Best winter tyres for a bit of frost/ice patches

andyh01

Looking at getting a Giant Defy advance pro 2 for year round commuter.
On days like today with a bit of frost and icy patches what be best tubeless tyres up to 35mm. My commute although tarmac is off road so I suspect slippery in places under foot/wheels. Have 2 sets of 700c one set on 28mm pro one's for nice days, looking to set the stock wheels up with something to use year round all road/bad weather

gethinceri

Before anybody suggests it, Gatorskins are not the answer to anybody’s cycling needs.
Ever.

me-109

I doubt there's much difference on a pedally bike, the contact points are so small. You need studs to grip on ice but they're no good on tarmac. Pressure probably makes more difference than softer rubber but when it loses traction you're likely to be off.

molteni_man

gethinceri said:

Before anybody suggests it, Gatorskins are not the answer to anybody’s cycling needs.
Ever.

+ 1 for that comment….. absolutely lethal tyres for grip!

daniel_b

The only way I have managed to kind of ride on snow and ice was on 2.5" wide knobbly mountain bike tyres running low pressure.

Studded tyres have already been mentioned, but you'd destroy them in no time due to the small mounts of ice.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

I've had 38mm 45Nrth Gravdals for ~6 years, simply inflating them to higher pressures (approx 60-70PSI) makes the ice spikes protrude less, when there's a real risk of slippy stuff I drop the pressures. I'll fit them once morning temps drop under approx 2C and won't switch them out unless there is a forceast for several days of approx 5C+.

Studs still fine, it also helps that they came with ~240 studs per tyre, so many more grip points than the likes of Schwalbe's 30mm basic version https://www.merlincycles.com/schwalbe-winter-kevlar-guard-active-line-winter-compound-rigid-tyre-700c-209235.html

Good price £10/13 https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/schwalbe-winter-spike-k-guard-road-tyre/rp-prod118113

davebradswmb

I've just put some spiked tyres (Continental Contact Spike) on my cyclocross bike for commuting when there is ice about and I've used it all this week, so that will be about 100 miles now. Surprisingly the studs are still very prominant despite most of the ride being bare tarmac, there are patches where run off from the fields has left sheets of ice, and over the week traffic has spread this over a bigger area of slushy ice that freezes overnight. The grip is amazing, I felt a little slip from my back wheel this morning going over the frozen slush but it soon gripped again. i am running them at 60 psi to minimise drag but I reckon that the commute is taking about 20% longer than usual on my commuter which is not particularly fast in itself. I tell myself that its good training!

veronese68

If it's ice nothing other than studs will work, I write this working from home having come off on ice on Tuesday. I thought I was being reasonably careful, took the old 26" MTB with knobbly tyres and flat pedals. It was fine through the park as where the puddles on the path were completely frozen I could take to the grass and frosty grass had enough grip, it's fine in snow as I've done that before. But on frozen tarmac nothing other than studs will help, I went down do fast I was still holding the handlebars when I hit the deck. Now looking at the Gravdals that Goat has mentioned.

DeVlaeminck

If you've absolutely no choice but to commute by bike I'd get the spiked tyres - I know a few people with metalwork in them due to commuting crashes - even if you trash a pair of tyres in one winter it's only the cost of a tank of petrol or probably less than the damage you'd do to the bike/helmet/kit hitting the deck once.

ugo.santalucia

Yep, only spiked tyres work on ice. They take the joy away from riding a bicycle, but it's the only way to be reasonably safe

trevor.hall12

Anything without spikes on ice and you're going to be picking yourself up alot

kingstongraham

Trainer tyre.