Ice, studs & tire pressure
 

Maybe I'm over thinking this but I'd like some confirmation.

A tire with higher pressure would have less surface contact on ice than one with lower pressure.

So the higher pressure tire would have less studs digging in but each stud would have more force so would dig in deeper and give you more traction.

That's why I recently pumped my tires back up to 7psi from 5psi so I can ride in both snow and ice without too much resistance on pavement.

I tried lower rear tire pressure on black ice, but tire bounce negated the benefit of more studs making contact because the contact became intermittent. Front tire doesn't bounce much under pedaling so I can leave that one at a lower pressure.

Don't you mean that higher pressure creates more bounce than lower pressure? So if the front tire doesn't bounce much even under high pressure, it would benefit from having the studs dig in with more force, wouldn't it?

And if the rear tire bounces a lot, does that mean it would be better for the rear to have lower pressure to maintain the surface contact even though the studs won't dig in as much?

By bounce I mean the rim moving up and down as the sidewalls flex, not the tire leaving the ground. At low pressure the rim moving up and down creates a point at which very little weight is on the rear wheel making it easy for the wheel to spin out. At higher pressure the tire is firm and the sidewalls flex very little.

It's dependent on the tires you're using, not all tires have the same tread/stud pattern. I have 45NRTH Dillinger 4 studded tires and have been happy with 6 psi on bare ice and good for soft snow too. You still can't do anything crazy on the bare ice.

For reference, here's a video from a race I did last month on a frozen lake:

For races and more aggressive riding (ie twisty single-track), I like front and rear studded tires. The small number of winter races I've done, they have all included some lake ice or refreeze sections that will hurt you with out studded tires. If I get into more winter races, I want to get a set of Bud and Lou tires for races without ice, friends tell me they are a great combo on snow.

OTOH I like studded front only for commuting on roads or MUPs.

Studs in MN
 

I think the Nates are only good for loose dirt/mud; since I never ride those conditions I really don't like them.

Studded fat tires are crazy $$$! I was reminded many times that my bike tires cost more than a car tires. But, I put more miles on my bike than my car, so it makes sense to me ;)

do you think the people falling during that race had studs? Seemed like the ice to snow transitions caused a lot of problems.

One of the last times I commuted on ice, my bike started sliding on ice as I was approaching a stop at the bottom of a hill. I think that was the only time that any of my bikes with studs has ever done that. I studded the back tire myself, so it's not fully studded. I don't think that has ever really been the cause of any problems.

Most of the racers on the ice had studs, most are riding stock studded tires. Lake ice can be challenging, and it was 0F on this day, so the ice was very hard. Everybody was messing with tire pressure to find something that would give you the most grip and get the max number of studs in contact with the ice at a time. I found it basically came down to, don't make any sudden movements, no hard braking, no hard accelerations.
I'm not sure if the Facebook link will work, but I have a coupe buddies that were out with a group ride on Lake Minnetonka yesterday, the whole lake is a skating rink, smooth ice and no snow.
edit, I can't post this as a link in BF, so if you're a FB user, try pasting this link into your browser
edit the edit, screw it, that doesn't even work. Is there a policy against FB on BF?

@Hypno Toad what FB page were you trying to share?

Let's see if this works https:// www.facebook.com /colin.threinen /videos /10218032007090914/

I added spaces, since BF has not allowed any other option for this link ... I use links for YouTube videos all the time. Facebook is very different, it might be a Facebook issue, but I don't have a lot of time to dig into it today.