Studs on pavement
 

For those of you who commute with studded tires, how do you find them to wear on concrete and asphalt/tarmac? I just put on a set of Wrathchilds, which are concave carbides, on my fat bike. The route I was riding was about 15% ice, 15% packed snow, and 70% clean. They worked excellent on the ice, but I'm curious as to how pavement riding will affect them in the long run. I got them for a steal, but at $350-400 a set new, I'd hope they would last a while.

I can only speak from personal experience. Contrary to what a lot of people will tell you, carbide studs do get rounded off at the tips and eventually wear out. It all depends on how much riding you do on bare pavement and how much you weigh.... If you ride longer distances every single day for a couple of months in a row then yes carbide studs will wear out. If you ride less often on bare pavement, studs will last for a couple of years...I've noticed that the rear wears out faster than the front, so what I do is I rotate my tires every year to get a more even wear and make them last longer. Also try not to skid or ride too aggressively on pavement because the studs can get ripped out. ..Personally I've worn out one pair of studded tires in 3 seasons, and I have another set which is 8 years old and still good...I also have two bikes set up for winter. One has studs and the other has regular tires with some aggressive tread. I only use the studs when I feel it's necessary, and ride my bike with regular tires when conditions aren't too bad. Every winter is different.

I do not know about the specific tires, but at least for Nokian/Suomi tires you can get replacement studs. I have not really worn them out but I lost a few so being able to fix that was comforting. At least during recent winters in Michigan, I find the conditions calling for studded tires to be pretty limited. When in doubt I put a studded tire just in the front.

IME, carbide studs do get rounded if you ride bare ground.

So, if you ride hard, and/or is VERY attuned to the response of your bike, it's probably possible to notice a degradation in performance.
I suppose it's possible to call that "worn out".

Most of my miles are commuter miles. And while I might push the riding envelope wrt weather and mileage, hard cornering isn't one of my trademarks.

And while I certainly have managed to round mine off, I've never been able to reduce the height of them to any noticeable amount.
It's usually the base of the studs going through the casing and rubbing holes in the tube that's my limiting factor.
Some studs have carbide cores and steel mantles, other have carbide cores and aluminium mantles.
Those with aluminum mantles have a slightly better "self-sharpening" ability. The mantle wear away faster, leaving more of the narrower carbide tip exposed.
Exactly how much this helps WRT traction, I can't tell.
Visually, it's quite noticeable.
And certainly looks like it could do some good.

There are other threads discussing this same concern. Some people change wheels for the road conditions of that day. But it never made sense to me because road conditions can and do change drastically within the day.

So like others, I leave my studded tires on and do ride on dry pavement. I don't worry too much about wearing down my studs. I do have a pack of spare studs in case I need to replace some but it's only been about four years of winter riding and I haven't noticed anything bad about them yet.

I've ridden a set of Mount & Grounds for at least 8 winters and they show minimal wear on the studs. Nothing I'd be concerned about.

I haven't paid much attention, tbh. Any wear that occurs, I just look at it as the price of admission. I do keep some spare studs handy for when I lose one.

That in the Detroit area? Do you ever wish it was more like 70% ice, and the rest clean?

Thanks for the advice! Not so much worried, just more curious how long they were actually expected to last. Sounds like the biggest concern is tossing them, so I'll keep an eye out on that situation.

Sault Ste Marie. Back up north for winter testing cars!

I've a couple sets of Nokian tires that are over 10 years now. That said, I'm more of a recreational commuter. I'm out for the occasional grocery store run, and a couple or three exercise rides when I can make them work into my schedule. Maybe 10-20 miles per week during winter? Spread across usually at least two bikes? Something like that.

That's close! We could have a Bikeforums Meetup. Hey, if you ever get time to drive as far as Marquette, there are some nicely groomed trails there for winter riding. I can't go on them w/my skinny tires, but your fat-tire bike would be perfect. Ishpeming and Negaunee also, though I'm less familiar w/those areas. Plenty of hard core fat-tire riders in those cities though.

Yeah, I keep meaning to get to MQT, but I work pretty 10-11 hours on the weekdays. I go home every other weekend, and work the Saturdays I'm up here as well. Leaves me pretty much every other Sunday as a free day, but if I get over that way, I'll let you know! I really like that brewery with the pizzas next to the firehouse!

Years ago I went through a phase of 100% travel for work. Home on the weekends. I know what that's like. Not easy. Finding time for anything but driving back and forth on weekends was difficult.

Plenty of snow falling here in Munising. I'm looking at it come down right now outside my window. Should be good for your winter testing, right? We get heaps of it here by the lake.

Definitely good for testing, the track was pretty useless last week. We got dumped on the last two days, definitely not worrying about studs on pavement anymore :thumb:

Suomi
 

Like # 6 , but My set are 27 years old* .. still hold every stud (26 x 1.9")...

*Ice is an occasion, not a season, here..

What you fail to mention is that Mount & Grounds don't have studs along the centre of the tire. They only have rows of studs along the outer edge of the tire and those studs don't touch the pavement unless the tires are run at low pressure and when leaning over and cornering. The centre studs are the ones which get most beat up from pavement riding and they will wear out if somebody spends a lot of time on bare pavement. Stud wear is usually not an issue for a recreational rider but it can be an issue for a daily commuter who spends a lot of time on pavement and often carries extra loads with them.

depends on your rim * they do touch the pavement, but, being tungsten carbide steel same as car tire studs , it seems to not matter

*Snow Cat wide rims in my bike..

I'm sure that studs wear, but I haven't seen any wear on mine yet. They start out a bit rounded. I'll replace them when they get down too far, but in the meantime I consider it a cost of doing business. At the same time I now have another bike set up with pavement tires but otherwise prepped for winter, that I can ride if I'm sure there will be no snow or ice.

From someone who does a lot of winter biking on pavement, but not usually on a lot of snow, what is the first thing I need to know about biking on snow, other than lower the psi in the tires?

Backup: I have an 22 mile round trip each day through suburbs / country roads and I'm discovering that a mild coating of snow leaves slush and ice on the pavement that is not getting cleared. This morning I tried biking on the shoulder where there was packed snow but I encountered some immediate fishtailing so I went back to the slush. Not sure if that's a long term strategy.