Winter studded tyres

[Ivo]

Snow will be back next weekend on the continent, I keep them on (ok, I have more than one bike so I can keep one equipped with studded tyres throughout winter).

[tom_e]

I note that Schalbe now sell a bag of replacement spikes with tool http://www.schwalbe.com/en/zubehoer.html#id-50-replacement-spikes.  But it would cost at least 15 quid or so to get a bag here.

I note that Schwalbe now sell a Winter, which appears to be a Marathon Winter without studs in the outer set of holes.  Probably perfectly adequate for those of us using these for protection against black ice.

I note that my Marathon Winters have some studs missing from the centre sets.


Has anybody here tried manually transferring studs from the outside of their Marathon Winters into any missing slots on the inner sets?

[mcshroom]

I have a set of the winters (30mm variant) and they don't have the marathon logo ont he side. I assume the puncture protaction is a bit less.

I say assume, as since I got them in December, I haven't had any reason to ride on them

[mrcharly-YHT]

I've replaced missing studs on my marathon Winter tyres.

'twas easy.

Wet the tyre and stud.
Hold stud with needle-nose pliers very firmly.
Angle one side of the 'mushroom' head into the hole, twist and push in firmly. Pop, in she goes.

[niggle]

I bought a pair of Schwalbe Snow Studs (now discontinued I think?) from CRC back in November and have not seen the slightest hint of ice on the road since, so £46 well spent  Anyway I fitted them on the MTB straight away and ran them in 30 miles on tarmac, then used them off road a few times as well, maybe another 50 miles, and lost no studs at all. Possibly next winter I will get to use them in anger, but I have put the ordinary knobblies back on now.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I don't know how many miles I've done on my MWs, but I was doing a 50mile round-trip commute, 3 days a week. So definitely in the hundreds.

they aren't very puncture-resistant and are a bugger to get off and on when it is really cold.

[L CC]

You ride on completely shite roads though, don't you mrc?

I've done ~800 miles in 2 winters and have had no punctures and lost 1 stud (that I've noticed).

[Kim]

I've done maybe 500-600 miles on mine (mostly on reasonably decent roads), and not had a puncture yet.  Lost a couple of studs.

I sometimes run Marathon Cross, which is a similar pattern non-studded tyre, and they have a depressing weakness for flints.

[tom_e]

Wet the tyre and stud.
Hold stud with needle-nose pliers very firmly.
Angle one side of the 'mushroom' head into the hole, twist and push in firmly. Pop, in she goes.

Ta muchly.
I've just moved 11 studs from the outer tracks to inner tracks, in probably about that many minutes.

Regarding wear, mine have done about 2500 miles; I left them on for the whole of the first two winters, so I didn't have to mess about swapping.  I have since switched to a two-wheelset bike and only ride them when necessary.  That said, I think I've probably lost most of the studs not on my main commuting miles, but on extra trips where I didn't know the potholes and got caught unawares.  And once when I let the pressure get a bit too low without noticing.

The studs are now looking a bit rounded.  The rubber of the tyre itself is bizarrely mint-looking.  I haven't had the chance to test the slightly worn studs on decent ice this winter, and would like to find out how much effectiveness has been lost without hurting myself at some point.

No punctures, as far as I remember...

[mattc]

www.wiggle.co.uk/schwalbe-snow-stud-performance-kevlar-rigid-road-tyre/

20quid 700 x38