Am I the only one who thinks studded tires are overrated for trail riding?

I rode 3 winters without studs up in the U.P. near Munising and never crashed once. Everyone told me I was crazy but I figured studs were just for ice racers. Then last February I hit a patch of glare ice on a downhill turn and ate it hard... bent my handlebars and bruised my ribs for 2 weeks. That's when I realized I'd been relying too much on momentum and not enough on actual grip. Has anyone else learned a lesson about traction the hard way?

2 comments

2 Comments

ben43613d ago

Munising area is no joke with that lake effect ice. I ran Kenda Flame 120s one winter there without studs and thought I was invincible until I hit a slick spot on the ridge trail south of town. Bent a derailleur hanger and had to hike out two miles in the dark. Now I run Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pros on the front at least. You don't need studs everywhere but one icy corner can ruin your whole season.

dixon.willow13d ago

ben436 those Kenda Flames are actually pretty decent tires but they're not really winter tires at all, they're more of a hardpack trail tire. I ran a set one season and they turned into hockey pucks below freezing. The compound gets rock hard around 20 degrees and that's when the studs actually matter most. You want a softer rubber like what Schwalbe or 45NRTH uses so the knobs can actually deform on ice instead of just skittering across it. Even cheap studded tires with a crappy compound are basically just noise makers on glare ice.