Wednesday, December 17, 2008

To stud or not to stud

That is the question. As I shot out my ride reminder this morning and looked forward to some fun times on snow covered goodness that we know as Denman's, I was bitch slapped by a cold hard fact (thanks Cam). Our 2" of new powdery goodness belies the fact that there is icy hard death waiting underneath it. OK, so maybe death is a bit dramatic, but after falling numerous times, you might wish you were dead.

So, with the rest of the season looking to get no better (just see tomorrow's forecast if you don't believe me) in regards to ice covered trails, it's time to seriously evaluate going studded. Doing a quick search it looks like the best option for riding singletrack is going to be the Nokian Gazza Extreme 294. How could you possibly go wrong with a name like that? Hell, it sounds like you should be able to ride up the side of a glacier (or at the very least Hillside) with nary a care in the world and a hooker draped across your lap. What, a hooker, you say? Hey, we can all have dreams, right?!

So, are studs overkill and should I just suck it up or will the last season of ice and what appears to be another coming this year make studs the choice of even the manliest of men (Squirrel not included cuz that guy's got mad ninja bike balance skillz yo)? Just for a quick recap, I had a number of mishaps last year due to ice. Thankfully no broken bones, but damn did I fall a lot.

1 comment:

Brian said...

If you're blinged out enough to drop $100 a piece on tires (that you'll only ride 2-3 months out of the year) then I say do it, but for the forgotten middle class I say they're a bit spendy. You can make you own, search the intertubes for how. It looks like a lot of work, but it might be worth it.