I allready have the Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro 29 x 2.25 which I wrote about here: Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro 29 x 2.25"
The Ice Spiker is awesome on real winter contitions, but not on long rides on asphalt where I find it a bit twitchy and not really good to ride (even if I said so earlier).
The season between fall and winter seems to be getting longer - it can last 2 or maybe as much as 3 months. The conditions are rain that freezes, then melts, then a little snow and so on. This means that I ride a lot on bare asphalt that can be icy with some snow occasionally.
So what I wanted was a studded tyre that is good on bare asphalt and ok on ice.
The Schwalbe Marathon Winter 29 x 2.0 is narrow, low volume and rolls really great on bare asphalt. It looked almost too narrow when I unwrapped it, but it did fit my KH rim. It is also good on hard packed snow, but not so good on a loose surface - then it gets slippery and a bit difficult to ride. Bumpy surface like frozen footprints is also difficult due to the low volume (I ran approx. 45 psi).
I have a pretty good grip on icy aspalt, but on PURE ice the grip is not good enough. I tested it yesterday on a 5 km icy section through the woods. It was a nice and even trail, I think it would have been possible to ice skate a lot of it. Tyre was fine on the flat parts, but I did not have enough grip on hills. I had to be really carefull not to loose traction up hill and downhill was a bit scary. Fell on my back at one point, and even the dog fell on the ice. I’ve ridden this section before on the same conditions with the Ice Spiker, and I don’t think it slipped once.
My conclusion is that I am happy with the tyre as it does the job I got it for.
): mostly dry or wet tarmac, occasionally some snow that melts soon thereafter only to freeze again in the night.