prepping a four season commuter

My current commuter bike, like all of my actively ridden bikes, is a Kona. Repeatedly, over the years, I have found Kona bicycles to be a delight to ride and very reliable. They also offer a significant bang for your buck and quite frankly punch above their weight. The daily grinder is a cheap as dirt Kona Lana'i. It is not that exciting a bicycle, but it is very serviceable and does the job quite well.

One big advantage that this bicycle has as a commuter is that it is not that expensive. This reduces the chances of it being stolen by a fair bit since it is not as desirable as some. Another bonus is that if it does get stolen, I will likely just sigh, and go get another one after reporting it to the authorities and all that. Since it is a bicycle for transport, it comes out of my transport budget and not my entertainment budget. It can also be loaded down significantly. Being a mountain bike, it is over built for what I am doing with it.

Circumstances being what they were when I bought it - low on cash at the time and desiring disk brakes - I ended up with a extra stock blow out bike that Kona had hanging around. Mine is a 2011 model that I bought in 2012 and paid very little for. 

As I have a good relationship with my LBS, I was able to negotiate a couple of significant changes into the cost of the bicycle. One of these was a rigid fork. I do not recommend a suspension fork for a commuter. They rob too much power since they tend to bob a bit, and the fork that most bicycle manufacturers fit to low end bicycles tends to be fairly cheap. I was able to swap out the suspension fork for a quite nice steel rigid for with a gentle curve forward which flexes a bit and helps to smooth out the ride.

The bicycle is a bit too small for me actually. This worked out to being a good thing though. Part of the swap of parts I arranged was for a longer stem which stretched out the riding position somewhat. The bike came stock with a very short stubby stem. Thankfully, the stock seat post is ridiculously long, and I am able to raise it high enough to ride comfortably without risking damage to either the post or the frame. Why then is the small bike good? Well, because Kona builds their frames with a fairly dramatically sloping top tube, and because the bike is one size too small, I can use it as a step through frame if I hike my foot up high enough. This is a bonus if I have a big load on the back like a basket of groceries or something like that.

Some futzing around with parts has brought the bike to where it is now. 

Currently, it has a nice heavy duty rack on the back. I use an Axiom Journey Unifit Mk3 rack. I chose it, after having used a few other ones I had kicking around, because it will enable me to mount the panniers low and far back reducing heal strike on the pannier - the bane of a too small bike with bags - and keeping the center of gravity low, while maintaining a broad deck up top for my trunk bag or lock or basket. The rack allows for the mounting of a tail light on the rack in a position which is easy to see, and easy to kick right clean off the bike if you are not careful when climbing on the bicycle.

The stock pedals were not good. They were cheap metal ones, which I replaced with cheap plastic ones. The advantage is that they won't slip when wet which the metal ones were really bad for. I average about a year or so per set of pedals. The bearings simply cannot hold up to the abuse of riding in all weather.

I added some fenders, a lighting system, changed out the tires, and a few other odd things.

I will present a series of pictures of the bicycle and in the caption underneath explain the significance of what I am showing.

My replacement pedals. These cost under $10, but should last over 4000km before they start to fall apart. My feet won't slip off of them in my big clunky boots that I ride in all winter long. Note the "slime" all over the axle. I make liberal use of a can of rust proofing stuff for automobiles on key parts of the bicycle so that they won't corrode, and so that I can remove them after. Because of the boots I use, I never get anything on my clothing. I ride in Bogs during the winter, and clean this stuff off come spring. Other footwear does not slip on them either. Toe capped sandals and regular shoes do fine with pedals like this.

A bit of a close up of the axle. Note the rust proofing. This bike has almost 4500km on it, and the crank has gotten scuffed up a fair bit. One of the "costs of doing business" as a work bike - for me, aesthetics take a back seat. The bike will not get abused, but it will get banged up.

It is worth pointing out that the bike as seen some use. I bought it in the fall of 2012 and have almost 4500 km on it. Since then, I have worn out a cheap pair of plastic pedals, one chain, one cassette, a set of cables, a set of brake shoes, the saddle - I tend to kill saddles for some reason - and a rear rim. The original rear rim was defective and the side wall of it blew out. Warranty saw me outfitted with a replacement wheel. I also replaced the brake calipers (more on that later).

