Even car free tree-huggers have to go shopping in the next town occasionally, and Ostfildern doesn’t bother to clear most bike lanes or most residential streets, come to that. This means that shopping trips need to be planned with all the care of an expedition to the South Pole, to take advantage of that short time window when the last load of snow and ice has melted, but before the Weather dumps a fresh 10 cm of snow on us. It also gives me a fair bit of experience each year in different road conditions, which I always vow to be ready for and promptly forget about in spring.
Residential roads get cleared by the cars that use them: sort of. Usually the snow is gradually compacted down until there are two narrow strips of tarmac in an expense of ice, which makes life interesting on the Bakfiets where you can’t see the front wheel. Wherever the cars don’t all follow the same line this becomes an expanse of half-frozen sludge where the only way to move forward is get off and push. I learn this every year, and the next year I still try and ride over it again as if somehow it may be different. Away from the cars the trails cultivate harmless looking sheets of lumpy ice which are just waiting to send the back wheel skittering off in random directions.
It looks like I need to rethink my policy on winter tyres, as in, actually get some. For about eleven years I used Michelin Wildgripper City tyres on the Xtracycle which handled packed snow and ice surprisingly well, but they were falling to bits so I replaced them with Schwalbe Marathon tyres which haven’t got the same bite. Now I’m wondering what is best: Marathon Plus tour tyres, respectably knobbly mountain-bike tyres, or go the whole nine yards and go for mountain-man spikes? And then I’ve seen people using spikes on the front wheel and mountain bike tyres on the back…
Or maybe I’m-over complicating things. I could make a kick-sled instead: if I knew what I was doing. Besides some roads I use are cleared so I’d need a way of fitting wheels…
Push your bike through enough snow and this stuff becomes interesting.
7 comments
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January 1, 2011 at 1:40 pm
disgruntled
There’s always this.
January 1, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Yant
I’m on my second winter of using Schwalbe Marathon Winter 240 Spikes and they just make riding in snow and ice hassle free. Expensive yes, but the are wearing really well and I expect to use them for a number of winters.
January 1, 2011 at 10:39 pm
the big smile
@ disgruntled:
Good idea! But a very interesting solution for bikes with rim brakes.
@ Andy:
I use Continental Spike Claw 120. I ride them on a very high pressure, so the spikes will only come to work, when the bikes tilts sideways. Works great!
Maybe, I could ride with mountainbike tires without spikes, too.
But I can lower the pressure to make the spikes allways touch the gruond and give me a better grip on ice.
There is one bad thing about nobby or studded tires: The rolling resistance!
I feel the difference on my trekking bike (Marathon in summer, Nokian Hakkapeliitta W106 in winter) and on the Mundo (Fat Frank in summer, Conti Spike Claw 120 in winter).
Even now I am looking forward fr the springtime.
The question of where to fit a single studded tire to me seems quite simple to answer:
http://sheldonbrown.com/tire-rotation.html
The tire with the stronger grip should always be on the front wheel for controlled braking and cornering.
I use studded tires on both wheel, just to make sure! Children are precious load.
January 2, 2011 at 1:10 am
Kim
I would have thought the Schwalbe Marathon Winter would be the best solution, but must admit I haven’t tried it.
January 2, 2011 at 2:28 am
xiousgeonz
I also have studded tyres and the not-so-many-studs at pretty high pressure. It does make for more work. Probably should have had less pressure last February when the wind blew the bike out from under me on a wet and icy road (or been sure to lean harder on the front end). I like that I can ride them when the roads are basically clear… except where they aren’t.
I am thinking of getting those marathons for my folding bike because it feels more secure than my tall bikes (and, well, the wind unnerves me a bit still and it’s lower and slices through).
I’m ecstatic that we had a meltdown — temps got near 60 on 12/30 so when I awoke on 12/31 the snow was GONE — and it looks like we’ll have a week with subfreezing temps but not *that* far below freezing and NO SNOW. I shall be riding so fast I can’t stand it
January 3, 2011 at 3:30 am
Kirsten
Just fitted my new Schwalbe Marathon Winters to my cargo bike last weekend. On the first ride, I rode the cargo bike while my other half rode his mountain bike with non-studded knobbies. When we traded bikes, he said the studs gave amazing control compared to his tires.
We tested the tires on clear asphalt, glare ice, granular snow, and that hard, crunchy ‘brown sugar’ on the roadside.They plow right through the ‘brown sugar’ and are wonderful for ice, but sometimes the rear tire still slides sideways on an inch of snow over ice. Luckily, it doesn’t slide far before grabbing again, so I feel fairly safe.
I’m guessing the occasional slide is due to the rather short knobs on this tire, which contribute to lower rolling resistance (and easier pedaling) compared to a full-on stud such as the Nokian Hakkapeliitta 240. As to weight, this bike weighs 50 lbs. without studs, so and additional 180g for studs makes very little difference.
January 8, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Andy in Germany
Yowser… many thanks for all the suggestions and ideas, sorry it took ages to respond.
I’ll now spend ages researching all you’ve said, probably until all the snow melts…