FrozenK

Any time there is ice -or you may run into it. On snow, studs will do nothing for you. But, when you run into frozen overflow, a patch of ice, or a frozen lake. Studs will save your ass.

The rest of the time, hey add a little bit of weight but it isn't a deal breaker.

If your riding takes you where ice isn't expected at all, then skip the studs and save some money.

Daniel4

You never know if under what looks like fresh snow, there may be a layer of ice. Consider if you had any warm days followed by sub-freezing nights and then snowfall to cover it all up.

Hypno Toad

Ice, Ice baby!

For nearly all snow conditions, 4" to 5" tires will be great! But when it's icy, non-studded fat tires are just a prone to putting you on the cold, cold ground as 25 mm road tires (OK, that's an exaggeration... ).

Back when I first got my Pugsley, I had a 26er with studded tires. So if we had fresh snow, I'd ride the Pug and if there were icy conditions I'd ride the 26er. But the 26er frame cracked and I didn't have another bike available to mounted studded tires. If I still had the 26er, I doubt I would have spent the money for the Dillingers.

Afterthought - one additional reason to get studded tires is fatbike racing. For nearly ever winter fatbike event around here, you'll want studded tires. Here's one of the countless icy falls I took on the 2016 Frozen Fatbike Forty riding non-studded Nates:

So, so much black and blue after those 47 miles of sub-zero riding....

jefnvk

Was more curious for riding on messy city roads. I suppose the ice under slush is a situation I hadn't considered, maybe I'll have to take it into consideration.

Hard to tell from the video, but was it just because enough others had been through there, packed it down and made it slippery?

Hypno Toad

For city riding and commuting, I was happy with non-studded fat tires. I used my stock Nates for two years of commuting. Just know that if you do find ice, non-studded fat tires will slip. But with larger footprint, you're more likely to get a grip than with narrower tires.

In the video, we had the worst possible conditions, it had warmed up above freezing right before the race... then a deep-freeze hit for race day with temps below zero (F). So we had bullet-proof glaze ice in tons of places, studded tires would have been the right tire for that day.

Banzai

So. Effing. Expensive.

blitzo

I just purchased and mounted the Vee Rubber studded tires. I will post some info once I get some miles logged. I have never changed a fat tire before but removing my current tires and mounting the new ones wore me out.

PedalingWalrus

Studs are most welcome when You're on a trail and descending on a steep section and halfway through you hit ice :-)

gecho

The cold temperatures here on the prairie seem to quickly turn car packed snow into a super slick material just as slick as ice but nowhere near as hard. Regular tires have little traction but with studs you have tremendous grip. Eventually the main roads get to the point where you could ride without studs, but the parking lane is full of snow so its best to avoid those roads. The side streets stay slick the entire winter as they get no plowing or sanding.

The mountain bike trails here also get icy as the south facing slopes gets some daytime melting from the sun.

Fat bike have their own unique traction issue. As you pedal even with higher tire pressure the rear tire starts to bounce, which you can hear as an oscillating VROOM vroom sound on pavement. On the up part of the bounce traction is reduced making it easier to spin out the rear tire or have it spin and slide out while cornering.

Hypno Toad

+1

Lisa pointed out (accurately) that she could get a tire for SUV for the same price as a studded Dillinger ... but it's been totally worth it for me.

Leebo

^^^^ Studs useful? I call it winter. Once the snow hits, they stay on all season. Boston, MA rider here. Lots of freeze thaw around here, there is almost always ice, from the sunny spots to the foot tracked paths. When the snow get really packed, but not quite ice, they help then too. Wet logs and bridges as well. Do you wear arm and leg pads? Ever had the bike go right out from under you? Slide into a pile of riders and bikes? No bueno. Suds are great for mixing up the rides on frozen ponds, a great way to access or connect trail one usually can not.

DaveQ24

My rule is ... any ride where I could encounter water in a solid form, snow, ice or significant frost. After breaking bones last summer on clean dry asphalt, I’m not risking it in winter, it’s studded tires only November - March. YMMV, as they say.

rumrunn6

looks like it only took a slight off camber lean on that slight curve to drop you. ouch!

DaveQ24

Absolutely. Fairly decent Michellins for my SUV cost about $210 each last August. Studded Dillingers for the Rad Rover I bought in October were $240 each. However, my accident generated close to $20,000 in medical bills. I didn’t have to pay those, but the intangibles such as pain, aggrevation, and lost time alone made me try to maximize my safety on the bike.

Banzai

At least in the city, the Pugsley does fine on Nates in the winter. When the crunchier stuff goes away, I break out the bike with 35mm Marathon Winters on it. But on even icy city streets, the fatbike has done just fine without studs.

2manybikes

Studded tires are.....

slightly worse on pavement if need to panic stop and skid the tire. It's never been a problem for me, since about 1968 - 1969 or so.

The same as any other tire in soft snow. The studs have nothing solid to grab.

Much better on ice then either of the other two. The colder and flatter the ice, the better. It has nothing to do with traction of the rubber, it's about something solid to stick the studs into. Good hard packed snow on a road can be good if it's packed down hard by cars. The flat surface of a frozen lake is excellent. I find the ice holds the studs better when it is in the low 20's F range. As the ice starts to get soft the studs grab less.

