Rain Will NOT Prevent This Ride!
...unless it's a downpour. After the blow-fest of the last two days I'm very determined to ride today. The problem is that as the winds have diminished, the rains came in. Not exactly rain, but gloomy, misty, drizzly, I'm-going-to-do-this-all-flippin'-day type of rain. CDV and I have determined that it is necessary to ride so we are going to do an urban ride tonight after work to get a few miles in.
One thing I did get accomplished during the last couple days was to get my studded tires off (finally) and clean up my mountain bike. After a long winter with very little maintenance, it was pretty gross. My bad. Bad bike parent. One quote that is very true that I read on a blog from one of the Minnesota crowd (and damn funny too!):
Having studded tires is like wearing a rubber; it ruins the feel but makes you feel a lot safer!
However, my studded tires just finished up their third season and they are pretty beat up and the rubber is actually cracking from all the conditions. I'm already thinking about options for next year. Should I try to build my own studs? Should I buy better studs? Bike chains like they use for ice biking? When it gets really icy here, studs sometimes give me a false sense of security and I end up going down anyway. Thoughts?
5 comments:
Ha, funny comment-
What kind of studded tires do you have? My nokian mount and grounds worked great this year- no questions about "false" sense of security, they saved me from going down many times and work great on dry pavement also. I was wondering, actually, how one could keep tires from dry rotting? Perhaps spray w/ WD40 or something??? I'd like to know so I can store them properly for next year.
Jeff
Jeff, they are not Nokian's (at least I don't think so). I think I picked up both of them for like $90 three years ago. They ground down over the past three years and are pretty much done for. On your dry rot question, I wish I had an answer for you. I do tend to run a little less air pressure in the winter so I was wondering if that didn't help the process a bit too.
Stay with the studs. I've heard and read Nokians are the best but I used Klondikes last year. It too a replacement pair for free after I lost a bunch of studs but they worked great.
I ran my tires at probably 45-50 pounds, don't know exactly, just pumped them up to hard. If I was riding total ice, I'd have decreased the pressure, or bought a version with more studds, like the extreme 294's or the crazy 336's.
For commuting over mixed conditions, I think I made a good choice. I'm going to look into storing tires and if I find info I'll post again.
One more note, if the studs are just "steel" they'll grind down pretty quick, the "carbide" studs are much harder and should last many seaons. I've see no noticable wear and have a few months of daily commutting on them mostly on dry pavement. (I'm sure you know the steel vs carbide, but posting for others who may not be aware).
Jeff
Ha! here's the best response for keeping your winter tires in good condition over the summer...
ianjk: "I keep them acclimated over the summer in my chest freezer."
Classic!
From a post on bike forums the most common thing is to just keep them cool and out of direct sunlight. One person coated w/ WD40 and put in a plastic bag- not sure if that's right or not, but more common was nothing, just no light and no heat.
Jeff
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