unterhausen

I will be perfectly happy if I get zero commuting miles on my fatbike this year. I bought it to ride on snow up in the mountains, pretty sure that always happens

esmith2039

Just ordered by first set of studded tires as a few have. Got the Kenda Klondike K946's which seemed to have good reviews. Told my wife I'd probably get five to eight years out of them. Kenda's might be a bit heavier but seem to hold up well on my commute and I'm not a speed demon either. Ice is more of a issue here than snow. Going to put them on the Specialized. I looked a Mongoose fat tire bike tonight at KMart for 200ish seemed awful heavy.. next time I'm in a LBS I'll compare to what they have. No way I'd ride that Mongoose everyday!

Lug

For two winters I rode a 2.3" Nokian Freddie's Revenz as the front tire and a 2.1" Nokian Extreme 294 as a rear tire on a 2000 Specialized RockHopper. I found that they worked better when mounted on a set of Snowcat rims (44 mm wide and drilled) instead of stock width mountain bike rims. This year I upgraded to a 2015 Salsa Fargo and installed Schwables Ice Spiker Pro studded tires (29x2.25). These tires don't feel as solid on the ice as the Nokians, but they are mounted on stock width rims. Going to order a set of the Snowcats for this bike also and see if that improves the feel.
Justin

noglider 

To those of you who have bought new tires for winter, please be sure to report on how they work once you've tested them well. We haven't had anything freeze here yet.

chas58

sweet! Thanks for the reviews.


FYI, 700c standard road tires are the same diameter as 26" standard tires. so, they are going to roll the same, unless you use fatter tires (>40mm for 700c or >3" for 26" rims).




In my fat bike tests, I could ride pretty far on 6-12 inches on tires up to 3" the 4" to 5" tires had way too much resistance in deep snow to go more than about 20 feet. The only real advantage I see with fat bikes is they really float over choppy rutted surfaces.


I have never heard of anyone around here riding fat bikes on ungroomed snow trails.


The advantage of 2" tires over skinnier ones is that you can run with much lower pressure. 20psi is reasonable for the front tire (nothing as low as a fat bike tire though).

@dscheidt - did you break the tires in properly? That is rather important with studded tires.

dscheidt

I put the tires on the bike, added air, and rode it. That's what tires are for. I'm not an aggressive rider, I don't corner hard, I don't skid to break. If the maker can't install studs properly, they're selling defective tires. The studs on my marathons simply fell out, because they weren't put into the pockets properly.

I say that someone who has installed thousands of studs in auto and light truck snow tires. The only studs that come out are the ones where the tread block gets torn, from aggressive driving (wheel spin or skidding during breaking), or where someone used the wrong size stud for the holes on the tire.

noglider 

I finally mounted the studded tires today and rolled the bike a few feet across the wood floor. Wow, they're loud.

dscheidt

Carbide studs will do a number on wood floors. If you care about the finish, don't roll them around.

Kawriverrat

Ive found that the tires with studs that I have rode on the pavement for some time seem to lose less studs over time. However if you push things on dry pavement hard turns etc. you will lose studs.

PaulRivers

I'm the creator of this thread, I just want to throw in that a few years ago there was a problem with Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires being manufactured wrong and losing a lot of studs. Let's not try to make this into a "it's how you rode it" part - as long as you aren't doing crazy skidding or braking that I don't even do on my summer bike, you shouldn't lose more than 2-3 studs. I strongly suspect the other poster got tires from a poorly manufactured batch.

dscheidt is right, studded tires are meant to be ridden, you should be losing nowhere near 30% of your studs. I looked at mine last year, I had lost 2-3 studs but that was it.

Lol I'm going to agree with the other poster in warning you about rolling them against wood floors. Studs are designed to break into ice - and wood is not tougher than ice. If you value your floor finish I would not roll them around on wood floors.

You got the Schwalbe Marathon Winter's right? I think you'll find that riding them outdoors they're not "quite", but they'll sound a lot quiter outdoors than they did indoors in an enclosed space. I would personally love to find a device that makes their exact level and kind of sound for my summer bike so people could hear me coming up behind them (without being loud enough to be annoying to other people). It sounds kinda like if you have a bowl of rice krispies right in front of you that you just put milk in, to me.

