We recently scored a bunch of studded tires from Schwalbe, Nokian and Kenda.

Good thing, too, as we’ve just had one of our typical winter ice storms here in the Northeast:

Shorty after their arrival I put on a set of Nokian Gazza Extreme 294 tires in 29er flavor and have had a couple rides on them, one staff ride last week and again this past weekend in my local Frick Park, both with beautiful snowy weather. Unfortunately I neglected to bring a camera. The tires were awesome, though—definitely confidence-inspiring. It’s pretty cool to realize you’re going across some snow-covered ice but not sliding. There were a couple moments of unexpected slippage on rocks, but not much at all, and they seem to dig into frozen tree roots quite well.

Unfortunately I didn’t heed the label’s instructions to break them in by riding 30 miles on pavement, and each tire has lost a couple studs. I mean, come on, you want me to put on some sweet new studded tires while it’s snowing and go ride on the road? At least I’ve got 292 more studs on each tire.

I also grabbed a pair of Nokian Hakkapelittas in 700×35c size for use on my ‘cross commuting bike. They will most likely be getting some use very soon, like tomorrow perhaps. I’d gladly ride all 12 miles of my commute with the slower studs on just to survive the patches like this:

One strange thing about all these tires—they smell really bad!

Look for some more postings about the tires and how they perform for us. Here’s the full list of what we’ve got:

Kenda:
Klondike 26”x1.95”
Klondike XT 26”x1.95”
Klondike 700×35c
Klondike 700×40c

Schwalbe:
Ice Spiker 26”x2.1”

Nokian:
Extreme 294 29”x2.1”
Extreme 294 26”x2.1”
Hakkapelitta W106 700×35c

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 12:39 pm and is filed under New! Cool!, Product Testing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.