Transform your winter bike riding with studded tires! Review of the Schwalbe HS396 tire. 

Best video ever at showing how these tyres work...or any tire in ice...

This is a brilliant video on winter tyres! Enjoyed watching it. :)

Greetings to Canada from Germany, thx for the video. Helped me to decide for the Marathon Winter Plus. Put the tire on a new DT-Swiss 545 rim and will run it in the next days, since they promissed snow again in the forecast. Rgds Dietrich

Great vid - really appreciate the slow motion.

Fantastic shots, thanks for posting this.

Thank you for sharing! that's was super helpful!

I've just bought a pair of these as black ice is a regular problem on my commute. This is a very helpful video, thanks. Of course now the weather is forecast to stay warmer!!!

Really helpful review thanks.

I got a set this year. Absolutely love them. As other have noted, packed but moveable snow of even an inch will still make them squirrely. It’s kind of funny looking for bits of bare ice for traction.

Thanks for making this helpful video and sharing your insights.

Yup. It’s surreal riding with them. Been using them for three winters. I use 4.5 inch Dillinger 5’s on my fatty at $450 a pair but saves my life and I can ride all year! No gym membership necessary! Thanks

Haha, love it, this goes on my ebike now

Excellent video. I got 5 Ottawa winters out of my first Schwalbe HS 396 (front only) on my Batavus city bike. The studs wore smooth, so I replaced the tire. I've used the bike to hold me up when it was too slippery to walk.

Just added a similar version to my gravel bike. They are magic on mixed surfaces as long as there isn't much deep/loose snow. Very at-home on local dirt roads with a mix of hard pack snow, ice and dirt. Solid on local trails as long as the snow has been packed down. Safe (if slower) on pavement. They seem well-suited to a lot of winter riding in SW Ontario.

thanks for the review

Great informational video! What brake calipers do you have on the bike, that it can clear 30mm tires? They look like regular short reach brakes. Is the frame the limiting factor for anything wider, or is that the max for your brake calipers?

have you ever wished you could do wider tires than 30c ? I'm building a all year bike, but not sure if I need to go for a gravel frame to fit 35c or even 40c.

My summer tires Schwalbe Hurricane Performance 28" Addix E-50 on ebike amazing performance on loose an compact snow, stunning side grip. now put Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus Performance SmartGuard 28" Winter Reflex quite disappointing, price steep but performance slightly better on compact snow, on loose maybe worse, side grip definetely worst, the bigest impact on icy surface other then that probably waste of money in my opinion..

Can you replace the studs?

Hi Gremlin, I want to buy something similar, but I don't know the exact dimensions. Can you help me please?

The noise makes me think of walking over hordes of insects...