavy and draggy on tarmac and make a fierce noise, but nothing dreadful and very, very durable even with a fair bit of riding.

They do have limitations, as someone said above, they’re not completely idiot proot, more like riding on a slightly loose, slippy surface than having ‘normal grip’, but you can happily ride on sheet ice. Last year, I noticed that grip reduced as temperatures went below -10?C or so as the sun went down, measured by the level of uphill angle needed before the rear span out on me…

Over Jacob’s on sheet ice and up Chapel Gate and back over the Roych on Christmas Eve was ‘interesting’, at one point I found myself lying in the middle of a ten-foot wide stream of water ice and having to basically crawl off it dragging my bike behind me…

Worth it? Over the last couple of years, definitely; let me ride trails I would have had trouble walking along. If this winter’s anything like those and you want to keep riding even when everything’s frozen hard, they make a lot of sense.

Just received my Ice Spikers from Mr. Postman. I went for the Pros because they seemed to be significant lighter than the normal ones. They say on the side that they are tubless ready as well which is a bonus. Will be using them for my on/off road commute & trail riding. Just hoping for some snow now!!

I’ve just ordered the normal ice spikers – I’m going to run them on XM819’s with a tube once the weather looks more like snowfall.

Cannot be arsed trying to covert them to tubeless for the few days we’ll probably get to use them for.

stevemtb – fit a rear crud catcher?

tyres on bought studded tyres are nowhere near as long as those screws

I know. If I can find the time, I’ll grind them down – only need a teensy bit of metal sticking out – they’ll make a right mess if I fall on them.
Still, 1 pair of old tyres, £5 worth of screws and a couple of hours with a drill. Bit cheaper than new tyres for using a couple of months of the year, possibly.

Has anyone tried Ice Spikers and Snow Studs?

The Ice Spikers look much more aggressive (and expensive), so much real world difference between the two?

ir_bandito,

I’ve got a pair of old Cinders that I’m going to put some screws through but I was going to do it on the outer nobbly bits, a bit like another pair I saw that had been made ice friendly. The idea of that is that you let some air out when it’s very icy so the screws grip but pump them up when its not too icy so there’s less rolling resistance.

Where do you think I should be screwing my Cinders, outer or inner nobbles??? I want to make the best use of my two hours drilling & screwing 😯

I have these – teh 120 stud ones so only the studs on theoutside of the tyres
http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/de/en/continental/bicycle/themes/mtb/specialists/spike_claw/spikeclaw_en.html

Has anyone tried Ice Spikers and Snow Studs?

Found this comparison which helped me make up my mind

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/article2340.html

Cheers for that zllog, makes interesting reading.

Christ – I nearly killed myself bedding the things in.

I did my regular commute to work (15miles each way) on the hardtail with these fitted at 50psi instead of my usual road bike – which is close enough to the specified 40km.

I nearly split myself in two with effort trying not to be 10 minutes late, which left my legs totally banjaxed for the return trip.

Did laugh at the noise on tarmac, sounds like the static at the end of a 78 record. On close inspection of the tyres the centre studs on the rear are bedded in, the outer studs and the whole of the front wheel look no different. I might swop the front and back and do another 5miles or so to bed the other set of centres in but I can’t imagine dropping to 30psi to bed the outers in and get anywhere in a hurry.

Fingers crossed for snow and ice now.

I was surpised to be told that the new “clas ohlson” stores stock ice spike tyres, haven’t been to look so can’t tell you manufacturer or prices, but might be worth a wander in or browse of their catalogue (can’t find anything in their online site)

You want a middle clear section and lots and lots of screw nubs on the outside. These are cheap Decathlon tyres £6 and about 100 screws per tyre. Never again. But fab when it really does snow.

Never again. But fab when it really does snow

Is that on account of the arduous task of putting 100 screws in each tyre? I’ve got some old Cinders and have now got the screws I was going to start putting them in-situ this coming week. I hope it’s worth it 🙂

I had the idea of lining the interior of the tyre with old car tyre inner tube material cut to size and maybe glued in place. I thought this might protect the inner tubes from the screw heads. Has anyone else tried this?

Oh, is it that time of the year again?!

This shall be the third winter with these beauties. Carefully made, lined properly with old ultralight 1″ MTB slicks with the beads removed. No punctures or issues in hundreds of miles. Only issue is screws, especially those providing drive on the rear tyre, need replacement each season.

Interestingly these can find grip on proper off road where studded tyres can’t – last winter I was getting up technical climbs that are impossible except with these tyres or more conventionally on regular rubber in the very driest conditions.

Yes 100 screws each tyre gets very tiresome, wear gloves and on no account ever flip the bike upside down, spin rear wheel and lower face to check a rubbing disk rotor. 😮 I started to lower face to get a closer look, then had a thought “should I be doing this – froze” and realised I was inches from losing my cheeks.