HerrKaLeun

so you didn't test them yourself?
We got some snow last night (2"powder) and at around 10°F. i rode over 10 km through the woods and over construction sites. Traction really wasn't worse than without snow. Only starting from a stop made rear slide until I sat on the saddle. Once I'm on the saddle, my lack of leg power was the only limiting factor. Resistance also wasn't worse.

Maybe they changed the tire design over the years? With all the naysayers (who haven't ridden them) here I fully expected them to be horrible and unrideable with or without snow. They may not be good enough for Alaska, or deep snow (none yet), but for normal fat fun riding they are fine. Maybe i just didn't have "good" tires yet. but riding wasn't much worse than with my summer Maxxis. (yes more resistance due to studs on asphalt)

FrozenK

Have you tried Dillingers? Or Terrene Wazias? It isn't that the VeeRubbers are unrideable, but there is a reason they are cheaper. Two inches of snow, depending on whether it is heavy or fluffy isn't really much to challenge traction. Or is a lot, it really depends on what the snow is like and what's underneath it. And 6 miles (10k) is a short ride to notice anything. It is on a 50, 60, 100 mile day when the rolling resistance will matter.

Enjoy what you have. If those tires meet your needs great for you. Merry Christmas.

RecceDG

I bought a studded Dill 5 and it is amazing. No end of grip.

So I bought another to match.

HerrKaLeun

I have to say, you were right. I only rode them for ~250 km this winter. I didn't expect them to be great, you get what you pay for. They were OK mostly. But i always ride alone and barely encounter fatbikes, so hard for me to compare to there tires.

Last weekend i attended a fatbike race, which was the first time i compared to others. i noticed other riders tires were not full of snow while mine had the snow stuck to the. this obviously diminishes how well the profile works. i couldn't tell if that really made them ride worse (i just sucked at that race in general, not just tires). but i did notice that i always seem to slip sideways on snow, not sure if that is normal. so yes, they don't seem to be as good as expensive tires.

But what I saw today is that some of the studs actually either fell out or wore down. You see small holes in that what looks like a small spacer that seems to be what is inserted in tire). i don't remember if they were spikier to begin with, but they look rounded off (the oens is till have). I estimate rear tire may have lost 20% of the studs, and front tire 10% or less. I rode some times on asphalt since we didn't have snow through all winter. but at least 75% of the 250 knm were off-road or snow. In either case I would expect more than 250 km from the studs.



I try to return them (will see if that works, it was an Amazon 3rd party retailer and i got them in September). If return is not possible will wear them out rest of winter (at that rate it shouldn't be hard!). I even think I just leave them on in summer till they are all gone.

FrozenK

Sorry to hear they didn't work for you. As a comparison, I have put well over 3,500 miles on my Dillingers and they still have all their studs. And I'm not an exception.

PdalPowr

Is it possible that tire pressure was the issue with your treads getting filled with snow?

FrozenK

No, it is about rubber compounds and the texture between the knobs. Tread pattern (too tight) also influences it.

HerrKaLeun

Yeah mine have these little dimples, which certainly don't help shedding snow. Well, it is an experience and I learned from it. Unless the vendor takes them back, I just shred them down over summer. And next winter I either buy "good" studded tires, or just ride my regular tires the bike came with (Maxxis).

I don't know if the picture tells the story, but I also feel the studs I still have are rounded off, making them less useful on ice.

I have tubeless, so I'm a bit too lazy to keep swapping tires seasonally, especially if the "winter" tires i use are not good anyway. Probably more dangerous to have ineffective studs since it makes me less careful over ice when thinking i have studs. When I don't have studs, I just don't go over ice or not fast.

But good point on the pressure, I started out with my summer pressure (6psi front, 12 psi rear) and worked myself down to 3 spi front and 7 psi rear. The snow sticking to tire didn't improve, but self-steering on pavement increased.

HerrKaLeun

just to update how my worn stud issue turned out. The seller was very helpful and offered to send me a studkit. i kind of hoped to either give the tire back or get new tires since I didn't want to re-stud my tire (my idea of warranty wasn't to have a lot of work). He referred me to the manufacturer who ultimately sent me 2 studkits along with the tool. i have to point out both seller and manufacturer have been very responsive and helpful within their power.

I was a bit concerned how to unstud and stud since i never did that before and all videos show only . but it actually was easy to do.

the studs are worn to below the outer body:



I replaced about 20 (the ones totally worn). there are many more half-worn. but now I kind of think I may remove the studs after winter (we have 45°F toda and no snow in sight) and shred these tires to death. I measured the tread in the center only has about 3 mm left (has 6 mm more on the side). Since it wasn't clear how much wear had happened I compared to front tire that had 4 mm on center. so t seems the rubber also wears quickly (again, only 250 km!!!). For comparison my Maxxis (came with bike) still have 7 mm in center (after 600 km.... i don't know what they started out with).

Anyway, I take back my original recommendation to use these for moderate winter climates