The bike comes with mounts for racks and fenders. However, the rounded off bolts for the rack mounts are weak. They hold things on the bike just fine, and won't snap I would think, but the bolt heads strip out easily. I replaced them with these better quality ones. Tip - grease the daylights out of this kind of thing when you put them into the frame so that you can remove them later if you need to. Do this even if you do not intend to winter ride the bicycle.

I did a bit of doinking around with the placement of my bell and managed to squeeze it into a tight gap between the bar and the rapid fire shifter. Yay. Improved ergonomics. Tip - get a brass bell or gong (this is actually a gong). They are much louder and can be heard by iPod zombies.

The front derailleur is nothing special, but it works. I rust proof the crap out of it and it will shift even when packed with snow and ice. Note the tight gap between it and the fender. I would be hard pressed to squash a piece of paper between the fender and the derailleur. This is a weakness in the design IF the bike is going to have full coverage fenders - a must for a commuter if you ask me. I would think that this derailleur looks fine for one which has been subjected to as much winter and grime as this one has.

The stock brakes were not so hot. I had a caliper cease up mid winter the first year I had the bike. Both the front (shown here) and rear calipers were replaced with some inexpensive Avid ones. They work significantly better, and have shown no sign of sticking. You can see the kind of shenanigans I had to do to get the fenders to clear the brake caliper. Looks weird, but it works. Also, I ditched the quick release skewers in favour of some bolt on ones. Tip - to seat the brakes properly and prevent glazed pads, perform several very hard stops on fresh pads from about 30kmph. The brakes will last longer and work better if you do. The front brake in particular howls like crazy when it is damp. This is something that happens with disk brakes and is not a problem even if it is loud. A few firm applications of the brake dry them off and they get quiet again. Remember that they can ice up and should be used in the winter time periodically even if you are not planning a stop. The disks are no where near as susceptible to this as wheel rims are though so brake failure in the snow is not as likely with brakes like this compared to rim brakes.

Fenders matter. This picture illustrates the clearance I have with my front fender and my non-studded snow tire. This kind of clearance keeps crap from building up and creating drag, and the low slightly flared mudflap keeps my feet dry. I got these at MEC - they are from planetbike and are worth it.

The back end of the bike - note the liberal use of reflective tape. I like being seen. I had to weave the fender stays through the rack to get it all to work. It looks bizarre, but it works. The rear fender has similar clearance to the front and I have never once had any spray fly up and hit me. Friends report that little flies out back as well which is nice.

Nothing special here. I was very surprised that the rear derailleur has lasted as long as it has. It is original to the bike and is a very basic and cheap unit. However, it is going strong still which is good. Spring will likely see an upgrade here. I tend to wear out the stock parts and then swap to better ones as I go along.

Speaking of better parts, it is also worth noting that the original bottom bracket and headset are still on the bike. They have never been serviced or adjusted. They don't crunch or grind or anything either. Impressive for such basic stuff. I suspect that the bottom bracket may give out this winter - I have heard some mild crunching in that department (although that may be coming from the front chain ring which is also stock).  I have also been lazy and not overhauled the hubs yet (I should though...). I highly recommend that a crank with removable chainrings be bought with the bike. I have had bicycles where the crank and chainrings were one unit. Not only are the chainrings on such a set up substandard, they cannot be replaced without replacing the crank. I burned out such a set up in about four months of heavy duty winter riding. Even a cheap replaceable chainring set up like the current bicycle will last a fair bit. The one on this bike is original to the bike and has over 4500km on it. Spring will see a new middle chainring on the front - a better quality one I am guessing at this point.

This winter's tires. Go read my review of them if you want. I quite like them. Deeper snow and ice see the studded ones come out though.

This shows the difference between my studded and non-studded winter tires. The studded ones are much better on ice than the others, but do drag a bunch. This is why they are not currently mounted to the bicycle. Should funds allow, a second set of wheels will appear so I can swap them back and forth as conditions merit.

Cheap and nasty but very effective. That is a planet bike superflash. I want to replace it with a Knog Blinder Road R tail light instead though as I am a big fan of being seen. The Knog is crazy bright.

