rbrides

How many of my esteemed colleagues change to winter tires on their road bikes? What about gravel bikes? I’m 100% tubeless on all my bikes. I’m uncertain if the cost of the second set of rubber is truly necessary. I live in central NC and the winter weather is not really bad. What say ye?

pdlamb

I suspect the answer, as it often is, is "it depends." I don't (usually) ride in ice or snow, so I don't worry about traction. (After all, our snow removal plan is best described as "wait until it melts!)

What's left? Rain, puddles, no street cleaning so broken glass, etc., and leaves collect on the roads and shoulders. Good summer tires aren't so great when there's lots of things to cause flats on the roads, particularly when the tires are worn from a summer of riding. My ideal would be to wear tires out around the first of December and replace them. While I'm changing tires from December through March, I'll often go to a more flat-resistant, heavier tire. But I'm too cheap to swap tires that aren't worn out. Now when May comes, I'll often look for the lightest tires in my stock to go on the bike.

Maelochs

I just put mittens and scarfs on my tires ....

msu2001la

Depends on how we're defining "winter riding" I suppose. I know a few hardcore winter commuters here who use studded tires. These work well on snow/ice/slush covered roads, but are really draggy on dry pavement, plus they're expensive and wear quickly. For those who winter commute and need to ride through literally anything, the tradeoffs make sense.

The winter riding I do is almost always on my gravel/CX bikes (unless I know the roads are perfectly dry). I am not riding on snow/ice covered roads, but I will ride outside a few days after a snow when we might still have slush and icy patches here and there, or roads are wet, etc. For this type of riding I find standard CX tires to work really well - I currently have 33mm Vittoria Terreno Mix on my commuter, and Donnely MDX on my gravel/cx bike. These aren't really "winter tires" per se, just durable tires that are capable of handling a variety of conditions and can handle pothole hits, gravel, etc - yet still roll relatively fast on pavement and are reasonably light.

wheelreason

I have winter wheels, a tad wider rims and tires, mostly to slow me down a bit and deal with the wet leaves and ice, no biggie though, if it's really gnarly out, I'll go do a little single track on the WMA with the MTB.

rbrides

hahahahaha

cyccommute 

I have a set of studs but I have them mounted on a separate set of wheels and only use them if the weather is going to be bad. I hate riding studs on dry pavement. I use them very infrequently,

ofajen

While I have a road frame build, I still ride it on our excellent trail system, and avoid roads except as needed to get to trails.

So, yes, I swap out the front wheel for another wheel with a small knob cyclocross tire. That gives me enough grip on the front for the muddy or soft trails sections I encounter during the cold, dark, saturated half of the year. I leave a 700x32 slick on the rear and so far have managed to get through the mud anyway.

Otto

DangerousDanR

Since I live in the lands adjacent to the "Great White North" and I commute by bike year round I run studded tires once the temperatures drop below freezing.

Studded tires do have a lot of rolling resistance, but there is no substitute on the ice that forms on roads around here. My experience is that they wear like tungsten carbide. But I don't ride them when the temperatures are over 35F and the roads are bare. I did have one set that actually had the studs wear through into the rim side of the tire after several years.

I do have three bikes that I use for winter commuting. If the roads are mostly bare pavement or hard packed ice I have a drop bar bike that I will put studded tires on. If there is a little bit of slush or snow on the roads, I switch over to a flat bar hardtail MTB. Once there is more than a couple of inches of loose or drifting snow I switch over to my Fat Bike.

For this time of year when it is coolish (35-60F) but there is no ice anywhere I am rolling on a performance tire like a GP5000, a Corsa, or my latest tires which are Goodyear Eagle R .

Jughed

Typically, my faster road tires are worn out by the end of October & I put on my tougher Armadillos in for the winter months. Roads are typically wetter, more crap/salt... last thing I want to do is try and swap a tube with cold hands, getting GP5000's on the rim is tough enough to begin with.

It works out well, I get one warm season out of the GPs, and two winters out the Armadillos. I've never had a flat with the winter tires...

And swapping back to a fresh set of faster tires in the spring is a nice change.

