Ken Cline posted a note about the availability of Nokian studded tires
for 26" and 700c wheels (see below). My perusal of Nokian products
lead me to believe that heavily studded tires (with over 200 studs per
tire) are only available for 26" tires. The 700c tires sport about
106-110 studs per tire, which seems a bit sparse for serious winter
unicycling (on icy/snowy residential roads, sidewalks, and bike
paths). Does any one out there in ‘uniland’ know where I can find an
aggresively studded 700c tire? How about an aggresively studded 24"
tire? I’d sure appreciate your input. Thanks! --carl (North Dakota)
From: Ken Cline (ken.cline@cs.cmu.edu)
Subject: Re: Winter Riding
Nokians seem to be the best studded tires. They wear like iron and
have low profile extremely hard studs. As far as I’ve seen, they’re
only available in 26" and 700c. Retail price ranges from US$69 for a
mild tread with 106 studs to $139 for an aggressive downhill tire
loaded with 336 carbide tipped ice biters. I spent about $60 on sale
for a Mount & Ground with 160 studs. Here’s a link to a store with
pictures and prices: [http://webmountainbike.com/nokstudbikti.html].
There are other brands, and at least one 20" studded tire out there.
Check the web for prices. Homemade studs are doable, too, but be
careful!
Check these people out for any cold weather cycle information Ice b*ke, this is a link directly to their tire review section. Note the alternatives listed as well.
That looks like the Mount & Ground W160 I have in a 26" size. It
sticks like glue on frozen lakes and makes a nice winter road tire
here in Northern Colorado. Handling is just OK. Still, it is too
narrow to do well in snow. I’ll ride the MUni (or better yet, go
skiing) if there’s a lot of the fluffy white stuff.
I live just south of the Arctic Circle, in Boden, Sweden. The temperature high is about 5 degrees Centigrade these days.
I’ve been unicycling nearly a year now, and I love my stock KH24 MUni. Sadly, I’m starting to lose traction on ice and thick frost. What can I do to improve my winter handling?
I looked for a 24" surlybikes Large Marge rim, but there’s only a vague idea that they might make a 24" model at some point in the future.
What’s the best way to setup my KH24 for daily riding (to swedish class, shopping, etc) on ice, snow, pavement, and temperatures down to -30 degrees C ?
Also, any advice on bike pants that are really warm? My skin gets painfully chafed if I unicycle in jeans. I suspect that’s because I’m 93.5 kilos / 205 lbs.
The wisdom from people that ride more in the winter than I do (I ride as much as possible, but health ends up limiting me), is that more studs does not necessarily mean more traction. More studs means less pressure per stud, which, depending on conditions, can mean that the stud “skates” the ice rather than chipping and digging in. Nokian offers a range of studded tires with a variety of stud densities and materials for a variety of riding situations and applications. I suggest following their guidelines for which tire to choose until you have enough personal experience to tailor your tire choice.
For better traction without studs, match your tire pressure to the conditions.
You can make your own studded tire for a fraction of the cost; it is a lot of work though:
With these tires you’ll stick like glue on ice. Unfortunately, this
tire is too thin to work well in snow. Your best bet may be to find
chains for or add studs to your 24x3" tire.
As for clothing, I wear pants made from stretchy Schoeller Dynamic
fabric. Mine are from Black Diamond
[http://www.bdel.com/gear/rock/bdvs.php] for unicycling when the
temperature drops. When it gets downright cold, I add a stretch
fleece “farmer john” suit (i.e. legs, torso, but no arms) underneath.
If you are riding hard, this may be enough even when the mercury drops
to -30. Of course that is assuming you are otherwise bundled up
warmly.
On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 07:06:28 -0600, “shapr” wrote:
>Also, any advice on bike pants that are really warm? My skin gets
>painfully chafed if I unicycle in jeans.
Regular jeans is (are?) about the worst to cycle in, chafing-wise,
because of the thick seams in the wrong places, and the general
stiffness of the fabric. Probably a lot better would be to wear good
bike pants directly on the skin, and something warm over it. That
something warm might even be jeans, but something with notsothick
seams is better.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
I figure it’s pretty clear that offroad unicycling is a stupid thing to do - joemarshall