And the headlamp. This head lamp works very well. I am a big fan of it.

I have several options for carrying things on the bicycle. Some prefer to carry what they bring with them on a commute on their body - using knapsacks or messenger bags and what have you - and some prefer to carry their stuff on the bicycle itself. I fall into the carry the stuff on the bicycle camp. This is why I chose such a heavy duty rack for the bicycle.

For me, the advantage of carrying the gear I bring on a commute on the bike instead of my person is simple. I tend towards wearing layers and a knapsack (the worst) or a messenger bag (better) compress the layers and squeeze out the air space between my clothing and I overheat and get very sweaty. This is true even at -10 or -20. It is far worse in the summer months. So, gear goes on the bike. I would change my mind if my daily commute saw me in and out of several places in rapid succession. Then, removing the bags at each stop (to prevent theft) would rapidly become tedious. In such circumstances, a messenger bag makes more sense than panniers etc.

This is the unadorned back end of the bicycle. The rack design is such that carrying a cable lock is easy. I use Kryptonite cables and padlocks. I also have a U-Lock which gets attached to the top of the rack by a stretch cord. Pannier bags can be attached to this rack either using the top or the lower side rails. I prefer the lower ones as it drops the center of gravity of the bicycle a bit. The small inverted tool bag - attached to the struts of the rack by the same mechanism that would  normally hold it to the underside of the seat - contains a multi-tool, inner tube, patch kit, and tire levers (2). It is always on the bike but is quick to remove via its quick release. It twists off. One nice thing about this rack is that it presents a fairly low profile for wind for a rack that is designed to hold so much weight.

Not all is perfect with this rack though. The spot for hooking the panniers to (the rectangular hole in the tab in the middle of the picture here) does not bend out like most other racks which use a tab like this do. This is stupid. Pure and simple. Stupid. It makes it very hard to hold the pannier by its top handle and snag the bag's hook on the rack's tab and attach it in one smooth motion. Putting the panniers on is a pain in the rear end. It is not a deal breaker for me with this rack, but it is very annoying. Someday, when I am feeling brave, I will very carefully bend the aluminium tab out with a pair of vice grips and make life easier for myself. Or rather, easier for myself if I don't break it...

These are the bags I use. I cannot say enough good things about them. They are dry bags with a roll to close internal closure and a big flap which goes over the top. The only design flaw is that the flap can be a bit of a sail at times and the excess strap can flap about.  Newer versions of this bag have addressed this concern. That said, they are very very tough and are genuinely waterproof. I have ridden through hour long thunder storms with a bag full of paper and not one sheet got wet. They never leak in the winter. Salt washes off. The mounting hardware is replaceable. They hold a lot of stuff, and can take a bit of weight. This particular pair is about 10 years old and is going strong. I suspect I will get ten more years out of them. Even the mounting hardware is original. Good quality bags like this are a must for commuting. If what you need to take with you needs to be dry, these are a good bet and cost a lot less than some other bags (like Ortlieb ones - although the Ortliebs are easier to mount to the rack due to a different mounting mechanism). For shopping - groceries and the like - they are ok but do not carry enough. Shopping panniers would be better. I use a basket which attaches to the top of the rack for that mostly.

Note the reflective patches on the panniers (and my attractive cardboard to park the bike on in the winter...)

My other piece of luggage is a Arkel trunk bag. This is not a dry bag and has a hidden pull out rain cover which works fine. It is big enough for a M4/3 camera kit if you don't have too many lenses - pad the bag a bit!! - and has a divider in it. The zippers are water resistant. Velcro holds it to the top of the rack. Your rack needs to be fairly wide to avoid wobble with this bag. What I like about this combination is that it is easy to remove one or all of the bags individually and there is no interference between the mounting points of any of the bags. This is a major reason I bought this rack.

Back view of the set up.

Fully loaded down, the bike becomes a serious pig. It is good to know though that should I need to haul some stuff, it can be done. One big advantage of a bike like this is that if hauling is needed, the bike has the gearing to keep you moving. The only thing I have not added to the kit is a trailer (I am thinking of it...)

