I used to ride in Toronto in the winter using a studded tire on the back of my mountain bike. I found my traction increased both braking and accelerating if I ran the tires a third less than normal pressure. Of course my speed would drop appreciably. The other thing I found was that if I locked the rear brake on dry pavement people suddenly noticed me because of all the sparks my rear tire threw off... especially at night. That was pretty cool... until the tire blew out. Oh, and the tube would creep inside the tire. That wasn't much fun either. Good video!
Have you gone over that route with non studded tyres to see if it was actually icier than you thought? I always knew when I was glad for the studs because I stopped hearing them.
I find it kind of funny that the area where you really need the studs was left empty. I looked these up and it appears that these are low pressure tires 30 - 70 psi (2 - 5 bar), running low pressure like that I think would then bring some studs into usage but not enough for some ice and snow conditions like you found. These are also on the higher price side running between 82 and 86 USD (75 and 78 Euros). It is nice to see tyre/tire testing videos.
Good information, thanks for sharing. Now it makes more sense to me why the center nubs don’t have studs. When you run at 70 PSI you are likely not to be as impeded by the studs on the side. As you stated, run lower pressure to engage the studs. Regardless, great video! Thank you 🙏
Schwalbe's are great tires, I use them exclusively on all my recumbent's. What I didn't like about the winter studded tires is the extreme compromise they made on the tread to keep the cost down with the studs. There is almost no knobs and with that after a few rides on uneven surfaces you worry that the rubber is already impaled with metal and is in fact prone to flats when the studs puncture the inner carcass of the tire. The other thing is that when the snow and ice has been cleared, riding on the studs makes traction even worse on dry pavement. A few years ago I experimented with Automotive Hose clamps and with and without pop rivets... They wrapped around the rim and tire and worked excellently depending on how many I used and how modified I made the clamps. I had the most fun riding on the frozen creek because it was "smooth as ice" and like being on the ultimate bike trail which had no surface imperfections. Give it a try...
I've had the same set of tires for years for winter useage on my recumbents... never had an issue with them. The carbide studs haven't worn down, the noise is there but acceptable as I'd rather have the noise than go down on black ice. Not amazing in fresh snow, but really raised my confidence on icy roads that I wouldn't have attempted on regular tires.
I have those same tires on a Rans Stratus. Like seat belts, if you only use them once in your life on black ice, they are worth it. I keep mine pumped up fairly high unless conditions are bad. Then full pressure in the Spring and Fall with warm temperatures.
I have these tyres and I really like them at lower pressures on ice. maybe the surface pressure being half as you have 4 wheels is negatively effecting them. Great review for quattrovelo users though!
I also had similar issues with the studs poking the inside of the tire with nokian. I used tubeless sealant to keep the pinhole leaks under control. Weight (pressure) helps a lot. When I had my ebike with a lot of rear weight the winter tire gripped super well.
It's interesting that even in Finland you're struggling to find ice & snow, bit it is Springtime already. Here in England I've had to move to Shorts & use the air conditioning in the car, it's 18°C with bright sunshine. Now I did love the Snow when I lived in Denmark. But that was nothing compared to Finland. Perhaps you should try them again in November.
2:04 maybe raising the tyre-pressure pretty high wil reduce the surface of the tyre/road-contact-patch, and so, raise the contact-pressure. Higher contact-patch curvature... On the other hand, those tyres have anyway NO studs in the center of the tyre, that´s really sad... 😞 Built for bikes, but not for velomobiles...
auttaskohan se pitoon jos laittas tavaratilaan vähän lisäpainoa vaikka jotain työkaluja tai jotain muuta vastaavaa mistä saattas olla muutenkin hyötyä? :)
nice videos. very important subject about our european resilience ! bravo ! but please, try to standardize your english accent which is quite incomprehensible... 🙂🙂
