livedarklions

Ooooh, scary.

You posted a complaint about this thread that was off-base. I don't see how my response to it is in any way "interference".

Ignore lists work both ways, btw. Feel free to follow your own advice.

BillyD

Hey you two guys, try harder to avoid bringing dirty laundry from past threads into the current one, please. Let's stop the arguing, thanx!

msu2001la

A situation where one is frequently spinning out a 46x11 gear while on studded snow tires seems insanely specific, but yes... gravel bikes are usually specified with slightly lower gearing than a traditional road bike. This can be changed, of course. The GRX front derailleur can shift a 50T ring just fine.

shelbyfv

So much guessing as to what OP is actually looking for, yet OP is MIA. Maybe just let this gestate awhile until he provides some clarification.

ofajen

I don’t have a lot of experience riding on ice, but I think the idea is the tire penetrates down to the ice and grabs with the studs.

Otto

livedarklions

Or not. People can just talk about what and how they ride on ice.

WhyFi

A gravel bike with studs, of course.



Seems to work well enough on ice -

UniChris

This gets back to OP seemingly wanting to use one bike year round, apparently switched to studded tires in winter, vs many others arguing to keep the road bike as a road bike and get something cheap, upright, and wider tired to put the studs on and take out on the few days they're really called for.

Or maybe the road bike spends the winter wearing a trainer tire!

livedarklions

Did you ever ride the 3 connected lakes in one ride?

WhyFi

No, haven't done that. Honestly, when it's that cold out, my tolerance for bike shenanigans is considerably lower - 60-90 min is more than enough to quiet the demons. I'd have to be in a special mood to rumble up to and through the chain of lakes. Maybe one of these years I'll really embrace the winter cycling spirit, but it hasn't happened yet (and it's not going to be this year).

grant40

I think you should get something that Surly makes. They're pretty much known for making stuff like that.

burnthesheep

Since you said more road bike like instead of gravel bike..........how about a cyclocross race bike? The geometry is more road bike like. We have folks in this area in the age of disc brakes that ride them road in warm season with some 28mm or 32mm GP5000's. Cross season hits, back to the mud tires.

I feel the REAL issue here is the fenders. You can put a lot of tire on a lot of bikes, but if the fenders aren't intended for studded tires......it won't matter what bike it is.

63rickert

If riding ice you are almost certainly also riding snow. Snow sticks to the bike. Sticks to fenders. How is it possible to ride fenders in snow? When I have done that it has usually been with fenders that are very far away from tire and it still causes all sorts of problems. If in city traffic with slush and patches of ice, yes, fenders can be very desirable. But please keep them a couple of centimeters away from the tire. And expect to stop and clear packed snow and ice.

Fenders out of alignment? If riding in snow yes they are.

Please remember that tungsten carbide studs will very easily cut steel, aluminum carbon. When you flat in snow and ice you get to remove that wheel in less than optimum conditions. You will not be doing a super slick ninja wheel change.

wolfchild

You said you're looking for a road bike with more tire clearance.....A gravel bike is just a road bike that has clearance for bigger tires and fenders.

wolfchild

Yes there are...they're called gravel bikes.

Camilo

My gravel bike has essentially the same gear range as my road bikes. I'm not familiar with gravel bikes that have gearing that can't be modified anyway.

Re, other aspects of this discussion. I have road bikes and have had a "gravel" bike in various forms for well over a decade, before they were called "gravel" bikes. Regardless, for me, although I have a few really nice, genuine road bikes, the gravel bikes, depending on how they were set up, were great road bikes. Yeah, the geometry may be different, but for me, there's so little difference in handling on good pavement, with similar tires, that it matters absolutely none.

Anyway, I'm of the camp that I really can't make any sense of what the OP is looking for. He has a "real" road bike, but he wants another "real" road bike that can take studded tires. If you want winter tires, go all the way and get appreciably wider tires and a frame that can accommodate them as well as the fenders. A gravel bike.

livedarklions

I consider a proper road bike requires at least a 50t chain ring, but I'm a very high gear rider. I know that's just my opinion, but "proper" is definitely subjective.

If I'm buying a new bike, I'm not looking for one where I have to take off the existing chain ring and replace it with something larger. But, that's just me. I agree we don't know what the op meant, it's literally the first words of mine you quoted.

WhyFi

The bigger tires on gravel bikes contribute to the final gearing, which isn't typically far off of a 50t with skinny tires. If you're going to be swapping between tire sizes, you're going to be compromising somewhere. I put a 50/34 on my gravel bike and it's a bit tall when the going gets tough, like uphill on a loose surface.

livedarklions

I think you're familiar enough with my post history to know why I'm going to avoid comparing my gear preferences to those of normal humans.

I much prefer a 53t with skinny tires so the 50t is already a compromise for me. Again, I'm just speaking for myself and how I draw the line between proper road bike and improper(?).

downhillmaster

They sure can, but as that would not specifically address the OP’s situation those people would probably do best to chat about general ice riding in another thread.
But that maybe makes too much sense so instead carry on here without the OP

WhyFi

And I'm just informing from a practical perspective on why it is the way it is - 50/34 is probably the most common crankset on road bikes these days but, for the reasons I'd mentioned, that gearing may not be as desirable or practical on bikes meant to accommodate larger tires on poorer surfaces.

livedarklions

Uhhh, duh?

Point is that people have different reasons why a "compromise" can pull a type of bicycle out of consideration for use in the category of riding they want to do.

WhyFi

Soooo should I *not* point why some configurations are practical for the vast majority of riders simply because it may not jibe with your personal preferences? Strangely, it's not always about you.

livedarklions

You were literally responding to a post that was entirely and explicitly about my own perspective and opinions, so in this case, yes it was actually about me.

You posted the bloody obvious as some sort of counter to my post. I think that merits a "duh" since I was avowedly not saying anything about how other people view it, and couldn't have made that more obvious if I had tried.

WhyFi

So a response to a post all about you must also be all about you, and couldb't possibly be for the benefit of others considering a gravel bike but wondering about the gearing disparity? Okay. And the point about tire size affecting final gearing is quite often overlooked - you certainly didn't explicitly or implicitly acknowledge it, and I didn't see anyone else do so, either - so I thought it worth mentioning. Apologies if that offended your delicate sensibilities.