So there you have it. One commuter bike. The only difference between the winter set up shown here and the summer one is that I swap out the tires and clean it. There is no salt all over it in the summer. I reasonably expect to get at least 40 000km out of it assuming I maintain the drive train. For about $500 in, plus racks and fenders, and about $100 a year in maintenance, this is an inexpensive way to transport oneself around the city. $1500 for a decade of transportation. Not bad.

Update: I got rid of the seat it came with a long time ago. It did not fit me well. I had been using a WTB saddle off of my 2013 JTS cyclocross bike, but found that the design of the seat in conjuction with the seatpost wore out too many pants. This is not an issue with bike gear which does not rub there, but is an issue with street clothes. So, enter the Brooks B-17 Narrow saddle. Review and thoughts are here: Brooks B-17 Narrow: let's give them something to smug about.

the open road

Today winter arrived. Snow came, blowing and filling in the cracks. Painting the world white. More is on the way. Good, I say.

It is funny how my views of the outside world change once the snow starts to fall. I am both attracted and repulsed by the arrival of the snow.

***

Winter attracts because the snow brings with it challenges not present at other times of the year. Cycling is more difficult, driving more interesting, dressing for the weather can be a challenge as the needs of active transport clash with the needs of standing still.

While cycling is undeniably more difficult in the snow, it is a lot more fun. Knowing that the bicycle can slide out from under me at any given time makes me acutely aware of what goes on 'round me. I have to remember all my off road steering tricks: how to float a bicycle, how to let it do what it will while I guide it, how to feather my brakes and use them to flow the bicycle, not stop it. The importance of tire pressure (not too hard!!). Winter tires. More attention paid to the road ahead and traffic behind. Lights! Don't forget them and use them even in daylight hours. They are a life saver. Change or charge the batteries.

I love car rallying. Therefore I love driving in the snow. Drift surfing on a well set up front wheel drive car with snow tires is a real delight. Bring a shovel. Don't be an idiot. Things I have to remember.

Should I dress for the weather for comfort walking around or standing still, I will overheat and freeze when riding. Sweat is the enemy. So is cotton. Should I dress to accommodate the heat of riding, I will avoid the enemy, but will quickly freeze if I have to stop. It is a balancing act I solve (as much as I do solve) by using layers which can be peeled off or back as needed. It has been years since I have used my parka.

***

Winter repulses because I am driven indoors more (riding on the trainer, attending RPM classes at the gym, treadmills...), because I am reduced to one heavy commuter bike with snow tires.

The only thing that makes riding on the trainer bearable is a tolerant wife who lets me set my trainer up in the living room, a living room office with a computer, a very long HDMI cable, and my hi-def television. Plus YouTube. Clearly I am spoiled. But without the inspiration of watching Spartacus destroy all comers in a spring classic, or watching the climbers crush another col, I would not be able to sustain trainer riding.

This year, RPM classes are starting for me again. Spin Spin Spin. They are good, intense, but very loud and not outdoors.

I miss my "real" bicycles. The old 'cross bike is parked. Single-speeded now, it is away until the spring when I can get out and ride the city fast again. The mountain bike, rarely used, is also shelved. My new 'cross bike sits on the trainer behind me as I write this, taunting me to come play. But I cannot. I don't have the resources to take the new machine in the salt, muck, and sludge of winter and rebuild/replace a good chunk of it every year. I can't and won't do that to a nice bike. I consign instead my commuter bike to take the hit. Heavy, slow. Beast of burden. It can take the pounding, and costs little to repair. Saved gas more than makes up for it. Not so the good bikes.

***

So I am left dreaming. Visiting bicycle sites on the internet. Riding the trainer with eyes half closed behind the best in the world. Pounding out the beats in a spin class.

Staring at the bicycle.

Dreaming of the open road.

cornering a cyclocross bike

Not my video, but a good one.

Once in a while, I like to share something that I stumble across on YouTube because once in a while, something really resonates with where I am right now. And this video resonates.

I have been biking for a long time (over three decades) and love riding in the dirt and fast on the road. Well, fast for me :)

If I have a failing in my dirt riding, it is in looking down too much. I have a hard time trusting my peripheral vision. I have known for years that where you look is where you go, but at times, I forget that. When I don't forget, things go much better.

