Originally Posted by
sdimattia
TI'm just hesitant to go full studded since I don't want to change tires a lot. I'd be happy if I was only changing tires before winter season and then when the season was over. However, this is also my rain bike and unfortunately it rains more than snows in winter and I'd rather not be rolling on studs in the rain. I will definitely change out those GK slicks for the winter. The other big limiting factor is that I can only put 42mm / 1.6in or skinnier tires on the bike which effectively excludes most studded tires and many of the more popular knobby tires. I found one studded by 45NRTH that comes in 650b x 38 but not much else.
Two set of wheels and tires are still cheaper than the deductible. You get very little warning when your about to get dumped on the ground. You go down very quick and hard. The type of falls that can easily result in injury and you can count on being dumped. You WILL be dumped even with knobby studded tires if you run the wrong tire pressures or deep mushy snow.