Forum menu
I took a walk around the StrathPuffer course today. It's littered with bright shiny ice studs.
I picked up a few but quickly got fed up of all the bending, otherwise I could have had a sack full. What I noticed was that all of them had a bright and shiny head which suggests that the tyre had not been run in before the race - something Schwalbe advises is necessary.
On studs I have removed from my own ice tyres the heads are dull and discoloured because of rubber smears. They were properly run in. Mind you, doing that does not guarantee you won't lose some studs, but they seem to stay in the tyre better.
I can understand why people shortcut the running in process, it's bloody awful grinding along on tarmac with ice studs.
Failing the running in, is there another method? I was thinking along the lines of heating studs on a hotplate before insertion, ie get them hot enough to promote a bond between stud and tyre. Anyone tried that?
Ha! I found my tyres in my dad's shed, each stud covered in rust. Think he had done all the bedding in for me 😆
My issue was less about bedding in and the actual rubber studs ripping open.
The tool and spare studs are pretty decent for restudding
With schwalbe I did the proper bedding in once and still had a couple of studs come out on the first proper ride, so the other times I just did a single short road ride and then a gentler offroad ride and tbh it seemed no different, the only thing that did make a difference was just going out and riding on them on dirt normally on the first ride, that was bad.
Someone recommended me rubberised superglue for fitting replacement studs, does it help? No idea tbh, they still do come out. I just accepted that you have to check and refit studs pretty regularly in the end.
Are the studs ferrous? A magnet on a stick is a fine tool for anyone to own. Would help clean up the trail on your next outing if you fancied a tidy up.
Can't say I've ever lost any, despite the spares in the tool box. They were ridden gently first though and no serious stuff.
Although, I'm feeling the limitations of studded tyres. Came off on a main road, despite studs. They just let go on a black ice section of very smooth tarmac whilst turning into an industrial estate. Been on crutches for two weeks. Loads of pain in my hip/pelvis but no broken bones.
Yikes! What pressure were you running?
I only did a couple of seriously icy rides on mine, got some proper wheelspin riding up sheet ice on a gravel climb, was quite weird. I put it down to too high a pressure not allowing studs to bite properly.
30 PSI on Snow Studs on my old commuter MTB - only 100 spikes per tyre but have been ace the past 15 years of commuting. The Ice spiker Pro (400 studs) I use on the FS off road, and not for commuting. I could hear them scrabbling - I put it down to bad slick black ice on a super smooth tarmac where all the trucks and traffic wore it on a corner. I'd have been fine on the pavement ! Nightmare TBH, wife has gone mad.
Yeah that really sucks, here's to a quick recovery!
I've no external bruising, no marks on clothing, winter boots, gloves etc. Even the bar ends aren't 'more damaged' (I blew a front tyre in the summer and it dumped me on the path, and gouged the Eargon bar ends). Nothing visible. I went down so fast it took me by surprise and I can only think the leg got over extended as the bike slid out. SPD's disengaged as they should, but I was sliding still holding onto the bars.
Back to the studs, they have never let me down, I'm always conscious you can't beat physics with them, but I think the fact I was on a main road at that point (a small section of my commute) I didn't expect the black ice at that point in the corner, but it was slick given how far I slid.
Likely a few of mine in that picture. I lost a few this year due to the rubber studs starting to open up.
Seems a bit of a waste - it definitely wasn't a year that needed ice tyres!
I have often bought a set just in case, then sent them back. Having seen the state of some ice tyres this year though (50% of the studs gone) I'll just get some and bed them in for next time.
I've found that ice tyres with fewer than 300 studs just don't do anything on a proper slide - MTB ice tyres with the full array of studs are much more secure.
Seems a bit of a waste – it definitely wasn’t a year that needed ice tyres!
Ah, the great Puffer "spikers or no spikers" debate which rages pre, during and post event.
Having very nearly stacked it on the ice with spikers, it was very much a year for spikers.
(In my opinion.)
@fossy, is that maybe a wee bit high pressure for snow studs? I remember being a bit conflicted with mine, IIRC they had a 30psi minimum on the sidewall but I had to go down below that for them to really work on ice. That clever thing of "pump em up and the spikes are out of the way, let em down when it's icy" that meant I always had the pressire wrong at all times 🙂
There is a chance I had them 30 or slightly more as they were still 'crackling' but given how bad the conditions were, I possibly should have run lower !