Studded tyres on Tarmac

slowbike

As I was in Norway recently I felt it would've been rude not to check the bike bits they sell ... and found myself buying some 700/30 studded tyres for my commuter bike ...
I've checked they fit the wheel ok - so far so good ... but because it was nowhere near cold I went back to my normal 32 slicks for commuting.

Whilst there is snow forecast for next week I'm not expecting much down here, however, it does mean it'll be cold and with cold comes ice - which is why I bought the spikes ...

So - I'm intending to swap onto studded tyres this weekend - is there anything I should do or do different considering that most of the commute is on A roads - I do have one fast descent with a turn at the bottom - the normal hazards are drain covers but they're easy to miss ...

TIA

Rodders30

Im no expert, but I would have thought unless there's compacted snow or thick continuous ice, they'd be rubbish on tarmac?

daviesee

Learn how to do speedway turns with a foot down.

mattv

Spikes and studs are crap on dry tarmac. Slippy as hell, noisy and wear quickly. Save em til it snows!

unixnerd

I know that on studded car tyres the braking distance in the dry is a lot longer. Leave them until you need them. I go to Norway a fair bit myself, wonderful place to cycle.

MattPillinger

Slowbike wrote:

As I was in Norway recently I felt it would've been rude not to check the bike bits they sell ... and found myself buying some 700/30 studded tyres for my commuter bike ...
I've checked they fit the wheel ok - so far so good ... but because it was nowhere near cold I went back to my normal 32 slicks for commuting.

Whilst there is snow forecast for next week I'm not expecting much down here, however, it does mean it'll be cold and with cold comes ice - which is why I bought the spikes ...

So - I'm intending to swap onto studded tyres this weekend - is there anything I should do or do different considering that most of the commute is on A roads - I do have one fast descent with a turn at the bottom - the normal hazards are drain covers but they're easy to miss ...

TIA

The thing you should do differently is not put them on until you have a pretty much entirely snow (or ice) covered route.

It will be very difficult to corner on tarmac and basically you will come off a lot. Imagine/try running on tarmac in football boots vs running trainers and you will get the idea

davis

I don't find them abysmal on tarmac, but they're noticeably worse. I wouldn't want to actually ride fast on them!

asprilla

I've not noticed them being any worse on tarmac for grip. Heavy and noisy, but not any less grippy than the equivalent tyre without studs.

graeme_s-2

They're heavy and noisey and the grip is worse than slicks on tarmac, but they're certainly not dangerous. When you're on tarmac the studs push back in deforming the rubber around them, so most of the rubber tread block makes contact with the tarmac. It's not like you're riding on tarmac with just the studs being in contact with the ground.

slowbike

Asprilla wrote:

I've not noticed them being any worse on tarmac for grip. Heavy and noisy, but not any less grippy than the equivalent tyre without studs.

davis wrote:

I don't find them abysmal on tarmac, but they're noticeably worse. I wouldn't want to actually ride fast on them!

Graeme_S wrote:

They're heavy and noisey and the grip is worse than slicks on tarmac, but they're certainly not dangerous. When you're on tarmac the studs push back in deforming the rubber around them, so most of the rubber tread block makes contact with the tarmac. It's not like you're riding on tarmac with just the studs being in contact with the ground.

Thanks guys - theres absolutely no way I can wait till the whole route is covered in ice/snow - it won't happen here! But there is a significant portion of the route that does get icy - I survived it last year on just CX tyres, but I'm not sure how! That's why I bought these studded tyres.
They're a deep tread tyre with spikes away from the centre - so should be fine for all conditions - I've ridden spikes before on my brothers mountain bike, but that was just doodling along cyclepaths with his kids. This will be my first time on my bike and on a journey I normally do at a reasonable pace.
I'm going to put the tyres on the spare wheels and give them a careful ride - it's a 20mile round trip so reasonable but not too far - then I can swap between the wide slicks and the studded as conditions suggest.

bompington

Had similar 700s - Nokian a10 - on last winter, and I, too, can't see how they're as as bad a some are saying - perhaps it depends on the exact config of studs, tread etc.
I would say the grip on dry roads is perhaps a hint better than that of typical slicks on a wet road, the noise can be a bit off-putting at first but I find it strangely reassuring.

ride_whenever

I run the ice spiker pro's when it gets frozen. I've found you wanna take things easy for the first 10 or so miles to bed the studs in properly, and generally avoid hard braking or acceleration on tarmac. Grip is fine though and they unexpected grip in places where normal tyres wont.

If you got the marathon winters the trick is to pump them up massively high until it is icey and let them down when it is cold so the studs bite in.

Also, studded tyres suck in snow, they're really only for ice or hard pack snow/ice stuff.

veronese68

I seem to recall reading that you are supposed to break them in on tarmac before you take to snow with them. Not sure if this applies to all, or just the particular type that was being discussed at the time.

eta: As I was writing my post ride whenever has confirmed my suspicion.

slowbike

ride_whenever wrote:

Also, studded tyres suck in snow, they're really only for ice or hard pack snow/ice stuff.

The tyres I've got are deep treads - so should be better in snow than my previous semi-slick CX tyres ...

On_What

I raced in Southern Norway and studded tyres were not needed there until it was out of season.

Bear in mind Southern Norway is roughly in line with Aberdoom and you should see the irrelevance of studded tyre in the UK


PS I won two hillclimbs out there

Big_Paul

They're better than coarse knobblies and somewhat worse than slicks. I have mine on a spare set of wheels so it's a matter of a couple of minutes to swap wheels, but they have saved my bacon a few times, I found that the noise was the test of how icy it was, if the tyres went quiet, they were digging into ice. Our local government is notoriously rubbish at gritting things when it gets icy, even up to running out of salt last year. I have to climb an ungritted hill a couple of times a week, you can't walk up it if it's icy, the Marathon winters went up it like a dry summers day. The only "moment" I had was on a wet path with strange stone paving, the front went to tuck, but as I don't fly along it just gripped of it's own accord. I wouldn't like them as my "only" tyre choice, although some people do.

slowbike

On_What wrote:

I raced in Southern Norway and studded tyres were not needed there until it was out of season.