Chandne

I use my winter bikes if there is a chance of any slush out there. No point messing with tires. I suggest that approach

scottfsmith

In central NC I would just ride with your regular road tires. My climate in Maryland is not too different and that's what I almost always do. I have a gravel wheel set and if it's wet and lots of leaves fell on the trails I may put them on to minimize slipping on the leaves. I also have a studded wheel set which recently have averaged about two days a year usage. The winters used to be worse but not recently.

msu2001la

100%
And yet... I see photos like this from Copenhangen. Maybe if we had better bike infrastructure I'd be more willing to try riding "normal" bikes on snowy commutes:

wolfchild

I have a wheelset with studded tires. If there is any risk of ice or snowy slippery conditions I use my winter studded tires.

DangerousDanR

The conditions I see in that picture call for the flat bar hardtail. My sense of balance is not good enough to ride in that sh... slop without the studded tires. Plus I like to ride as fast as I can to get to work or get home.

veganbikes

In a place like NC, no way would I change tires up north sure I might have something different. I would probably rarely ride with studded tires but I don't live in an area that sees a lot of ice and in the end if it were that bad less frequently I would just elect not to ride that day. Either ride indoors or just take a break. but I don't need to ride every day. I will survive not riding but I have no interest in swapping tires for ice if I will see it may it once.

gringomojado

Studs can be slickery on dry pavement!

gm

chaadster

I gave up on studded tires in the early ‘90s; they were monsteous hogs back then, and even on hardpack snow streets, a little technique was worth 5lbs of studded rubber, especially when the salt trucks usually turn the roads around here to slushies in a day or two. That means that studs would only have value a four or five days a year, but were brutal penalties most of the winter.

My preferred winter tire for almost twenty years of commuting was the Kenda Kwik K879. Absolutely perfect for my bike, conditions, and riding style:

https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...UaAmhMEALw_wcB

Metieval

Normal tires all winter...... yes I've been down a few times. Ride faster sliding hurts less.

dedhed

You don't need winter tires

Russ Roth

Can't imagine needing much more than a study road tire for central NC for winter use, I take the kids to a training session in march just 15 miles south of Charlotte, NC and other than needing a light jacket in the morning or evening the weather the last 3 years has been amazing. When I lived in Albany and Rochester NY I would have a set of studded snows on a s--t weather bike, decided it was the way to go after cresting a hill onto a patch of shade covered black ice and had my head miss the railing by fractions of an inch. If it was below 15* or the roads were snow covered it was the bike to take, otherwise a cross bike was the way to go.

downtube42

I'll have studs on one bike, regular tires on another. Not yet though.

Kind of tricky for me. It's typically wet here in the winter, but usually above freezing. Just 3 miles away at the office, if cold inland air is flowing down the gorge, it's likely icy. Black ice. If it's below 35 in the morning with any hint of dampness, I'll ride studded. If I guess right and it's icy, I'll still be riding studs on wet pavement half the way out and all the way home. The alternative, though, is to risk a fall. I've fallen on black ice before; not fun.

The Chemist

Temperature here in Shanghai rarely drops much below freezing (-1 or -2 at coldest) and it almost never snows so no, I don't change tires for winter. Not necessary in the least.

noimagination

Huh. I hadn't thought about it from that perspective.

Originally I read the OP and thought "what nonsense", since it rarely snows in central NC and there's rarely any need for winter-specific tires (i.e. knobbies or studs for fresh snow and studs for packed snow and ice). I mean, I live in SE NY and have cycled through the winter with my regular tires for 25 years (obviously skipping rides and doing something else when the roads are snowy/icy - which they usually are only for short periods of time).

But, you make a good case for using tires with more flat protection during the winter. Though, in my case, I can't recall ever getting a flat during the winter, probably because (a) I'm going more slowly so I can see/avoid road hazards more easily, and (b) because the cr@p gets pushed off the road when the snowplows go through. I think I will use a tire with flat protection the next time I change tires near the winter months, though, since now you're made me paranoid about flats in the cold. (JK about the "paranoid" part, of course, it's just a point to consider.)

Jughed

I should have qualified my reasons with - I don't ride in snow/ice. So they are not really "winter" tires, just more robust tires that I put on when it gets colder/wetter.

Lack of daylight is another reason I forgot to list. I sneak out of work at 3:00 and try to get in afternoon rides whenever the weather is above 30 degrees. Last thing I want is a flat at 4:15, when I'm sweaty and the temps start to drop below freezing - and I'm not fully dressed for cold temps while not being actively producing body heat. Fixing a flat in the cold and dark on the side of road isn't ideal.

And winter for me is training time. Hard intervals, hard sessions. Pushing slow tires, more weight all adds to the workload. Then it feels like I'm flat out flying when I switch back to faster stuff.