Originally Posted by
Hypno Toad
I love my fatbike, it's great on sand and snow. But snow and sand are not the same. Snow is not all the same; wet snow versus dry snow, etc
As I stated above, I've biked in the snow with everything 700x28 summer tires to 26x4 studded winter tires. I prefer my fatbike for snowy rides, but the picture below was a great ride - 2-3 inches of fresh snow on roads that were clear the day before. Summer tires cut through the snow to the pavement, cut through dry snow.
I've ridden a lot in both. From my experience, snow and sand are essentially the same for the purposes of bicycle tires. And the different types of snow makes little difference in handling.
I don't see how "cutting throughs the snow to pavement" helps any. First, as your picture shows, you are shoving snow out of the way with the tire, rim and spokes. Shoving anything out of the way takes more power. Secondly, the tire doesn't "cut" anything. It compresses it. The smaller profile of the contact patch might even be enough to make it liquid which makes the tire/ice interface even slicker.
There is also the issue of ruts and things hidden under the snow. Ruts pull the bike off-line and a smaller contact patch results in less room for error when the tire is pulled off line. I gave up on narrow tires long ago for just these reasons.
Originally Posted by
antdd
Fresh and dry snow which isn't too deep is not like sand. And on the beach you have rarely asphalt a few cm below the surface.
I understand the fat bikes offroad and in deep snow, but not in the snow conditions I commute in a city with snow removal on the bike lanes and a long, cold winter. When there is a snow storm at -10 to -20°C, the snow isn't wet and heavy, you can easily cut it with narrow tyres. If I'd leave the city, I probably would need a fat bike.
It all depends on where you ride. How much snow, what kind of snow...
On some sand you
do have a hard surface under the sand. It doesn't make going through the sand any easier. There are lots of sandy places to ride a mountain bike that are similar enough to riding on snow over asphalt. There may be some instances where riding on snow
can be done on with narrow road tires but they are relatively rare and it doesn't take too much in the way of snow depth to make it harder to ride rather than easier.