Studded Rubber for Fatbike

Hi everyone,

I am looking for suggestions on studded tires for my 2017 Specialized Fatboy. This is my first full winter season with it and I’m running into ice more often than not on the trails. Needless to say it can get a bit scary with the stock Ground Control tires…

Doing some research I’ve seen the Snowshoe XLs pop up a fair bit along with the 45North Dillingers. I don’t think I can stomach the cost of the latter. What about Terrene tires?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Garrett

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I’ve had great success with these on my Maxxis Minnions.
http://koldkutter.com
Does require a fairly high knob to take the screw though, as is the case with the Minnions I am using.

If you run tubeless, like I do, then it is very likely that, should the screw go through the tire, the sealant will plug up any air loss. You can also apply some silicone caulking or Gorilla Glue to the screw threads to help plug the hole.

I have the snowshoes and a buddy had the dills both tires suffer from the studs not protruding out of the rubber knobs far enough to get a good bite. They will keep you upright but you can not ride aggressively with these tires. North45 has a new tire out this year that really hooks up but they are 350 each :flushed:

I had decent success with my Snowshoes, but also lost some lugs and studs from exposed granite. My only advice is to be careful where and how you ride with such expensive tires.

I am in the process of studding a set of specialized ground controls that are on my fatboy, with grip studs.
I paid $300 for 200 studs and the install tool.
I did the front yesterday, and a good number of studs screwed through the tire carcass into the tube, and it went flat, so now I am converting to tubeless, see how that goes…

I have read that gong tubeless with the kold kutters is doable, so if these grip studs don’t work great, I will be switching to those, they are MUCH cheaper than grip studs.

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Following this thread with interest as I’m balking at the cost of prestudded tires as well.
-Grips studs do seem expensive but I Iike the fact they’re easily
removable/replaceable
-koldkutters are another option although they seem like overkill unless you’re exclusively railing on icy stuff. I also feel like I could just use some sheet metal screws ± some notching with a dremel.
I’m also wary of being forced from my laziness to go tubeless…
I wonder about stretching a package of gripstuds over both tires and supplementing with a package of koldkutters over the lateral most knobs where they would be needed less frequently?
I’m resigning myself to the fact that I’ll probably lose too many studs for my liking on rides given that the mix of granite/roots/frozen dirt/snow/ice we see around here

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BTW, This is my favourite quote so far, and the reason I don’t usually let me coworkers overhear me talking bikes, in case they take anything out of context:)

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Has anyone looked at the Terrene Cake Eaters? You can get a pair unstudded from Borealis in Quebec for $274:

And then you can get a set of 300 45N style studs from Amazon for $54.

$350 for a set of fully studded 120 tpi tires seems like a pretty decent price to me.

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I am here to entertain.

I only have the kold kutter studs along the edge of the tires. The theory is that when upright, they contact the ice less, but when turning they dig in more. I used them all last winter with success.

The Kold Kutters are a little different than sheet metal screws, as they have a v-notch, thus are sharper.

I have ‘normal’ studded Schwalbe tires on my mountain bike that work ok, BUT I’ve read that, due to the low tire pressures on fat bikes, those type of studs do not grip as well. But I have no experience with the normal studs on fat tires.

Your thought of using kold kutters along the edge, with grip studs in the centre, could work well.

Group discount? :smiley:

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If you decide against using the Grip Studs, I could be interested in taking them off your hands. I may try them on the Minion fat bike tires. :thinking:

I have a set of Bud & Lou’s with about 150ish Grip Studs and I find them compareable to the Snowshoes on ice (and those have almost 3 times the number of studs). The Bud and Lou’s have way more grip everywhere else. Also with the crazy deepth of them you don’t have to worry about them coming though to the tube.

I haven’t heard good things about the Cake eaters, might be ok for snowy areas, but a buddy of mine bought a set and lost almost all the studs out of the rear in 2 rides. Rocks/roots seem to be too much for them.

Interesting, thanks. I didn’t have high hopes for them. A friend was using the Vee Snowshoes today and they were great on the flat expanses of ice along the power lines, but relatively useless on off camber, downhill or uphill ice. I wonder if the new Snow Avalanche would be any better.

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A friend had a set of wrathchilds (45nrth) and they appeared to be great. If I was getting a set it would be those.

I’ve got both ground controls studded, and setup tubeless. Front is holding air, rear, not quite yet, but should be ok after a ride.
I’m not sure it’s worth it, with grip studs, I think the knobs are too small and soft, I’m predicting a massive loss of studs off the rear if I ride on any non-snow trail.
I haven’t ridden them yet, waiting for snow so it doesn’t feel like a total waste of time.
It was not particularly easy or enjoyable, but it’s done and I hope they stay studded for at least a few rides!

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We are in process of making an order with Terrene tires at Valley Stove and Cycle. We can definitely look at doing a group buy discount for users on the site! contact me if interested....mike@valleystoveandcycle.com

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I have a set of Bud & Lou’s with Grip Studs and after seeing them in person I don’t think there are many other tires that would hold grip studs supper well. The knobs on most tires are just not deep and/or big enough to support them well.

Could be interested, but I’m not familiar with Terrene tires. Anyone have experience with them?