New to me on this video though is the notion of the weight shift hard over the back wheel inducing an over steer power drift under control. The idea, if I remember rightly, is to unload the front end, load the back end by shifting your weight backwards, and let the bike slide a bit while pedalling evenly at a high cadence. Maintain a constant torque output and a chunk of speed. The ass end of the bike might slide out a bit, but in theory it is easier to control and more speed should be maintained.

Well, this morning, while out mucking around on my commuter mtn bike equipped with studs on a very twisty paved but snow covered lane way, I tried it. I maintained more speed that I normally would through a curve, forced the eyes up to where I wanted the bike to go, did a subtle weight shift backwards, maintained high cadence and torque pedaling, and guess what? The front tracked beautifully, the back obligingly stepped out, and I powered out of the corner on the snow significantly faster than I would have otherwise and felt totally in control. I also applied a bit of downward pressure on the outboard (in this case left as I was turning right) end of the handlebar which helped plant the front a bit.

It felt like an all wheel drive car drifting - slight under steer, relatively a lot of over steer, and way more speed.

I will have to try it in the dirt come spring on the mtn bike and the new cross bike.

What fun!

at the lbs

So, I go into the local bike store (LBS) this morning with the bike with the fouled up brake on it and the guy behind the desk says, and I quote, "Uh oh, what did you do?"

I go through the story (see yesterday's post).

He invites me to take it down to the basement to the mechanic I know. We are old riding buddies, and have known each other for about 20 years.

He sees me coming and says, and I quote, "Oh no..."

____

It is nice to be so predictable.

I think.

____

As an aside, the SanDisk Extreme SDHC UHS-1 card is howling fast in my Fuji X-10. Much more so than the Lexar Platinum 2 card I was using before. I think it is approximately twice as fast. Write times are almost instantaneous.

frankenfenders two - a five minute fix

Before I get into describing how I built up the rear fender of my commuter mountain bike, I would like to complain about something. If you don't want to read that bit, skip to the pictures.

Ok, I admit it. I am a klutz.

No, really, I am.

I have a positive talent for messing up mechanical projects. I am not scared to try adjusting or making things, but more often than not, I mess things up. Some people can, when handed a device or machine, figure them out and seemingly like magic, make them work properly. I figure out how to foul them up beyond belief. My favourite mechanic at the LBS sees me coming and often greets me with a "What did you do this time?!?" and a look of fear and trepidation on his face. Sigh.

With that in mind, consider what happened tonight. I rejigged my rear fender to create more clearance for snow, and managed to mess up the rear brake caliper to the point where I think it may need replacing. While putting the rear wheel back on the bike after working on the rear fender, I nudged the tab on the dead brake pad (the non-moving one) with the brake disk and pushed the pad out of alignment. It was stuck inside the caliper. The only way I could see to get it out was to remove the back plate adjuster part of the caliper and reseat the brake pad. I have seen this done before and it works. But. You knew there had to be a but, didn't you. But, I forgot to clean the threads of the adjuster plate and it jammed. Seeing as I have been riding in the snow and salt and grit of winter this was predictable but I failed to clue into this until it was well and truly too late. I tried, very carefully, to remove it, but the wrench slipped and I stripped out the Allen key hole in the middle of the adjuster leaving it stuck in the wrong position. So now I have a rear brake which works, but is wildly out of adjustment. If the mechanic at my favourite LBS can get it out, and if that part is replaceable, I might be looking at a cheap fix. I suspect though that I am looking at a new rear caliper.

Grrrrr.

I had taken some pictures for tonight's blog entry on my Fuji X-10. This camera uses an SD card (I hate those things and much prefer CF cards - this was true even before tonight's story). I caught the edge of the card on the edge of the card reader and managed to foul up the plastic dividers between the broad flat pins on the card. I no longer trust the card, and should get a new one. It took nail clippers to trim off the plastic bits to get it into the reader so that I could retrieve the pictures.

Grrrrr again.

I am not touching anything breakable again tonight. Like chairs.

Anyway, on with the frankenfender.

