What tyres for winter time

martylaa
martylaa Posts: 147
edited January 2013 in Road beginners
What road tyres do you use in the winter to combat ice, grit, water etc etc, there's a lot of hills around my way and they do some black ice pretty easily on there?

Comments

  • 16mm
    16mm Posts: 545
    martylaa wrote:
    What road tyres do you use in the winter to combat ice, grit, water etc etc, there's a lot of hills around my way and they do some black ice pretty easily on there?
    If you must ride when there is ice, then ice spikes are the only thing that will reliably keep you upright.
    Otherwise you need to avoid ice.

    Cycling in the other winter conditions just requires some tough, grippy (softer rubber, rather than knobbly) and wide tyres.
  • amaferanga
    amaferanga Posts: 6,789
    You can get 700 x 30 studded tyres now:

    http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k1041/a85423/winter-118-spikes-28-x-120-wire.html

    Probably still too big for road bikes unless you have big clearances and deep drop brakes.
    More problems but still living....
  • 16mm
    16mm Posts: 545
    I put on some marathon winter 700*35s last night.
    They fit a PX Kaffenback /Pompino disk forks & sks longboards easily.
    4 lines of studs, at high pressures the centre 2 lines are in contact with the road, so a bit of noise and feedback, but confidence on frost and shiny black stuff.
    If I let the pressure out the outer 2 rows of studs on the shoulders will also be in contact, and I'd be happier on refrozen snow and ice.
    The 700*35 s are less draggy than the 26*1.5 s I've used.

    Looking at the diagram of the narrower tyres linked above, you can see the holes where the outer rows of studs would be.
  • cyberknight
    cyberknight Posts: 1,238
    Just need a tyre you can run under cruds :)
    FCN 3/5/9
  • Htron
    Htron Posts: 47
    I decided to retool the MTB with these as I have no clearance under the mudguards on my road bike:

    http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k1040/ ... -wire.html

    Cheap and gave me confidence across various conditions last week. My first purchase from Bike-discount but they were excellent.
  • dmclite-3.0
    dmclite-3.0 Posts: 845
    I run Vittoria zaffiros with the wire beads through winter. Run under cruds, bombproof, roll ok and are £8 a pop.
    I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast, but I'm intercontinental when I eat French toast...
  • 16mm
    16mm Posts: 545
    dmclite-3.0 wrote:
    I run Vittoria zaffiros with the wire beads through winter. Run under cruds, bombproof, roll ok and are £8 a pop.
    Bombproof is not the same as iceproof though. If you need to ride where it's icey Zaffiros won't help.
  • dmclite-3.0
    dmclite-3.0 Posts: 845
    16mm wrote:
    dmclite-3.0 wrote:
    I run Vittoria zaffiros with the wire beads through winter. Run under cruds, bombproof, roll ok and are £8 a pop.
    Bombproof is not the same as iceproof though. If you need to ride where it's icey Zaffiros won't help.

    If you ride on ice then you need a skidoo matey, no bike tyres are not going to be any good. :|
    I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast, but I'm intercontinental when I eat French toast...
  • 16mm
    16mm Posts: 545
    dmclite-3.0 wrote:
    16mm wrote:
    dmclite-3.0 wrote:
    I run Vittoria zaffiros with the wire beads through winter. Run under cruds, bombproof, roll ok and are £8 a pop.
    Bombproof is not the same as iceproof though. If you need to ride where it's icey Zaffiros won't help.

    If you ride on ice then you need a skidoo matey, no bike tyres are not going to be any good. :|

    See posts above, schwable marathon winters with spikes are discussed & they're designed for ice, and really good. The original poster mentioned cycling on ice specifically. With these tyres ice is no problem, so you can pull a sidoo.
  • 16mm
    16mm Posts: 545
    Just a quick update. Schwable Marathon Winters are awesome. Ice, compacted snow. No slippage:-)

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