In keeping with my out of season buying philosophy I'm looking for a wide studded tyre for the front of the Stooge and a standard size for the rear as I've entered Strathpuffer in January.

Might not be needed so I'd rather not go full gas on new new ones. There's a par of Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro's on fleabay in 2.25 but ideally I'd like something a little wider for the front.

45NRTH have a Wrathchild Trail tyre in 2.6 which may be okay on my 50mm rim but the price is out of reach.

Any suggestions or surplus?

Have you looked for "studdable" tyres? Though I think that any tyre with aggressive enough lugs should be able to take studs. When we were in Norway a few years ago for the Fat Viking the conditions were really icy and the race organiser bought about a thousand studs for entrants to add to their tyres. Cath added them to her tyres.

One thing about studs is that you tend to loose quite a few if the terrain is at all rocky, i.e. they are fine for pure snow/ice. Also you don't need that many studs - the studded tyres come with a lot to allow for a percentage loss but from memory we were only fitting about 50%, if that, of the "commercial" amount. The Wrathchild has studs on every lug - 252 of them!!!! You just don't need that many - every other lug on the centre line tread and maybe 2 out of 3 on the line of lugs halfway out.

The 45nrth tyres are really good but they've always been expensive over here.

Hmm I had't looked how many studs there are in the Wrathchild, agreed 252 is definitely overkill! I bought a bag of studs for boots years ago from this company: https://supatracks.com/tyre-studs/
I've still got them so I could give them a go, additional studs look to be around 70p each though.

Studdable tyres didn't turn up much although I'm suer they exist.

Maybe there's a couple of Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro's out there somewhere to buy or dare I say it borrow for a fee...

I've got a spare front wheel with a standard rim so I'll need to suck up a bit less comfort up front but i'd rather that than throw caution to the wind and end up ice skating all night!

The ice spikers are insanely heavy and draggy
First time I put mine on the SS I could just about manage the flat bits !

Insanely grippy though and i doubt you could lose traction but they really.do need ice as even in snow its just drsggy a d no more grip.

Mine are 26 er and after 10 years i have used them 3 times !! Its never really frozen solid to justify

Yeah I agree they are everything you say. I'm just thinking of the horrible sketchy night time bits when a bit of moral support is needed

I've also got a set of hardly used 26" spiker pro's. They really are a specialist item with limited application here.

Huwblut wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2024 2:04 pm I've also got a set of hardly used 26" spiker pro's. They really are a specialist item with limited application here.

Maybe cheaper to build yourself a SS 26er ice bike for the 'puffer?!