Homemade Winter Tyres

Ghostt

Here's my attempt at making studded tyres with a few screws. Sure you've probably seen some variation on this before, but as the weather looks like it's not going to get above freezing for a while thought I'd give it a go. Total cost = £1.60 for the screws 8)

Got the tyres out (plus the ever helpful and wise cat) and marked them up:



Used a bit of chalk to colour in the blocks I was going to put a stud through. The tread pattern on the MKs makes it tricky to do evenly, so there are two studs slightly closer together on each tyre. Couldn't be ar?ed to sit there and work a perfect pattern out!

To put the screws in, I punched a hole with a smaller diameter than the screw through the tyre from the outside first. Makes it much easier to work out where to put the screw and helps guide it through:





Then simply screw the screw through from the inside and repeat. Resulting pattern for the rear tyre, screws are about 6" apart, 22 screws in the whole tyre:





For the front, I put the screws further out to the edge and also spaced them about 8" apart, 12 screws in the tyre.
Will be using them in anger tomorrow, quick test ride was very promising.

jim55

what du use as a liner between the screw heads and the inner tube?

The Rookie

Hmm, that and
1/ Gap between screws is wide enough that there will be times with no screws on the ground allowing you to still fall of.
2/ Screws are too long and will lift the rubber too far off the ground when you need it to grip and not the screws.

Hope it works for you, but have reservations.

Simon

DodgeT

As above, lot more screws needed and they only need to protrude about 1 - 2 mm.
If they held in the tyre fine, surely tubeless with sealant would be the best way forward. I guess lots of gaffa tape or similar on the inside of the tyre would help (with or without tubes)

Too high risk though for me, wouldnt fancy walking 5 mile home in the cold when something fails.. Screw rips out / screw pushes through tube, you fall off and trash yourself on them.

Let us know how you get on, points for ambition though !

Edit to say - I assume your planning on riding on sheet ice for a while with thinking of the studs??

Otherwise, you'd probably be better off just putting cross cuts on top of all of the knobs / raised flat sections, this would help out with general icy conditions i reckon, ala car winter tyres. And wouldnt be such a liability / hinderence when your on anything but sheet ice.

Sy Hollinshead

That isn't going to work.

snotty badger

On the run up to winter I made one the same, but more screws- about 180ish IIRC.

Lined the tyre with 3 layers of duct tape. Put it on the front for testing and rode about 5 miles, wasn't particularly icy but didn't negatively affect handling either. Picked up a lot of snow though!

When I took the tyre back of the duct tape had started to tear- if I need to use it I'll wack a few more layers in.

You'll need a lot more screws in both tyres, (the front tyre needs the most grip too) and they look a bit long, think mine stick through about 4mm or so.

Ghostt

Cheers for the replies. I decided to make them as this is the state of my local woods today, and it doesn't look like it will change anytime soon:



There's about two inches of compacted snow on the ground, deeper in other places.

The photos above actually make the screws look like they stick out further than they do. Once inflated and on the bike, they protrude about 2mm above the height of the tread blocks in the middle of the tyre, due to the curve of the tyre once inflated. (If that makes sense!)

I'm pleased to report the tyres worked surprisingly well! I had my reservations, riding about 1/2 a mile on the road to the woods as they made a hell of a noise, but once on the snow they worked incredibly. They kept pressure throughout the ride, no punctures. The screws survived well too, with no apparent rounding out, other than a small black mark on the tips. They also stayed put and didn't get pushed back into the tyre. Although the MKs picked up a bit of snow, it shed it and the tread was fairly clear most of the time.

The whole thing was a bit of an experiment to be honest, I gave it a go because I had the tyres and had heard they work well. Despite having only 22 screws back and 12 front, I noticed the extra grip, although a few more wouldn't go amiss especially on the front. I was aiming to increase traction under pedalling on the rear and cornering grip with the front tire. I couldn't get the rear to spin up, even holding the front brake on the front just locked up and skidded along. The front behaved well, it did slide a little when turning fast but held on, not just wash out as I expected.

As a sort of comparison, I dragged my brother out, he was riding Bontrager XR4 2.4" tires at 40psi and struggled on the less compacted snow and icy bits - he managed to stack it on an icy bridge I casually pedalled across before him. The snow tires gripped well, no wheel spin even riding over sheet ice (there were a few frozen ponds!). I was running them at 30psi as well, so the low pressure did help.

To line the tyres, I took an old inner tube, removed the valve and slit around the inside and wrapped the inner tube in it. They were quite thick Continental ones and seem to have provided enough protection, as although there is a mark on the liner where each screw has rubbed, the inner tubes are fine and there are no marks from the screws. I will keep monitoring them though, I might tape over the screw heads as well.

All in all, definitely worth the £1.60 and hour or so to make and fit. Will go out on the normal tyres (Panaracer Fire XC Pro 2.1") tomorrow for a bit of a comparison, playing around with the pressures.

And here is an entirely gratuitous shot of them on the bike:

plugp7

Give up, pour yourself a whiskey, sit in front of your fire and stroke your pussy. It'll thaw soon.

nicklouse

Studs are pointless on snow. Only useful for ice and those will have issues.

386ka

Nice job, I am glad that the test went well. Ps, I am with the others, the screws are too few and far apart.

Briggo

Ghostt wrote:

Long story

Dude, if you're riding on thick snow you wouldn't have noticed any difference without the screws.

Comparing it to someone on non studded tyres doesn't mean a lot, its not a great comparison considering you're 2 different riders with different tyres/pressures/bikes etc etc.

No doubt all it did was give you the pseudo effect.

The Northern Monkey

you need one of these:


or just go with the whiskey-fire-pussy option

bennett_346

Yeah that really won't work and if it did it would be pointless also the snow will be gone in no time