Cycling downhill on ice. Which tyre?

[Sara_H]

Last winter I bought some Marathon Winters, but I never got around to putting them on the bike due to my near death experience.

The ones I have are 26" but my new bike has 700c wheels, so OH is having the Marathon winters and I need to buy tyres again!

Are Marathon Winters the best option. I'll be honest, the thought of going down the hill when it's icy scares the **** out of me (I drop about 400ft in the first mile of my commute).

I know the proper sensible answer is " leave the bike at home if it's icy" but on school days I can't actually get to work on time by public transport/by car/walking so options are limited.

What do folk recommend for icy conditions?

 

[Archie_tect]

Could you wheel your bike down over the visibly slippy bits and ride from there?

 

[Sara_H]

Could you wheel your bike down over the visibly slippy bits and ride from there?

Not really, Because I live high up we tend to get compacted ice and snow that remains solid for up to two weeks after its thawed elsewhere. I appreciate I'll need to go slow and steady, but I don need to be making reasonable progress cos I need to get to work!

 

[Archie_tect]

In that case wheel it for a mile with your best snow boots on

 

[Sara_H]

In that case wheel it for a mile with your best snow boots on

Which will add twenty minutes I can't afford onto the journey. If I can do it safely, I'd rather ride down.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Sara, I can recommend the Schwalbe Ice spikers, they are basically MB tyres with studs.
Fantastic on ice and snow, tried and tested last winter, wrote a review on them here.

 

[GrasB]

On 622 rim (aka 700c) you'll be looking at Winter, Marathon Winter & Ice Spiker Pro. There is no Ice Spiker in the 622 size .

The problem with the (Marathon) Winter is that it's not a good tyre on anything deep & slushy. They are, however, available in the hybrid friendly size of 35-622, you'll be able to fit this on any hybrid except for those which are basically flat bar road bikes. The Winter is basically a Marathon Winter with only the inner stud lines on the tyre. Unless you leaning the bike a lot then you'll not lose anything except weight with the Winter & it's the cheaper of the two.

The Ice Spiker Pro is a great tyre which works well on anything from fresh snow through slush & on to frozen ice. However it is BIG at 622-67, like 2.6", that means you need clearance for 29er sized tyres.

The Nokia Hakka W106 is a little less composed on fresh snow but is good on slush, it also comes in at 622-37 which will fit on most hybrids. W240 comes in 622-40 which is better on fresh snow than the W106 but is marginally bigger at 622-40. Finally there's the Hakkapelita A10 which at 622-32 the narrowest studded tyre I've seen, it doesn't complete with the Hakka & Ice Spiker Pro for slush & snow but it is better than the (Marathon) Winter.

There are other spiked tyre brands about, Continental for instance, however last time I looked they all use softer metal for their spikes so get worn away quite quickly on bare tarmac.

 

[TheDoctor]

I use standard Marathon tyres for icy/snowy commuting, but they're on the Brompton. It's my easiest one to do a quick dismount on - I figure that riding on ice it's a matter of when you come off, not if...

 

[sreten]

Hi,

As usual Schwalbe do a cheaper good tyre that will do the job well but isn't a Marathon.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/schwalbe-winter-stud-road-bike-tyre/rp-prod48758
compare to :
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/schwalbe-marathon-winter-road-bike-tyre/rp-prod60783

The Marathon is 67 tpi, Kelvarguard, winter compound.
The Winter is 50 tpi, Kelvarguard, offroad compound.
The Marathon has more grip, the Winter rolls better.

As often, the cheaper tyres are less than half the price of Marathons and are much
better value. I really like Schwalbe budget tyres, very high quality for the price IMO.
They get discounted much more often, often near the price of very budget tyres.

At £48 per pair delivered versus £108, i.e. £60 difference I know what i'd try.

(Even if it went wrong and you need more studs, then get a Marathon
and fit it to the front, leaving the Winter on the back. I'm a fan of more
grip on the front and better rolling on the back and like having different
tyres front and back. I'd even consider a Winter on the front and then
fitting a no stud winter rear tyre something like this on the back :
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/michelin-transworld-sprint-bike-tyre/rp-prod26233
As back wheel skidding is really no problem compared to the front going.)

rgds, sreten.

 

[andrew_s]

Spike tyres are significantly cheaper if you buy from Germany. The postage is more, but you still save. Try bike-discount or starbike

More spikes is better - the extra width the spikes cover helps avoid getting stuck in frozen ruts as well as giving extra grip. If you have good reason to believe there will be a substantial amount of ice, it's worth reducing tyre pressure to get more spikes on the ice. Whatever you use, you won't have the same grip as you do on a dry road, so take care and don't throw the bike about too much.
Walking on ice is often harder than cycling unless you are wearing shoes with some sort of added grip (chains, usually).