The rear frankenfender on my bicycle is made up of three parts. The lowest part is a scrap of skinny mountain bike whip fender that I had left over from another bizarre fender build from a few years ago. It is not really needed except that I like to keep as much crud out of the front derailleur as possible. 

This is the top of the small fender bit I use as a shield to protect, at least somewhat, the front derailleur. It is mounted by a screw in the threaded hole in the cross brace between the chain stays.

This shows how the fender bit is attached to the frame. It also gives some idea of the (limited) protection the fender offers the front derailleur.

Next up is a standard cheap sks fender. It is one of those ones which clamps onto the seat tube with a cheap flexy "claw" (see the above picture) and mounts to the brace between the seat stays with a bolt and a bracket on the fender. What I did was remove the bracket entirely and use zip ties to mount the fender to the brace and bike rack.

Close up of the criss-crossed zip ties holding the fender in place. There is an indent in the fender which is lined up with the seat stay brace which gives almost 1cm more clearance between the fender and tire once the normal mounting bracket is removed.

Underside of the criss-crossed zip ties. This looks like it will catch some snow, and it will, but it won't catch much snow and the added clearance is worth it.

This zip tie keeps the fender from flopping all over the place. The thing is very securely mounted, and the fender is well protected, so the likelihood of the zip ties breaking is very low.

The final part of the frankenfender is a rear deflector shield which I use to both end off the fender and to make a deck on my rack.

As you can see, there is huge clearance here for the wheel. This part was unchanged in tonight's rejig of the fender. I can testify that it does a great job of keeping crud off of me. I am not sure about people behind me, but I don't get anything on my clothes. I had to trim it a bit as the length, while good for blocking wheel spray, was such that heavy bumps bounced it into the tire where it would jam and pick. To fix that, I trimmed off a chunk and refixed the trimmed bit with zip ties (I love zip ties) to the bike which ended up both stiffening and shortening the fender part.

Here is what the whole thing looks like "live" on the trail. This picture is the older version of the set up, but shows how it looks when all covered in snow. The only difference between this and the current version is the amount of clearance for the forward two bits of fender.

The snowy front part - it looks the same now but for the added clearance. This does show why the refit was needed though - powder snow like this is fine, but the wheel would almost jam up with continued riding through slush which freezes to ice on the bike.

The rear part of the fender. It is clear to see how I added the hacked off bit back to the bike, and how much clearance there is for snow. Buildup is a non issue for the rear of the fender.

And lastly, the whole thing with both frankenfenders in the snow.

That's it for tonight.

Schwalbe Ice Spiker HS 333

Tire Test: Schwalbe Ice Spiker HS 333

Why bother with studded tires?

For me, the answer is very very simple. They hurt less. Two years ago, I started winter riding. I have been a cyclist in one form or another for over three decades, but have never really been that comfortable riding in the winter. This had nothing to do with falling, or traffic, but had everything to do with liking my bikes too much to expose them to winter's salt and other madness.

Two years ago I finally bought a cheap but still good to ride commuter bike which, since it was not a piece of sporting equipment, and was being used in place of my car, was more or less disposable.

The first winter I rode I did not use studs and had no problems at all. We had a cold winter, with a fair bit to a lot of snow for Southern Ontario. I ran all winter on worn out cyclocross tires which ended the winter being completely shot. I never fell once or even really came close. We had only one day with any real ice.

The second winter I rode, being last winter, was an anomaly. We had almost no snow. Temperatures rose and sank above and below freezing all winter long. Flowers budded in February and did not die out. While there was no snow, there were many mornings I woke up to roads and MUPs that had been "flash frozen." Ice was everywhere. Two crashes on my left side in six hours saw me to the shop for a set of studded tires.

I used a set of Schwalbe Marathon winter tires and loved them.

This year though, I needed new tires as I switched early this fall to a disk brake equipped mountain bike for my commuter instead of a rim braked hybrid. It was the best thing I could have done. My cheap, but effective, mtn bike is a lot more fun to ride.

Why the Ice Spikers?

It is simple really, the 26 inch Marathons I had ordered were on back order and the shop was running down on Ice Spiker stock so I bought a pair rather than be caught out with no winter tires.