Kawriverrat

Some like myself might not know any better & was just passing along info that some may benefit from. My experience is that fast corners & some other silliness thats usually acceptable on a 29 will pull studs. Simply put one cannot expect to do all things if your aggressive, one normally does on the trail or pavement & not lose studs.
Most all studded tires some years ago when I first started using them were terrible when it came to longevity.

esmith2039

If was do to a quick review of these.. awesome! Only have did 13 miles so far though. Rode right across ice with no slippage. The biggest issue is the ruts but overall seem extremely stable. See how the studs hold up (or stay in) over the next couple months.

Daniel4

Ordered a pair of Dillinger 4s a few days ago. It was a toss-up between those or snow chains.

Leebo

Umm, no. 700c road rims are the same diameter as 29er mt bike tires. They have an iso of 622. 26" rims have an iso of 559.

I-Like-To-Bike

26" rims also can be found that take 597mm, 590mm, 584mm, or 571mm tires. Tire Sizing Systems

[TABLE="class: grid, width: 898"]
[TR]
[TD]26 x 1 (650 C)[/TD]
[TD]571 mm[/TD]
[TD]Triathlon, time trial, small road bikes[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]26 x 1 1/4[/TD]
[TD]597 mm[/TD]
[TD]Older British sport & club bikes[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]26 x 1 3/8
(S-6)[/TD]
[TD]Schwinn "lightweights"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]26 x 1 3/8 (E.A.3)[/TD]
[TD]590 mm[/TD]
[TD]Most English 3-speeds, department-store or juvenile 10 speeds[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]26 x 1 1/2 (650B)[/TD]
[TD]584 mm[/TD]
[TD]French utility, tandem and loaded-touring bikes,
a very few Raleigh (U.S.) & Schwinn mountain bikes.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]26 x 1 3/4
(S-7)[/TD]
[TD]571 mm[/TD]
[TD]Schwinn cruisers[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]26 x 1, 1 1/8[/TD]
[TD]High performance wheels for smaller riders, common on Cannondale bicycles[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

noglider 

And the 571mm size is also called 650C, right?

CrippledKonaBoy

For winter snow/ice riding on my Kona Coiler, I've used Schwalbe Ice Spiker 304's in 26x1.95 for at least three winters now. Ground down a few spikes, but lost ONLY ONE. Wonderful tires.

asmac

What's the deal with losing studs? I bought some a pair of 45nrth Gravdals (C$112 ea) and, within a week, they had each lost three studs. The LBS that sold them told me this is 'normal' and did nothing for me. 45nrth has not responded to my inquiry.

My expectation is that the shop would simply pop in a few studs for me at no charge and that 45nrth would provide extra studs and a tool along with their (expensive) tires if this is an expected problem. Failing that, they might also considering including something in the literature that accompanies the tires to warn of this and that customers should purchase spares.

What's your experience?

fietsbob

Suomi Nokian tires I bought direct from Finland in 1990, still are fine . have not lost any studs.

but there are spare studs available, and a tool to do so, in US distribution, now..


Renkaat | Suomi Tyres

M&G W160 STUD A 47/50-559

Leebo

Some tire makers say you need to set the studs by riding gently on pavement for 10 or so miles. It's not uncommon to lose a few studs, esp. for off road use. My 29er has 294 per tire, I'm not going to notice 5 less.

noglider 

I finished building my winter bike yesterday and rode about a quarter mile on the studded tires on dry pavement. They are very loud. As I overtook a cyclist, he turned to look behind him to see what was making the noise.

They didn't feel slow, but the test was short, and it's a new bike for me. The bike is lighter and faster than I expected it to be, which might also have slanted my impression. This morning, I changed to regular tires so I could ride my new bike to work.

chas58

Leebo, that is good. I can see you are learning and catching on. To review:

Standard road tires (700cx23) and 26" mountain bike tires (26x2.125) are both roughly 26" in diameter.

29" tires are roughly 29" in diameter and use the same diameter wheel as a road bike (700c)

scoatw

I've had a pair of Nokian 294's pushing nine years. And I've never lost a stud in either of them.

Leebo

You're confusing the issue. This is a rim size thing. Not taking overall diameter. 26" = iso 599. 700c road and 29er mt bike rims= 622 rims.

asmac

What's not to like about the sound of sizzling bacon?