I use either Marathon Winter, or Conti Top Contact Winter II, as basically road tyres that aren't too slow.
The Conti are without spikes and are effectively the same as winter car tyres, giving fairly reasonable grip on dry ice but aren't as good as the Marathon Winter.They are however faster and a significantly better ride.
Neither are all that good on slush or deeper snow, but in those circumstances although you may flounder a bit, keep on having to put a foot down, and not be very fast, you are unlikely to actually fall off.
I would expect the Nokians to be better in snow, but slower on tarmac, and the Ice Spikers to be quite a bit better in snow, and quite a lot slower on tarmac. YPYMAYTYC

 

[GrasB]

Hi,

As usual Schwalbe do a cheaper good tyre that will do the job well but isn't a Marathon.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/schwalbe-winter-stud-road-bike-tyre/rp-prod48758

The Snow Stud is a discontinued tyre, effectively being replaced with the Winter. It was replaced with good reason, it's not actually that good a tyre. At higher pressures the studs only come into contact with the ground at noticeable lean, so while fine for cornering in a straight line they're not better than a generic cheap MTB tyre. In addition to this if you are a lighter rider at the lower pressures required to allow the studs to make contact there's not enough weight on the studs to be effective. Personally I would spend £1 more and get the more effective Winter.

 

[sreten]

The Snow Stud is a discontinued tyre, effectively being replaced with the Winter. It was replaced with good reason, it's not actually that good a tyre. At higher pressures the studs only come into contact with the ground at noticeable lean, so while fine for cornering in a straight line they're not better than a generic cheap MTB tyre. In addition to this if you are a lighter rider at the lower pressures required to allow the studs to make contact there's not enough weight on the studs to be effective. Personally I would spend £1 more and get the more effective Winter.

Hi,

Updating tyre models is an ongoing process, and discontinued tyres can be very good value,
the implication that a tyre is updated because it it poor is a very banal analysis of reality.

The two tyres you compare do different jobs. I agree the tyre you call "Winter" will be
better on ice than the tyre I called "Winter". However the tyre you call "Winter" will
be awful on normal roads. Everything your complaining about the Snow Stud is
just poor end user use of the tyre. Your talking nonsense about about the studs
not working for lighter riders, they just drop the tyre pressures so they work.

One type of tyre suits continuously icy conditions. The other suits on and off
and variable conditions with suitable variation of the running tyre pressures.

If you have variable weather, some weeks icy, some weeks not, over
the winter, and occasional deep snow, the "Snow Stud" is a great
tyre if you know how to use it effectively over the variable period.

In a straight line its ludicrous to suggest they are no better than MTB
tyres on ice. Proper tyre pressures will determine the bite of the studs.

rgds, sreten.

 

[GrasB]

Hi,

Updating tyre models is an ongoing process, and discontinued tyres can be very good value,
the implication that a tyre is updated because it it poor is a very banal analysis of reality.

The two tyres you compare do different jobs. I agree the tyre you call "Winter" will be
better on ice than the tyre I called "Winter". However the tyre you call "Winter" will
be awful on normal roads. Everything your complaining about the Snow Stud is
just poor end user use of the tyre. Your talking nonsense about about the studs
not working for lighter riders, they just drop the tyre pressures so they work.

The thing is I contacted Schwable about the problems my OH had with Snow Studs, she came off several times on ice despite the fact that the spikes where making contact with the ice. They said that they were aware of the issue with lighter riders with the Snow Stud. Also that in the next years tyre set they'd have a new winter tyre called the 'Winter' which was replacing the Snow Stud as their budget all-round winter tyre. So we waited and purchased a set of Winters for my OH, she has since found that they superior to the Snow stud in all but the deepest fresh snow, which they never worked that well in anyway.

 

[sreten]

The thing is I contacted Schwable about the problems my OH had with Snow Studs, she came off several times on ice despite the fact that the spikes where making contact with the ice. They said that they were aware of the issue with lighter riders with the Snow Stud. Also that in the next years tyre set they'd have a new winter tyre called the 'Winter' which was replacing the Snow Stud as their budget all-round winter tyre. So we waited and purchased a set of Winters for my OH, she has since found that they superior to the Snow stud in all but the deepest fresh snow, which they never worked that well in anyway.

Hi,

Fair enough and things move on. For sure for the newer tyre you don't need to drop pressures
for ice as much as the older tyre needed, with the newer tyres more centrally placed studs.

rgds, sreten.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]