26 Plus studded winter tyre options

[UniMyra]

You're welcome Ruari. I'm hoping for some snow too (20 cm and temperatures below zero would be perfect).

I seems that very few shops carries the Ice Spiker Pro 26 x 2.35 anymore (only 26 x 2.1) The ones I found are very pricey. Scwalbe now has an Ice Spiker Pro 27.5 x 2.6 which seems interesting, so 27.5 is clearly the size to buy these days.

[ruari]

Originally Posted by UniMyra

Scwalbe now has an Ice Spiker Pro 27.5 x 2.6 which seems interesting, so 27.5 is clearly the size to buy these days.

I'll definitely keep my eye on the 27.5 Oracle then as well.

As a side note. I cycled your old 29 Qu-ax a little yesterday and commuted in on it today. I have noticed that it pulls a little to the right (for me). It is by no means terrible and I am able to correct for it by cycling with my body twisted slightly to the left, but it is noticeable.

Looking down at the tyre as I ride I think (though I could be imagining it) that I can visually see that it is more worn on the right hand side. I figure this could either be the cause of it or as result of it.

So this left me wondering if this is:

• Something about your technique
• Something about where you road it (perhaps you used it frequently on the same route and that route had a camber, causing more wear more on one side?
• Something about the unicycle itself

It doesn't really matter much and once the snow arrives I doubt it will be noticeable but still it is interesting, so I am mildly curious as to if you know why, or if you recall ever noticing this yourself.

[ruari]

Originally Posted by ruari

[…]It doesn't really matter much and once the snow arrives[…]

Hmm… just looked at the peak temp predicted for tomorrow in Oslo and it is 8°C (46.4°F). So yeah, there isn't gonna be new snow any time soon then!

[UniMyra]

Originally Posted by ruari

I cycled your old 29 Qu-ax a little yesterday and commuted in on it today. I have noticed that it pulls a little to the right (for me).

Looking down at the tyre as I ride I think (though I could be imagining it) that I can visually see that it is more worn on the right hand side. I figure this could either be the cause of it or as result of it.

So this left me wondering if this is:

• Something about your technique
• Something about where you road it (perhaps you used it frequently on the same route and that route had a camber, causing more wear more on one side?
• Something about the unicycle itself

I haven't ridden that tyre for years so I don't really remember. I mainly rode it on bikepaths where there is very little camber, so I don't think it's that. If the uneven wear was caused by camber, wouldn't it be on the left side? I haven't noticed any unusual wear on my other tyres so I don't know if it's my technique either. I don't like neither the Nokian tyre nor the Ice Spiker on bare asphalt, because they twist a lot (the Ice Spiker is the worst) and is difficult to ride in a straight line. On mixed conditions (bare asphalt, ice and hard packed snow), I've found the Schawalbe Marathon Winter to be a good compromise. Do you want to borrow it? Send a text if you do.

[ruari]

Originally Posted by UniMyra

I haven't ridden that tyre for years so I don't really remember. I mainly rode it on bikepaths where there is very little camber, so I don't think it's that. If the uneven wear was caused by camber, wouldn't it be on the left side? I haven't noticed any unusual wear on my other tyres so I don't know if it's my technique either. I don't like neither the Nokian tyre nor the Ice Spiker on bare asphalt, because they twist a lot (the Ice Spiker is the worst) and is difficult to ride in a straight line. On mixed conditions (bare asphalt, ice and hard packed snow), I've found the Schawalbe Marathon Winter to be a good compromise. Do you want to borrow it? Send a text if you do.

No, it is not really a big deal and isn't really bad. I can easily adjust for it. I was just curious. I think I will just ignore it.

Thanks for the suggestion/offer of the Marathon Winter but I will stick with this for now and see how things pan out for the rest of the winter. In any case I do actually have a bunch of different size tyres lying in the garage from different bikes I have owned so I might already have something.

[ruari]

Originally Posted by ruari

So yeah, there isn't gonna be new snow any time soon then!

For everyone not in Oslo. Shortly after I wrote this, it started snowing and continued for hours.

[ruari]

While I obviously want to try out the 29” a little more, I am also somewhat curious about the 2.35 Kenda ‘Klondike XT’ I bought for use on my 26”.

This morning the weather was very similar to when I first cycled 29” into work. The roads were pretty much clear, bar some smooth, icy patches.

I can now say that the Klondike XT is pretty nice for these kinds of conditions. The thread is not as minimal as a Winter Marathon but also not as aggressive as an Ice Spiker or Nokian/Suomi Hakka WXC. It feels pretty good on bare tarmac, in a way they do not (as UniMyra also commented).

