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FYI, we highly recommend supporting your local bike shop, especially when it comes to something like studded tires! Perhaps they’ll even install them for you.
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Need something that can handle the aftermath of a Chinook? In Calgary, winter tires are a necessity. You can get away with using a 3-season tire, but your performance, safety, and confidence will soar with a winter-specific tire that has studs.
Studs are where it’s at when you want to own the road. If you have been waffling about slick conditions, get the ultimate Calgary winter tire: studded tires. A set will cost you about $200CAD (give or take), but they will last for years and will keep you rolling many miles, even in winter, which is priceless.
Ride them at minimum pressure for the ultimate traction on ice; run them at higher pressures on bare asphalt — perfectly adaptable for our variable climate.
This secret is how you conquer 8 months of winter. Studded tires put you in the driver’s seat.
Calgary winter tires
In our household we run a couple of different brands: Xerxes from 45nrth and Marathon Winters from Schwalbe. They are both very different stud/spike profiles.
Xerxes by 45NRTH
The Xerxes only have studs on the outer edges. You can run these tires at high pressure and the studs won’t touch the ground, which is great as we often have dry conditions throughout much of the winter (just not this year!). Lower the pressure a bit and they help with grip on corners; lower the pressure even more and you have full stud contact, when the conditions require it. These tires used to be on a cross bike and now they’re on a Brodie commuter (2014 Section 8).
Schwalbe Marathon Winter
The Schwalbe Marathon Winters are a little more like a narrow mountain bike tire with diamond tread and studs all over. I would argue that they are the most common studded tire out there and the one that you can find at most reputable bike shops. They work great. I have two complaints about these tires (and one is only a problem for two days per year): I wish there was a balloon tire version for our rigid cargo bike and, by golly, the bead is too damn tight. The Marathon Winters come in a variety of tire sizes (20, 24, 26, 700, 29), so this is the tire we use for our 20″ front and 26″ rear wheels on our CETMA and the two 20″ wheels of the Haul-a-Day.
Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus
More recently, we added a couple of the Winter Plus tires into our fleet, specifically because they are available in a 20 x 2.15 size which is awesome for at least the front tires of our Cetma and the Haul-a-Day, but also my daughter’s Frog 55 (although it’s too wide to use on her rear tire though).
Mounting studded tires
…can be a bit challenging. Some would say downright awful. But it’s worth it.
Tips for getting them on
One trick that I’ve learned is that the centre of your rim is the narrowest diameter spot, so where the tire will be the loosest. Get your tire bead in there. If you’re having trouble getting the last bit on, get the rest of the tire bead in there and keep it there/taught as you attempt to force the rest of the bead over the edge of your rim. Keeping the bead tight as you do this will help you win the battle! Good luck!
Be careful not to pinch your tube when installing which you just might do because you’re so focussed on the tight bead!
Worried about ice?
If you ride a regular route you’ll develop what I like to call “ice memory”. Ice tends to build up in the same spots every winter, even every season, likely due to persistent drainage issues and/or exposure (resulting in melt/freeze cycles leaving behind ice).
Studded tires will very likely help you with your confidence.
Are studs overkill?
Perhaps, if you mostly just have to deal with snow. A knobby mountain bike tire might be enough for your climate or they even make “snow tires” now, like a mountain bike tire but with softer rubber and a tread ideal for traction on snow (and ice), just like winter tires for cars. I still prefer studs but if the slower rolling speeds drive you bonkers (especially if you have a longer commute), then perhaps a knobby or even snow tire might be up your alley.
Where I live, because of consistent freeze/thaw cycles from Chinooks, studs are just right.
What about fat bikes?
Fat bikes mostly seem like overkill in the city except for the odd snowstorm day in which case I covet one!
The other time they seem interesting, to me, is if you are commuting in winter with a trailer or a kid on a rear- or front-mounted seat. I’d love an e-assist one for those commutes! Wouldn’t that be fun?!
Plus, fat bike tires are expensive, including studded one. And, fat tires are not an option for most cargo bikes, except for Surly’s Big Fat Dummy and, well, I ride cargo bikes almost exclusively in the city.
Local bike shop
Head into your local bike shop with your bike and I am sure that their friendly staff can help you get rolling with more confidence and the right sized tire for your wheels. Heck they might even mount them for you for free!
Consider ordering your studded tires early on as they do go out of stock as a seasonal item and can be hard to find.
I am totally a studded tires convert now too! We finally got studded tires this year after suffering through an actual winter last year (unusual for Vancouver) without them.
We bought Schwalbe Marathon K Guards, which have just two rows of studs on the main contact surface. They’re a bit cheaper than the Marathon Winters, totally adequate for Vancouver. ChainReactionCycles.com was a really affordable source for them, by the way.
We’ve got two cargo bikes so we decided to put them on the Yuba Mundo–with two 26″ wheels we can potentially switch the tires to another “regular” bike next year. Sounds like it was a good choice, given the difficulty you mentioned getting them on the front small wheel of a bakfiets.
Happy riding!
We’ve been using the Bakfiets when it’s not icy, then the Yuba mostly just when it is icy, to minimize wear on the studs. I think it’s almost time to take them off now–it’s been a couple weeks since we had any frost.
I’ve got some Nokian studded tires from 1996 that I still use after 15000km (the sidewalls are now rotting so it’s likely their last season), so I can definitely endorse them. I don’t think they have a 20″ though.