I've bicycle-commuted in the DC area every day that I went to work for the last nine years--except for a month in 2010 when the snow was deeper than my axles and I just couldn't make any headway on my "narrow" 26x2.1" Nokian Hakka WXC300 studded tires! That was the winter that I wanted a Surly Pugsley with some 45North Dillinger 26x4" studded tires. Maybe those would have floated me through.
Anyway: If your commute will be on bike paths (mine are the Custis, Mt Vernon, and W&OD), then I'd strongly recommend getting either the abovementioned Nokian's, or Nokian Extreme 296, or the Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro. The key thing is to have a ton of studs including studs sticking out to the sides. Because what happens on the DC area bike paths (none of which are plowed to my knowledge) is that during the day, the snow partially melts, people ride on it sliding all over and leave ruts that veer every which way (not to mention all the walkers with their footprints). Then overnight everything refreezes and those ruts are like little icy Grand Canyons. If your tires don't have enough studs sticking out to the sides to catch on the sidewalls of the ruts then they won't be able to climb out of the rut. So then the tire has no choice but to slide sideways down the rut while meanwhile your momentum continues forward, making it hard to avoid going down. Of course, if your tires only have studs going out to the sides then you'll have trouble in turns. So you need a row of studs down the center and to the sides, preferably quite close together so that there's always a stud touching the ground. During the day, the interface between hard-packed snow/ice at the road surface and the warmer, wet snow often produces a slushy layer that is very much like riding in mud, except that the 4" of wet, heavy snow on top tends to make you veer around unpredictably. I don't think the studded tires really help much, here, but the knobs may be helping a little. Nick On Wednesday, December 11, 2013 10:23:40 AM UTC-5, Tony DeFilippo wrote: > > Shoji, Addison, > > My thoughts are right aligned with your suggestions, the XO-3 is going to > be set up SS/Fixed with a Eno Eccentric hub. It would take the 26x1.75 > Marathon Winters, perhaps the 2" version in the front. I'm going to look > for some to order tonight! > > Tony > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
