Bluesfrog

My tire size on the Trek Verve + 2 is 700C X 45. I'm looking at Marathon Plus 700c X 50s for studded tires. It looks like I have Lots of space between forks and fenders. Does anyone have knowledge of the larger size on a bike? How much difference does it seem to make? Just wondering. I want to order the correct size. Be Well, Bluesfrog.

aggiegrads

Not to sound condescending, but the 50mm tire will be about 2.5mm larger on each side, and possibly more due to the side knobs. You need to quantify “lots of space”. I would want at least 10mm of space on each side (between tires and fork legs/chain stays/seat stays. I would look for 20mm between the tire and inside of fender, because the studded tires are probably taller than your existing road tires. Even the Marathon 35 would likely end up being nearly as wide and taller than your existing tires.

chas58

fenders can pack up with snow, so ya probably want a lot of clearance.

There are many types of snow. I find thinner tires cut down through fresh snow to get a better grip, while larger tires can run lower pressure to better handle rutted stuff. I do find that my snow tires have surprisingly small carcasses - maybe 10mm smaller than their rated sizes, because the lugs are so deep.
ISO standard is 6mm clearance for tires, but I would be most concerned about snow/ice getting packed in your fenders if there isn't enough clearance.

dabac

IMO, the SMWs have a fairly fine tread that easily packs up with snow. Once they do, there isn’t much point in going wide.
I wouldn’t feel that I was missing out on anything by going narrow.
They do fairly well on ice, hardpack and bare ground though, making them suitable commuter tires as long as roads get plowed somewhat decently.

Gresp15C

I've been fine with the 35 mm Schwalbe tires. I think the studs on narrower tires do fine on ice, and the point of wider tires is if you're riding on terrain that's ice plus other stuff, including off road.

PaulRivers

In my experience...

700x35c - fastest tire for commutting through ice and snow, will slice through light snowfall to grip the road. But it doesn't handle ice and ruts, or a mix of new and old snow well at all. It's a good size if you're a fair weather commuter.

700x40c - slower, but handles more conditions, works better on ruts from ice.

700x50c - my least favorite. Didn't seem to handle anything better than the other tire sizes, but came with the drawbacks of larger tire - slower, noisier, enough float on top of snow to slide around more, but not enough to actually handle worse conditions.

Fat Bike: never digs through snow to the pavement, always floats on everything which is a different feel. Slowest choise. But, it comes with advantages - it handles a *lot* more snow conditions, and while it won't stay upright on ice it goes down slowly enough I could get a foot down. You want to bike through groomed trails in the woods this will do it and nothing else will. Though if you get 6-12 inches of snowfall even this guy stops working.

chas58

good summary Paul.
With a fat bike, I was surpised that I would just grind to a halt with deep snow, while a standard size tire would easily cut through. Then again, ruts are a thing, and smaller tires don't like those too much.
I did find that my 2" studded tires have very very deep tread, so the carcass actually measured closer to 40mm, even though it might need the clearance of a 50mm tire with the lugs.

mcours2006

I usually run 35 mm Schwalbe Marathon winters, which are good for most conditions in which I ride--early morning icy roads, light snow. They are not much use when there's more than a couple of inches of fresh snow, or packed snowed, or icy rutty snow. There are a handful of times during the year when I have to contend with these conditions.

I also have a set of 700c 45 mm Nokian W106's on a different bike, which have much more aggressive tread pattern, and the combination of the wider profile and treads makes them a tad better under those three conditions mentioned above, but just marginally.

I am contemplating a fat ebike at the moment to contend with those conditions.

mcours2006

Update on the 35-mm Marathons: I rode this morning with about 4-inches of freshly fallen snow, the sticky and fluffy kind. I actually was surprised that the tires worked well at cutting through the fluff, and quite stable. Once I got on to compacted snow, however, different story. Bike was very squirrelly.

mcours2006

Maybe closer to six inches by the look of the snow around the rear wheel.

noglider 

Goodness, you've had a lot of snow already.

mcours2006

Yeah, tell me about it. This one was a complete surprise to me. Didn't even have the bike prepped for it. And not only that, the snow on the ground hangs around for a few days afterwards necessitating the studs for the next few morning rides.