Snow Stud Or Marathon Winter for N London Commuting

[Mallory]

Which of the 2 would be best for N London Winters?


My commute would be from Hendon (greyhound hill) thru to Muswell Hill. So a few hills (hampstead etc) or via A1 and loads of back road

 

[Gez73]

Can't comment on London weather but I use Winters (35mm) and I find them ideal for the snow and ice. Noisey but very effective and far better than the Marathon + regular tyres I normally use when the weather is better. Gez

 

[fossyant]

If road then winters. If off road general use, snow studs. Snow studs are a MTB tyre and work well in mud and real off road, but are slower than winters on Tarmac.

 

[ianrauk]

You wont need studded tyres for a London commute.
This year there was 2 days of snow.
The main roads are gritted very well into London and were fine for a normal bike..

 

[Norm]

Snow studs, iirc, are longer so don't work well on tarmac without snow. Marathon Winters, with shorter ice studs, are fine to leave on throughout the season, and you'll never again have a problem with pedestrians not hearing you coming.

 

[Mallory]

You wont need studded tyres for a London commute.
This year there was 2 days of snow.
The main roads are gritted very well into London and were fine for a normal bike..

Agree this year was not as bad but the previous years were bad.

Maybe where you are but around my neck of the woods some roads (which i would have to use) had snow and ice coverage inc black ice for quite a few days

I know us Londoners don't have it near as bad as other areas but even a 2-3 weeks on and off thru out the winter can play havoc.The cost of a set of these against missing a days pay or taxi costs getting into work or worse slipping off and breaking bones.

 

[Norm]

I did the same calculation about cost of tyres against cost of missing work.

For me, losing about 2 hours would be a harder smack on the wallet than the M-Winters. Not that I expect them to allow me to ride every day, whatever the weather, but the option to keep riding rather than walking 5 miles would save an hour off the walk at each end of the day, so they should pay for themselves pretty quickly.

 

[mcshroom]

I'd go for Marathon Winters if you are staying on roads.

The Snow studs have larger knobbly bits (they are not full off road tyres, more like CX tyres) so are slower. Riding them on non-snowy roads if fine though, I've done it without issues other than losing two rear studs for the last two winters.

 

[ufkacbln]

Inflate to high pressure and minimise the spike contact in good weather, then drop the pressure to bring the studs into play when needed