I rode them a few times on dry pavement, and they felt surprisingly good -- not the best for cornering, of course, but more stable than I expected.
It's snowed a bit this week, so I just got back from a short 30-mile ride to see how the studded tires do on snowy dirt roads. Answer: not bad, but not great. I kept the bike upright the whole ride, but they definitely felt pretty squirrelly, especially the rear. Actually, the front felt pretty planted the whole time, but the rear was squirming around a lot. A slightly denser knobby pattern, like a Dunlop D606 or even Conti TKC80, might actually do a lot better with one stud in each knob. I suspect the rear I'm using just has too much space between the knobs and not enough is grabbing the road surface.
For the most part these roads had that thin snow-pack that's turned brown from mixing with the dirt below. At one point I had to stop for an intersection, and when I put my foot down I found the surface very slippery. So all things considered, the studded tires did pretty well, I suppose -- I'm pretty sure I would have fallen repeatedly on non-studded tires.
Still, they felt squirmy enough that I had to keep my speed way down, and the ride wasn't really fun enough to be worth the tension. Curious to see, though, whether they feel any better once there's a little more snow-pack on the roads.
On pavement, both dry and wet, they feel pretty good. Haven't tried icy/snowy pavement yet. So far we've only gotten three or four inches of snow here in Burlington, spaced out over a week. Will be curious to see how these tires do once we get more snow.
Hell, if they make it possible for me to get out once every couple weeks for 30 miles, I'll be happy -- better than sitting around at home wishing I could ride.
--mark
