UKC

I sometimes bike on icy mountain tracks [Scotland] - mostly to access areas where I can then go on into the hills to walk, climb or ski. [Sometimes I fall over due to the ice].

I'm wondering if I should be buying suitable tyres [with metal studs]?

John Workman

In reply to John Workman: they're a bit heavy and draggy, , but it seems a reasonable idea

In reply to John Workman:

I made my own winter mtb tyres from a  part worn set of Schwalbe Nobby Nics with a box of screws, an electric screwdriver and a pair of side cutters to trim the screws to length. I ran them tubeless with plenty of sealant, they worked really well and kept me riding through a harsh winter. Most of the folk I rode with at the time had Schwalbe Ice Spiker tyres they’d used for the Strathpuffer 24hr race on the middle of winter, that they really rated.

In reply to John Workman:

I bike a lot in the winter and had the ice spiker pros and they were brilliant.  Worth more than the bike they were on, which is probably why it was stolen.  Bastards.

In reply to John Workman:

I used Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires on my bike through the winters when I lived in Helsinki and commuted by bike - really impressively grippy even on sheet ice (has to be pretty flat though to ride on!). 

They are a pretty low profile tire, for icy roads and well graded gravel tracks I'd say. Schwalbe to winter versions of some of their more off road oriented MTB tires, which might be better for what you want.

But basically studded bike tire work really well and are the norm in more snowy places.

In reply to Jon Greengrass:

Years ago, one of the mountain bike magazines biked down the Cresta Run on home-made spikes.

They took a slick MTB tyre and banged a load of short clout (roofing felt) nails through from the inside, then lined it with another slick tyre with the bead cut off to cover the heads and make sure they didn't push back through and a tube inside that, pumped up pretty hard.

Must have weighed a ton, but not really an issue on a downhill-only run!

In reply to John Workman:

Yes the Schwalbe spikes are excellent (or were back when we still had snow and ice in winter).

You just need to learn trusting the spikes so you lean into curve almost as normal.

This only becomes tricky when you lean into a corner on dry tarmac, in which case the front wheel tends to slip. But on hard snow pack or ice? Absolutely no issue with cornering!

CB

Ice spikers are excellent, but you need to watch out for the type of stud used.

I had some 26 ers which had the good concaved tungsten tips.   All good.

Some years later I got some 29 ers from CRC as they were on offer.   The studs were the poor relation: still tungsten but pointed, not concaved.   These are highly undesirable and I had to go to further expense and effort to switch every stud to the concaved type.

Sadly, after doing that I invested in some Johnny 5's 26x 5" for the far bike. ....completely studded with the good studs, so the Ice Spikers are hung up virtually unused

In reply to John Workman:

Ice Spiker pro for me too. You do have to the distance on tarmac to bed the spikes in first.

Best on very hard packed snow. Not so good on exposed rocky sections. I got a big bag of spikes and an insertion tool off eBay, as I was losing a couple of spikes each ride.

I’ve used Ice Spiker tyres and they work well on icy tracks, but once it gets snowy they struggle. I’ve done a fair bit of fat biking in the Arctic winter and once you’ve got more than a couple on inches of soft snow you really need wide tyres for float. If the temperature gets above freezing, the ice crystals in snow don’t bind and even a fat bike struggles - make sure you have comfortable boots as you’ll be pushing.