Sorry to hear of Chuck's jacket damage, as I gave him those tires last winter. I used them for years, before getting a new bike on which they wouldn't fit. I noticed the poorer traction on dry pavement, but that seemed a reasonable tradeoff. I never crashed on dry pavement, though I had to be careful, especially in the fall right after I put them on. I started using them before the SW path was open, and I had to ride on the street all the time, with those treacherous icy tire ruts, which I felt made all those extra studs necessary. (Even then, getting out of the ruts was sometimes a problem.) That's not such an issue now that I mostly use the path on my commute.
The narrower studded tires I use now (Nokian Mount and Ground), have two, rather than 4 rows of studs. With the pressure near the maximum (50-60 psi, I think), the tires run mostly on the rubber center ridge, with the studs making contact only when cornering. This is a bit scary on ice, so I lower the pressure to about 30 psi when it's icy so the studs stay in contact all the time. If I had to ride a lot on icy streets, though, I'd wish I had the Extremes. On Sep 29, 2010, at 10:47 AM, STRAWSER, Charles wrote: > I have a pair of Nokian Extremes, and I can't really recommend them for > commuting on mostly streets and paths that are mostly plowed. They have too > many studs too far out from the centerline (contact patch) of the tire, so > leaning the bike over even a bit on pavement that is dry (or even dusted with > a bit of snow) actually gives you considerably LESS traction, since even > carbide studs don't bite into concrete or asphalt much. Trust me on this. I > ruined the sleeve/shoulder of a Carhart jacket testing this, and I was lucky > that's all I ruined. Scott Ellington Madison, Wisconsin USA _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
