I have been riding with studded tyres on my mtb for 20 years. I wonder if it could be feasible to make DIY studded road tyres. There is space for 28 mm wide tyres on one of my rim brake road bikes. My idea is to fit strong 23 mm tyres with screws. Anyone ever tried this? Sure, it will not be good for snowy roads, but I think it could work on icy tarmac.
Why?
1)You’d get more grip with a proper winter tire because of the temp range of the rubber.
2) most 700c x 23-28c tires aren’t strong enough to support the stud
3) you’d need to run too high of tire pressures to keep air in a TL tire or tubes tire.
4) typically you screw studs into a knob or into a preformed pocket, a typical stud needs 3.5mm(the one I looked at anyway) of rubber to support the side. You would need to use a city bike/touring tire and make your own pockets.
Schwable makes a 30c. Otherwise, this might be a good excuse to upgrade the MtB. Plus, going slower in the winter is a plus as you reduce wind chill
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cant see this working…
If a tubeless tyre then how are you going to seal around the screws? The constant movement of the screws every time the tyre rolls will break the seal. If you’re using tubes then they’ll simply puncture instantly against a screw head.
DIY stud & tube users end up taping the inside of the tire after screw installation, to protect the tube. Some use pure tape (like duct) while I’ve seen others use a cut tube and tape. It works well.
That said, this particular idea makes no sense to me. I’d want the largest tire I could get, so MTB would be the only one I’d consider. 23mm is just too narrow even with studs.
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Thats a huge amount of effort to save a few $$$$…
In some cases, yes. But that DIY approach was a solution used when there were few actual studded products available on the market (mainly back in the '90s and early 00’s). There are more options now, but some are still notably expensive. Depending on what a person has available to them (free or cheap screws specifically), DIY might still make sense.
In this particular case, I am not aware of a product that comes close to the sizes mentioned, so if someone wants one, DIY may be the only solution. Again, I think this is a poor idea, but DIY can still be a good solution for a number of reasons.
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Thanks for the input, everyone. The idea is now left. I just miss riding the road bike. Gravel bike with studs for now. Only a few months left of winter. Bye!
Just one more thing: I try to ride “slowly” in the winter months when it is dangerous on the road. It is much better to crash at 20 km/h than with 35–40 km/h. At these speeds windchill can be more than just a pain, too. Two years ago, I was caught offguard by snow and rain on a road ride. I didn’t bring a proper rain jacket, so I got drenched and was close to becoming hypothermic. Not fun.
Plus, riding slowly fits well with base/endurance riding. I honestly don’t enjoy riding my aero road bike in the winter when there can be black ice on overpasses, bridges and roads lines by trees that provide shade.
Like you wrote, get your mountain bike or gravel bike out, put wide studded tires on and try to stick to offroad riding if you can.