I wondering if anyone has an opinion on winter tires?
I live in Stavanger, Norway. Most of the winter it will hover around freezing causing some heavy frost and occasionally clear ice. We will also get 3-4 big snows, but the bike trails are plowed quickly. Most of the winter will be cold and wet.
I have recently started commuting to work 5 days a week and riding. Total weekly between 80 -125 km. Bike is a Globe Haul 1 with 700 x 35c tires. The original tires are basically slick and I am sure I need them replaced before the weather begins.
I have looked at at some of the Continental tires and the Top Contact Winter Reflex has caught my eye. But, I am just a newby rider and don't know what I am doing (the Globe Haul 1 is a good example) so I am looking for some advice.
you might want to consider some ice tyres if you are going to be riding on iced roads. Last winter I had a hell of a time on my racing bike with slicks. But I took my mountain bike out with its knobbly tyres and I had good grip. You may want to also look at some cyclocross tyres.
This thread has a few different things for winter but Joe_W gave a pretty good rating on some Schwalbe Studded tires...
http://forums.bikeride.com/thread-8.html
Good maintenance to your Bike, can make it like the wheels are, true and smooth!
Your welcome
Good maintenance to your Bike, can make it like the wheels are, true and smooth!
I *believe* Continental make spiked tyres, though I can't remember what it's called.
Conti Tyres are expensive, but you generally get what you pay for.
Oh and trust me, MTB tyres don't work on Ice. The very angry bruise on my palm says so.
I was excited to see this thread, as I just picked up some studded tires a couple days ago. I decided on Nokian Hakkapeliita W106. They are 700x35. Yesterday I used them on ice, snow, and dry pavement. I was impressed on their performance in all three conditions.
Sheer ice was an easy and enjoyable ride. Although there can be a very slight slip when turning, the studs are close enough that it the next one easily caught before anything disastrous happens. The rubber lugs have good depth and well-spaced to keep good traction when riding in snow. I actually tried to make these tires slip when charging up a ice and snow covered hill out of the saddle , and they stuck like glue! Now, I had the rear tire at 4.5 bar and the front at 4.0, so I imagine that they might perform slightly better if I would lower the pressure a bit. But with this pressure, the tires were still surprisingly quiet on dry surfaces. I think that might be due to the tread design in the tire's center area.
I'm not sure how much use I'll get out of these, but I live in SW Wisconsin and you never know what to expect on the winter roads. They have given me peace of mind during my nightly commute from work when I could run into anything.
Sounds pretty good, but something I thought of and never posted before is if the snow "packs" up in them? Does the snow stick to the tires?
Good maintenance to your Bike, can make it like the wheels are, true and smooth!
Ok interesting facts
. I just ordered some MTB sizes myself today. Also that is correct about the variables, conditions, etc. in riding the winter time. Today I went for a couple errands and decided to test out MTB in snow with regular tread. Almost wiped out, but stopped let air out and really did not have too many problems after that. Harder workout but definitely worth it. Again this is with regular MTB tread on powder snow about 2" max deep
Good maintenance to your Bike, can make it like the wheels are, true and smooth!
.... which the temperature was about 12 degrees F. There was no icy spots because it was slush. Now I would rather have the studded tires because the traction would be safer.
Good maintenance to your Bike, can make it like the wheels are, true and smooth!