Studded tires

So far, we never introduced studded tires although they are the most important factor in snow cycling (we already mentioned the necessity of studded tires at Studded Tires). On this page, we are going to introduce two types of studded tires we are currently (season 2008-2009) using.


IRC Mudmad with motorcycle studs
The most popular and most effective studded tires of all is Mudmad of IRC with motorcycle's studs. Its compound doesn't attract snow or ice so its surface rarely snow covered. Moreover, its block pattern is designed for muddy condition. Therefore, you can easily control bike even on soft or muddy snow. This tire is very suitable for snow cycling in Hokkaido where it snows much and roads are often covered with muddy snow. However, as it uses motorcycle's studs, it weighs really much. Its weight is about 1.05kg. You feel like always riding in the uphill even you ride on a flat road as it's really heavy. Moreover, there is another problem. This tire is no longer produced. It already became almost impossible to find remaining stock. But if you use carefully, the life span of studded tires is longer than 10 years. The tires Tesseract uses are already 13 years old! Among us, Mr.Takahashi, Cairn and Tesseract are using this super-heavy but hyper-effective tire. These three are using tires very carefully. Especially Cairn and Tesseract use studded tires very carefully. They ride normal road racing bikes when only the half of the road is snow covered because if you ride on asphalt with studded tires, it'll damage the studs. So they can use them for years. However, Cairn's tires are too used because of usage of years. It's possible that he changes tires during this season.

Anyway, we say, it's the best studded tire we have ever known.

Tesseract's bike which is equipped with IRC Mudmad.



Nokian Hakka SW300
The most popular studded tire among tires currently produced. It uses very light studs made of aluminium and their tip is coated with tungsten to be able to stand usage on asphalt. This tire weighs only 0.75kg, almost two third of IRC Mudmad. Each tire has 300 studs so it grasps the ice well but it's not so suitable for muddy snow. Moreover, its compound attracts snow so sometimes the tires are snow covered and become heavier and less effective. Among us, only Dr.K uses this tire. He had IRC Mudmad but he used them too hard and they became worn away.


Dr.K's bike which is equipped with Nokian Hakka SW300.