A Dual Purpose Cyclocross/Winter Bike


I don't give two hoots about this junk, I'm interested in studded tires.

The background.

I ride year 'round. I would rather ride for real on the coldest, snowiest day in winter than ride a bike that goes nowhere. Go figure.

Most of my mileage these days is my commute to work. It's about a 30 mile round trip. The biggest obstacle in winter riding has not proven to be the temperatures, it's the difficulty in navigating snow and ice covered roads in the dark. I would mount fenders on my mountain bike along with a set of slicks and that became my winter bike. Now, even with slicks pushing a mountain bike for 30 miles is not the easiest task in the world considering you have to also be productive at work. Also, I found that the wide tires did only marginally better on slick roads so that I couldn't ride unless the pavement was completely clear. A couple of winters ago in an effort to resolve this problem I turned to Nokian studded tires.

They worked well but they only exacerbated the issue of being productive after climbing off the bike at work. They weigh a ton and rolling characteristics are awful.

About this time I also decided I wanted a cyclocross bike. Rationalizing a 'cross bike isn't easy if you don't do it a lot. It's a pretty limited purpose bike for use in what is around here a very short season. But I had also decided I wanted something that would make the winter commute go a little easier. A solution I considered was winterizing one of my road bikes, leaving the mountain bike in the basement. Nokian makes a 700C studded tire, but the width eliminated all the bikes I owned at the time. So I was hoping to find a bike that would serve the two needs without requiring too much compromise in either function.

What I started with

I bought a 1997 Trek 730 hybrid. This picture is of a 1998 Trek 720, it's the model most similar to what I got the year before.

Cyclocross Mode

After taking this picture I realized that I probably should have cleared out the rims and junk from behind the bike. But it doesn't bother me enough to go take another picture.

To make the hybrid a little more 'cross worthy I bought knobby tires and replaced the stock flat bars levers and shifters with drop bars, brake levers and barcons. This didn't cost anything as it was all stuff I had laying around the basement. I did have to shell out to replace the pedals, it came with toe clips and straps. Later I got the lust for STI, so I bought a set of RSX levers (it's a 7 speed).

Some modification is necessary in order to get cantilevers to work with road brake levers because of the differences in mechanical advantage. I'd go into it here except Sheldon Brown and Keith Bontrager have already written it up. Sheldon also covers how to get V-brakes to work with other kinds of levers. With this particular setup I have great stopping power but I have to keep my rims very true.

Dia-Compe makes levers for cantilever brakes but that rules out STI.

Winter Mode

A few simple additions and it's dressed for the winter. I put the original slick tires back on, fenders, and lights. When the snow hits I'll swap out the slicks for studs.

A Few Thoughts About Studded Tires

To recap, I was interested in tires that would let me cross slick pavement in the dark i.e. I don't necessarily realize it (a slick spot) is there. I ride longer distances than most winter cyclists so I'm interested in low rolling resistance and light weight. My preferred tire is the Nokian A10. If your winter riding has different characteristics then you would probably not follow this decision path.

I have the W106 MTB and the A10 700 X 32C tires.

Advantages of the A10

  • Lighter
  • Much lower rolling resistance
  • Less expensive
All these are relative to the W106, not relative to non-studded road tires.

Advantages of the W106

  • 144 studs give good grip

Disadvantages of the A10

  • The ones I ride have 72 studs. They have enough grip to ride over sheets of ice in the dark without slipping. For those into recreational ice riding, they will not permit evasive maneuvers.

Disadvantages of the W106

  • Weigh a ton
  • Cost too much
  • Roll like crap

For me there was no decision of whether to go studded or not. There were too many days where it was not possible to ride without studs. I discarded chains because of the length of my commute. I did not think tire chains would hold up for any amount of time.

I elected to buy the Nokians rather than do home made screw studs for many of the same reasons I decided to go with the A10s over the W106s. That is, I wasn't big on pushing heavy tires that rolled poorly over long distances. Additionally, I was concerned about how a tire with a perforated casing would hold up over the distances I ride.

A big disadvantage of studded tires in general is their exceptionally poor grip on pavement. They're great as long as the studs can bite into a solid surface. If that's not the case I recommend you ride them very conservatively. A similar issue arises on soft surfaces. The trickiest days are the ones where the temperature is near freezing. Ice or hard packed snow will break away with no warning under these conditions. You're rolling just fine through a curve or corner, you hit a sunny spot and Zzzip, you're in the ditch.

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