Some basic stats

These are not light tires.  The Schwalbe web page lists them as being 995g each. That is not light, especially considering that this is all rotation weight. However, speeds are lower anyhow in the winter, so this is not as big a deal as you might think. I look at them as work out aids.

Each tire has 304 studs in them. That is a lot, and contributes significantly to the weight. Each stud is tungsten-carbide with a galvanized steel base. Schwalbe sells kits to "restud" the tires should any work their way out.

They also recommend riding at least 40km on them with gentle accelerations and brakings to seat the studs. I can report that the studs did seat very nicely after the initial run in period and do not look as likely to work their way out as the ones in the Marathons I used last winter did.

The size I am using is 26 x 2.1, which is fairly beefy. Thankfully, my bike has room for fenders and tires this big so there is no issue with fit. Some people (myself included) prefer a narrower tire in the winter as they sink deeply into the snow and bite better into the surface below. That said, I don't think these will be an issue size wise (more on this to follow).

Installation

They were very very easy to install. Some tires are a very tight fit, but I have found that every Schwalbe tire I have owned has been easy to install.

A word of caution. The studs are sharp. If you are not careful, you might get a minor scratch from them. Just a word to the wise :)

What do they look like?

Never without a camera, I naturally took a few pictures while out this morning playing in the snow so I could share with you a few images of the tires.

As you can see, the tread blocks are widely spaced, and most of them have a stud in the middle. The rubber compound is a winter tire compound similar to what automotive tires have which stays supple when cold. The tread pattern sheds snow very easily. They did not pack up or toss too much water or snow onto me or the bike which is nice.

Just a shot of the bike in some snow. We did not get a lot of snow last night, but it was enough to form some initial impressions of the tires.

Another picture of the tire mounted on the bike

Initial riding impressions

The first thing you will notice after mounting them and putting the wheels back on the bike is that they will scratch the daylights out of your floor. Consider yourself warned. My floor where the bikes go is painted concrete, so I am not too worried about it. A quick coat of paint will fix it for me. But if the floor was tile or wood, I would strongly suggest a rubber runner mat from door to storage unless you don't care about the flooring.

These tires are very very loud. I thought the Marathons I used last year were loud, but these are very loud. People notice and hear you coming.

This is a good thing...

The sound is like a cross between  the hum of standard aggressive mtn bike tires and a high pitched metallic clacking. Makes a lot of noise on asphalt, anyways.

On limestone chip MUPs, the sound is more muted, and on snow it vanishes.

These tires drag significantly. Due to the weight, and studs, my speed has dropped about four to five kmph for equivalent effort. This is not a surprise, but is worth noting. I am not bothered by this though as I don't generally want to go as fast on an icy MUP vs a dry one, so this is a non-issue. Seeing as these tires are so aggressive, I may end up finding some single track and running that on the commuter bike a bit to confirm my suspicions that they would be superb in such settings.

Handling on dry asphalt is squirmy until the studs seat. I noticed the bike seemed to hook up more after about 30km. Either that, or I just got used to them, which is entirely possible. But they are NOT as grippy on asphalt as a standard tire. But who would expect them to be?

On frozen slush though, they are marvelous. The front of the bike rarely wants to wander and take its own line when rolling over rutted frozen slush, and that is with the tire pressure at 60psi. For ice, and deep snow, it is suggested to lower the pressure. I usually lower it to about 30psi if the going gets bad. When it gets bad, once winter really starts, I will report back on how they do in such circumstances.

In snow, you might be forgiven if you asked, "What snow?" The bike went where pointed, no drama, no slipping, no sliding. It just went. I managed to find some spots with untouched 10cm snow depth over soggy wet grass and used that as a test bed (it was a running trail so I was not messing up anyone's lawn...). The bike hunkered down and plowed through the snow like it wasn't there.

Traction was about perfect.

Cornering takes more finesse though. I tend to not lean the bike as much as I would normally, and tend to exert more downwards force on the "outer" handlebar (left side when turning right) to keep things nice and tucked in. I can see the bike potentially skittering all over the place if I enter a corner a bit hot on asphalt. However, on snow, I can see them biting in and just turning. In that way, they are the opposite of a normal mtn bike tire.

I will add more to this post as the winter progresses.