Much is made of how a skinny tire can "cut" through deep snow. And maybe that's true. But in the past two winters of daily bike commuting, deep snow was only a problem for me 3 times, at most. The more common winter issue is ice, or the thin, packed snow that results from plowing followed by being packed down by car tires. In other words, hard, slippery surfaces are much more of a hazard, on a daily basis, and deep snows are more of an occasional thing (and fun!).

Two years ago, I got a new bike that I didn't want to ride in the winter. All that winter, I rode my older bike with 700x45 Nokians with no problems whatsoever. You can carve some pretty aggressive turns on those tires, even on ice. But they are heavy and slow. By February, I couldn't take not riding my new bike anymore. Since the new bike had fat tires (~2"), I was able to run them at low pressure (30-50 psi) without fear of pinch flats. The low pressure gives surprisingly good traction on anything, even though the tires lacked any significant tread.

I don't have trouble with flats so far *knocks on wood*. I think I have 600 or 700 mi on a pair with small tread (panaracer pasela tourgaurd) and continental giros, or similar tires anyway. I'd prefer not to buy new tires if I can help it, anyway.

<>

You can always make your own studded tires... There's plenty of help and experience to be found on the morcmtb board.

Link here

I might even say that the prevalent winter condition is pavement, or perhaps wet pavement. These last couple mild winters have meant that any reasonably wide tire with some decent tread works fine for winter riding.



I've heard that the Nokians use fancy schmancy carbon steel or something like that, and the studs will last a very long time. But I would buy regular knobbies and save my money.

I rode a pair of Nokians all last winter, and really couldn't see much wear on them come springtime. I'll be riding them again this winter and I'd guess for several more to come. (Those Finnish studs are definitely nice and hard!)

I can't compare them to other studded tires, because I never had other brands, but they are incredible compared to non-studded tires. I never had to worry about traction. About a third of my commute last year involved park paths, which are plowed but not salted, and often get a nice coat of compacted icy goodness as a result. Nokians make you feel like your bike has claws.

They are also heavy and slow. The plus to this is that when spring comes and you put other tires on, or ride your nice bike, it feels like you're going about a hundred miles and hour and can leapfrog over cars.

I finally got my hands on a pair of Nokians (Hiawatha Cyclery has them in stock now) and am looking forward to trying them out this winter on both the Long Haul Trucker and the fixie. I posted a rambling blurb about them in the product review section here.

They're made of 'carbide', probably primarily tungsten carbide. All steels are carbon steels. Carbides are any metallic alloy including carbon, but the term is usually used to refer to hard alloys used for cutting or abrasion of other metals, and those alloys contain little or no iron, so they don't corrode, wear longer and put up better with temperature extremes.

I had a pair of Innova studded tires that I rode last winter, and I can really see that the studs are worn down. I would go with the Nokians if you're thinking about buying studded tires.