I actually timed myself when I cycled in with on the 29” with a Nokian tyre the other day and it took me 29 minutes. Today on the 26” with the Kenda it was 25 minutes. However, given I could see that there was a real lack of snow I had moved my VCX+ cranks down to the 100mm position. UniMyra’s 29” has 150mms. I suspect this played the biggest role in upping the speed but certainly I cannot discount the tyre. It has no pull in either direction and it felt grippy enough (even on ice), that I had the confidence to go at higher speed. Also, no UPDs except for the initial mount. I guess it has been a (little) while since I used 100mms and I expected the wheel to move more as I mounted (it did not).

When some real, lasting snow returns, I am not at all convinced that it will be better than the fractionally narrower Ice Spiker I have. Indeed I imagine it will be slightly worse and for deeper snow I will most likely need to go back to the Duro Wildlife Leopard and consider studding myself. Or I could look at buying another 29” tyre to try on UniMyra’s 29”. If anyone has suggestions of nice 29” tyres for snow I am open to ideas.

Now before anyone questions me “wasting money” on tyres for a unicycle I do not own. Two things: my wife will not react (or probably even notice an extra tyre or two) but she might question if I bought more unicycles (it is a space thing as much as anything). Also I am not too worried about buying a new tyre for a unicycle I am borrowing. I'll either re-use it for something in the future or gift it back to UniMyra (assuming he even wanted it) when I return his unicycle. So if anyone has any suggestion, please be forthcoming. A reminder this 29” is an older Qu-ax, so it can't fit a really big tyre.

[UniMyra]

For commuting i really would consider the Marathon Winter. I'll probably be using my own soon, but as I said you can test it for a week or two if you want.

"Deep snow" you say? I thought with the green city council, the bike paths were cleared almost before it starts to snow (the sidewalks on the other hand....)

I've written a couple of "reviews" on studded 29" tyres:

Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro 29 x 2.25": http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=105246
I wrote that this tyre is good on bare asphalt. It's not. I probably rode it too short to tell.

Studded tyre: Schwalbe Marathon Winter 29 x 2.0 : http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118740

Don't worry about the uni. Should I ever need it, I'll borrow it back for a short time. You'll probably want to replace it with a better 29'er eventually anyway. When that time comes you are welcome to tell your wife that the new one is mine too. :-)

I have 125 cranks for the 29'er if you want them.

No complaints about the Nimbus Stadium saddle? It nearly killed Ed Pratt.

[pierrox]

Originally Posted by ruari

For everyone not in Oslo. Shortly after I wrote this, it started snowing and continued for hours.

Thanks for that, the suspense was unbearable!

Fun to read you guys yaking at each other. And good thing about the Vivaldi photo. I only became aware of that browser recently, and now that I know it's got some unicycle in its veins, even better!

[ruari]

Originally Posted by pierrox

Thanks for that, the suspense was unbearable!

Fun to read you guys yaking at each other. And good thing about the Vivaldi photo. I only became aware of that browser recently, and now that I know it's got some unicycle in its veins, even better!

Well I am person who writes the majority of our blog posts about our test versions (snapshots) and so I am reasonably well known amongst the hardcore Vivaldi fans and some Opera browser fans (my previous employer). I have a twitter account with 1366 followers, which isn't many I know but I would guess that 90% of them follow me hoping for news and insights into the browser. They are probably wildly disappointed with how much I talk about cycling and unicycling in particular.

I am also fairly active on a popular Linux forum and even there the regulars, recently became aware of my interest in unicycling.

[ruari]

Originally Posted by UniMyra

For commuting i really would consider the Marathon Winter. I'll probably be using my own soon, but as I said you can test it for a week or two if you want.

"Deep snow" you say? I thought with the green city council, the bike paths were cleared almost before it starts to snow (the sidewalks on the other hand....)

They do a pretty good job but when it comes down fast and heavy, they are not always cleared. Also I unicycle quite frequently on the "sidewalks".

Originally Posted by UniMyra

I've written a couple of "reviews" on studded 29" tyres:

Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro 29 x 2.25": http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=105246
I wrote that this tyre is good on bare asphalt. It's not. I probably rode it too short to tell.

Studded tyre: Schwalbe Marathon Winter 29 x 2.0 : http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118740

I'll check them out.

Originally Posted by UniMyra

Don't worry about the uni. Should I ever need it, I'll borrow it back for a short time. You'll probably want to replace it with a better 29'er eventually anyway. When that time comes you are welcome to tell your wife that the new one is mine too. :-)

Ha... I wouldn't dare!

Originally Posted by UniMyra

I have 125 cranks for the 29'er if you want them.

It just uses ISIS cranks, right? If so I also have a set of 102mm Venture 2 ISIS cranks. I could move these back to the 26" and put the VCX+ ISIS on your 29" uni for more testing.

Originally Posted by UniMyra

No complaints about the Nimbus Stadium saddle? It nearly killed Ed Pratt.

So far, so good but I haven't done more than 30 minutes at a time and I think Ed cycled a little bit further than that, didn't he?