Is it cold where you are? Do you still feel like riding?

[Mark]

vey wrote:
> I can't even imagine riding a bike on icy streets like that. How is that
> done? Studded tires? Do those work?

Slowly, yes, yes.

Studs works best on ice or hard-pack snow.

Riding in loose snow can be like riding in loose sand. This is
especially true when the snow is /mixed/ with sand from city sanding
trucks - traction is going to suffer no matter what, but it can be done
with wide MTB tires at low pressure.

On hard-pack snow with good studs on medium-width tires, you've got
almost the same control that you would on pavement with regular tires.

I've ridden on home-made studded tires, but it's easy to go to overkill
with home-mades, and sheet metal screws don't last that well. At least
you can tweak them to fit local snow conditions.

Now that I live in the Pacific NW where the local weather issue is
(rare) ice and freezing rain rather than snow, I've gone to Nokian
studded 700C's. They work great and the carbide studs last great also.
I built a second pair of wheels for them, so if ice threatens my
morning commute, it's a few minutes of work to mount them and have a
worry-free ride.

Mark J.

 

[Mark]

[email protected] wrote:
> I have considered studded tires, but I have never tried them. I am
> concerned about how they would handle on bare pavement.

There is a handling price to be paid with studs on bare pavement, but
it's not as bad as one might think. Just take it a bit easy in the
corners (at least for well-designed studded tires). There is definitely
increased drag.

Mark J.

 

[[email protected]]

On Oct 18, 5:31 pm, Mark <[email protected]>
wrote:
> [email protected] wrote:
> > I have considered studded tires, but I have never tried them. I am
> > concerned about how they would handle on bare pavement.
>
> There is a handling price to be paid with studs on bare pavement, but
> it's not as bad as one might think. Just take it a bit easy in the
> corners (at least for well-designed studded tires). There is definitely
> increased drag.
>
> Mark J.

At the local shop once the guys were goofing off with an "indoor
challenge" race series. Various new bikes and bikes in for repairs
were taken at often break-neck speeds for laps inside the shop. The
laminate floor favored some tires over others. In particular some
narrow new unused city bike tires were quite slippery, while agressive
knobbies had a nice progressive slide to them. Road bikes were pretty
treacherous, and fixed-gear bikes had problems maneuvering around all
the display bikes and stands, etc. But the mother of all poor handling
tires on laminate flooring is Nokian studded MTB tires. YMMV!

Joseph

 

[Mark]

[email protected] wrote:
> On Oct 18, 5:31 pm, Mark <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>> [email protected] wrote:
>>> I have considered studded tires, but I have never tried them. I am
>>> concerned about how they would handle on bare pavement.
>> There is a handling price to be paid with studs on bare pavement, but
>> it's not as bad as one might think. Just take it a bit easy in the
>> corners (at least for well-designed studded tires). There is definitely
>> increased drag.
>>
>> Mark J.
>
> At the local shop once the guys were goofing off with an "indoor
> challenge" race series. Various new bikes and bikes in for repairs
> were taken at often break-neck speeds for laps inside the shop. The
> laminate floor favored some tires over others. In particular some
> narrow new unused city bike tires were quite slippery, while agressive
> knobbies had a nice progressive slide to them. Road bikes were pretty
> treacherous, and fixed-gear bikes had problems maneuvering around all
> the display bikes and stands, etc. But the mother of all poor handling
> tires on laminate flooring is Nokian studded MTB tires. YMMV!
>
> Joseph

Wasn't that really hard on the laminate floor?

Mark J.

 

[[email protected]]

On Oct 19, 8:00 am, Mark <[email protected]>
wrote:
> [email protected] wrote:
> > On Oct 18, 5:31 pm, Mark <[email protected]>
> > wrote:
> >> [email protected] wrote:
> >>> I have considered studded tires, but I have never tried them. I am
> >>> concerned about how they would handle on bare pavement.
> >> There is a handling price to be paid with studs on bare pavement, but
> >> it's not as bad as one might think. Just take it a bit easy in the
> >> corners (at least for well-designed studded tires). There is definitely
> >> increased drag.
>
> >> Mark J.
>
> > At the local shop once the guys were goofing off with an "indoor
> > challenge" race series. Various new bikes and bikes in for repairs
> > were taken at often break-neck speeds for laps inside the shop. The
> > laminate floor favored some tires over others. In particular some
> > narrow new unused city bike tires were quite slippery, while agressive
> > knobbies had a nice progressive slide to them. Road bikes were pretty
> > treacherous, and fixed-gear bikes had problems maneuvering around all
> > the display bikes and stands, etc. But the mother of all poor handling
> > tires on laminate flooring is Nokian studded MTB tires. YMMV!
>
> > Joseph
>
> Wasn't that really hard on the laminate floor?
>
> Mark J.

Actually not. But it was so much fun that the race series morphed into
more of a drifting sort of a thing: Regular tire on the front, studded
on the back, how much wheelspin can you keep in control?

Joseph

 

[Andrew Price]

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:30:48 +0930, Michael Warner
<[email protected]> wrote:

>No, it's spring here, and the weather is beautiful - just been out for
>an early morning beach ride and coffee with friends. Winter was mild
>and dry, too, so I've had no trouble maintaining 5-600km/week.
>
>Y'all have a nice winter up there.

Thanks.

>I wouldn't swap with you

I wouldn't swap with you, either ! Whilst spring weather in Oz can be
very nice, 40° summers are not my idea of a comfortable climate. For
me, that kind of heat is just as restricting as having snow on the
ground.