My recent posts on Sheldon Brown's death and snow biking got a great response from an old customer. Chris Wilson writes:
I spent most my first 35 years in snowy hilly Boston, 25 of them on bicycles. Through my brother Michael, I met Sheldon Brown a couple of times around 1974, probably at the Bicycle Repair Collective. Sheldon explained to me how to make my own studded tire.
Back then, most of us were riding 3-speeds with 26x1-3/8" tires and 10-speeds with 27x1-1/4" tires, and we had more time, energy, and muscle than money -- the opposite of my current circumstances. I built my year-round commuter/shopper on an old Raleigh Grand Prix 10-speed frame, geared low with a snow-proof Sturmey-Archer 5-speed hub. (The frame took standard English cottered cranks, allowing me to use a crank-chainring from a 3-speed.) We hadn't heard of mountain bikes or commercial studded tires.
I made that studded tire, and used that for quite a few years on my 5-speed homebrew Raleigh. Sheldon said that I only needed it the front wheel, which I didn't believe at first. Of course, he was right because on the front it kept me from falling over, which is more important than traction. That studded tire felt like it was full of concrete instead of air, but it grabbed glare ice, even better than a modern commercial studded tire.
This was Sheldon Brown's studded-tire recipe:
- Take a new tire.
- Stick roofing nails (which are galvanized and have wide heads) through it from the inside, slightly offset from the center of the tread.
- Cut the sidewalls off of a worn-out tire, keeping only the tread. (Or, get a Mr. Tuffy, but we didn't have those back then.)
- Put the worn-out tread inside the first tire, to cover up the heads of the roofing nails.
- Mount the whole thing on a FRONT wheel, squeezing a tube inside. (It's a lot easier with a tube at least one size narrower than you would normally use, but I didn't have one.)
- Pump it up.
- This is the most difficult step: Cut the points of the roof nails off, leaving about 3/32 " protruding from the tire. (One needs really tough cutting pliers for this. A hacksaw doesn't work, because the nails won't hold still. Bolt cutters might work, but I've never tried them. For me, the best tool is a pair of Klein electrician's/lineperson's pliers, which can cut 1/4"-20 bolts. Klein puts the pivot much closer to the blades than any other manufacturer does, giving much better leverage. Klein is the preferred brand of electricians, such as I once was.)
- Put the wheel into the front fork of your bike.
- Ride through snow and on ice.
Nearly 20 years ago, I scrapped that old Raleigh, got a mountain bike equipped with a 5-speed hub and a commercial studded tire, and moved to the friendly flatlands of Chicago. I joined the friendly Evanston Bicycle Club. I learned to cycle on the beaches of Lake Michigan in the winter, when the sand freezes hard after a soaking rain. More recently, my back started complaining, and Rapid Transit sold me first recumbent.
And, Sheldon Brown, via his website, is still teaching me. I will miss him.
Chris points out that a more recent homemade studded tire, which he has not tried, is described at ICEBIKE at the bottom of this page. It is worth noting that both Chris and ICEBIKE recommend studded tires for riding -- you got it -- on ice. For the kind of snow we've been having in Chicago, any number of good off-road tires will do the trick. And, if you are riding on ploughed roads, a set of good, inverted-tread street tires, run at a slightly lower-than-normal psi will serve you well.
More on the topic of winter tires coming soon.
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