Hi David. Maine native and avid fat bike and winter cycling enthusiast here. You didn't say which part of the state you are in. This makes a difference, north or south, coastal or mountains, the weather and snow conditions are quite different. I'm guessing, since you're asking about riding on icy, packed trails, that like me, you are in the southern part of the state. My observation of the last several years is that you typically would get a few days a year at most where skinny (meaning not fat bike tires, less than 3.8" actual width) studded tires are usable. The current conditions here contradict that, but if there's nothing else to know about Maine winter trail conditions, know that they're variable and change rapidly. Looking at the long range forecast, if you buy some skinny studs now, you might get a week or more use out of them, at least. This is unusual.
Something to note is that many local trail groups have bought snow groomers in the past few years, and they put a lot of time and money into grooming the trails. Please, please, do not ride skinny tires on groomed trails. If you slice ruts into them, no one will be happy. There's a growing community of fat bike riders and more and more opportunities to ride in the winter. My 2 cents is if you want to really enjoy trail riding here in the winter, get a fat bike. One that can fit 26x5" tires is best, as that will give you the most opportunity to ride in the widest range of conditions. Chris On Thursday, January 7, 2021 at 9:48:58 AM UTC-5 David Wadstrup wrote: > Hello, > > I recently moved to Maine, and would really like to keep riding trails > even in these snowy, icy conditions. So, I'm hoping for some advice. I > initially thought a fat bike might be in order, but after diving deep into > Surly Wednesday research, I've decided that it's just not for me -- I'd > much rather ski, or even snowshoe, if there's a significant amount of new, > unpacked snow. What I'm mostly interested in riding is our local, hilly, > graveled trails that are fully snow covered and that see a lot of foot > traffic even in winter(walkers, skiers, snowshoers, fat bike riders, even > some snowmobiles.) So here are my questions to those of you who have > experience with winter trail riding... > > 1) I can fit a 2.6 tire on my Susie. Is this fat enough to ride snowy, > icy, chewed up, packed trails? I'm sure it's possible, but is fun? I know > a fat bike would give better float, and roll over everything more, but > would my plus sized 29er tires handle it ok? Would it float enough and roll > over enough to make investing in a set of VERY expensive 2.6 studded tires > be worth it? Or will it just be mostly a slog? > > 2) Regarding studded tires...I've used 40mm wide Nokian Hakkas for > wintertime commuting in the city, but am going to need something wider, > something designed for trail riding. The two best options as far as I can > see are the Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pros and the 45North Wrathchilds. The > Schwalbes only come in a 2.25" width, the 45Norths in a 2.6". Obviously, > wider sounds better, but there are some mitigating factors... > > On the one hand, the 45Norths are considerably more expensive than the > Schwalbes. They have less studs, and they seem to be prone to exceptional > stud loss and have garnered a number of negative reviews. There are two > versions of them, though. One, a 60TPi version with "regular" sized studs; > two, a 120TPI version with "XL" sized studs. They are similar in price. > From what I can gather, the 120/XL version seems to be the version that > sees the most stud loss and is the one almost all of the online negative > reviews reference. Does anyone have any experience with either of these > versions? Is my assumption that the 60TPI loses less studs correct? What > do you think of this tire generally? Is it wide enough for packed, snowy > trails? > > On the other hand, the Schwalbe Ice Spikers are much less expensive. They > have considerably more studs. Their current version seem to have far few > negative reviews. But they are .35" narrower -- that's 9mm! I would think > that this 9mm would make a huge difference in performance in the conditions > I'm looking to use them in, but maybe it won't? Maybe 2.25 and 2.6 tires > will be comparable? Maybe the greater stud count and better reviews and > lower cost outweighs the extra width of the 45North? What do you think? > > Thanks for whatever advice you might have. Oh, and in case it makes a > difference -- I'll be running them with tubes and will not need to ride > these tires on pavement before getting to the trailhead(it's right outside > my door, practically!) > > Thanks, > > David > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/0268429a-fdce-456e-a6ed-8ad680c8df72n%40googlegroups.com.