But what surface and what conditions?

On_What wrote:

Bear in mind Southern Norway is roughly in line with Aberdoom and you should see the irrelevance of studded tyre in the UK

I had a few problems with CX tyres last year - mostly because part of the lanes where I commute are naturally very wet - so a thaw and refreeze ends up with significant amounts of ice

On_What wrote:

PS I won two hillclimbs out there

Congrats - I won a hill climb here ... but then I was the only participant ...

On_What

Perhaps you need to buy one of the Top Gear Toyotas for driving to the South Pole

I had sub zero temepratures for sure, and was still racing come early December. I was racing on tarmac btw

If you feel you need them (and your last post seems to justify it, even though your argument does not) then you should go for it!!

asprilla

I use mine on tow paths and places like Richmond Park when it snows. I don't get that much use out of them, but it's a lot of fun.

slowbike

On_What wrote:

Perhaps you need to buy one of the Top Gear Toyotas for driving to the South Pole

I had sub zero temepratures for sure, and was still racing come early December. I was racing on tarmac btw

If you feel you need them (and your last post seems to justify it, even though your argument does not) then you should go for it!!

I've got an suv/4x4 that even with the summer tyres on it is fine in everything we've seen down here, I've even taken it further off main roads just to try and push it a bit harder ...

Tarmac is fine, most of the time it is tarmac, just on the lanes it gets wet/icy/snowy.

I've already got the tyres - just wanted others experience on using them on tarmac ...

solsurf

I run them on my genesis day one. You'll need to run them on tarmac for a couple of hundred miles anyway to bed them in. They aren't bad on tarmac just hard work, but on ice and compacted snow they are worth every penny as they are the only thing that will keep you upright.

Kieran_Burns

Country lanes for me and my marathon winters came into their own last Winter.

Although for some reason I had an obsession with rice krispies....

DrLex

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Country lanes for me and my marathon winters came into their own last Winter.

Although for some reason I had an obsession with rice krispies....

I was hearing frying bacon, which made my post-commute coffee somewhat less satisfying,

andyxm

Slowbike wrote:

Tarmac is fine, most of the time it is tarmac, just on the lanes it gets wet/icy/snowy.

I've already got the tyres - just wanted others experience on using them on tarmac ...

Fair bit of nonsense being written on here, yes they are noisy and a bit slower than regular tyres but grip levels are pretty good in general although I'm a bit wary of manhole covers and similar, I think the advice to ride a little less aggressively than usual is good.

With mine (Schwalbe something or other) they advise running at full pressure when not icy and reducing it when icy to get more contact.

They really are very good though, until the snow starts to melt....

meanredspider

andyxm wrote:

Fair bit of nonsense being written on here, yes they are noisy and a bit slower than regular tyres but grip levels are pretty good in general although I'm a bit wary of manhole covers and similar, I think the advice to ride a little less aggressively than usual is good.

+1 - I was going to write pretty much exactly the same thing. I've been riding at least 4 months a year on studded tyres for the last 4 years. There can be black ice pretty much anywhere on my 15 mile commute in the mornings and often completely clear on the return trip. I've used Marathon Winters, Ice Spikers and, my personal favourite, Ice Spiker Pros. A set of the Pros have lasted the last 3 years - that's 2 or 3,000 miles. The only reason to ride carefully is that spinning or locking the wheels tends to pull studs out - a much bigger problem on the Winters than the Pros. The studs tend to compress into the tyre so any comparisons with football boots is, frankly, a bit silly. On the plus side, they are utterly fantastic on ice - sheet ice is absolutely no problem unless you stop and try to walk on it. They really aren't a whole lot better than knobblies on snow because the studs provide no advantage - mud tyres are better. And, yes, I think the advice from Schwalbe is to ride 40k on Tarmac before going off road.

slowbike

Well. Fitted them yesterday and rode around the block - fine on the strait but twitchy around the corners. Something to get used to.

Ride out today - bit of road and a bit of offroad - on road first - clack clack clack a long the road. No issues. Off road was excellent - the knobbly studded tyres gripped the various surfaces - compressed chalk and mud trails - like it was on Tarmac - superb ..

meanredspider

How many studs per tyre are there?

DrLex

200 on the 26" Winter, 240 on the 700cc (source).

meanredspider

DrLex wrote:

200 on the 26" Winter, 240 on the 700cc (source).

Ah OK - I didn't see that the OP had mentioned a brand

slowbike

i hadnt mentioned a brand - Its a biltema tyre - seems to be the scandinavian ikea for tools & leisure stuff ... so 'cheap' tyre - may not be as good as a known brand but it should see me through this winter.

Don't know how many studs per tyre - I could count but that's boring!

bobbygloss

Slowbike wrote:

i hadnt mentioned a brand - Its a biltema tyre - seems to be the scandinavian ikea for tools & leisure stuff ... so 'cheap' tyre - may not be as good as a known brand but it should see me through this winter.

Don't know how many studs per tyre - I could count but that's boring!

I used the Biltema tyres in my first winter here. They start off ridiculously spiky, but the studs are only steel so they wear quite fast. They end up with studs only in the shoulders, but still heavier than a normal studded tyre.
See below for comparison with Nokian Extremes (on right). The extremes have done a lot more miles.