I've been mostly biking to work for years now, on an island off the northwestern coast of Norway.
I have found that studded tyres are more of an annoyance than an asset on 99 out of 100 winter days.
On anything but wet ice, regular tyres do surprisingly well - to the extent that I've felt no need for studs at all during quite literally thousands of kilometers of riding in the snow - yes, grip is not as good as on asphalt, but then again - studs will not magically make the road bare; they only give you a bit of extra margin under very specific conditions - wet ice, basically.
On wet ice, studded tyres will just postpone the inevitable. You WILL topple. On those days, I just jump in the car.
Additionally, the noise of a set of properly studded tyres is enough to drive me nuts, though obviously YMMV.
Thanks for this! I biked many years throughout the year to work in Finland but after series of bronchitis hitting me on consecutive winters I quit winter biking. I'm thinking maybe I could try again - and given your analysis I'll not let my lack of winter tyres stop me :)
Just avoid slicks (d’oh!) and you’ll likely be fine. The only concession I’ve made to winter conditions is riding at slightly lower tyre pressure to get a larger contact surface. In snow it doesn’t make much of a difference, but on ice it works wonders.
As for the bronchitis, I’ve luckily steered clear - but a colleague of mine who had it good and hard a couple of times swear that since he started wesring a mask, he hasn’t had even a hint of it.
I have found that studded tyres are more of an annoyance than an asset on 99 out of 100 winter days.
On anything but wet ice, regular tyres do surprisingly well - to the extent that I've felt no need for studs at all during quite literally thousands of kilometers of riding in the snow - yes, grip is not as good as on asphalt, but then again - studs will not magically make the road bare; they only give you a bit of extra margin under very specific conditions - wet ice, basically.
On wet ice, studded tyres will just postpone the inevitable. You WILL topple. On those days, I just jump in the car.
Additionally, the noise of a set of properly studded tyres is enough to drive me nuts, though obviously YMMV.