In five days of biking with my home made studded tires, I’ve given myself three flats. The first time was on my third day, on my way to work, about 3/4 mile from my office. I started walking, but was picked up in just a few steps by of all people, our department VP. I fixed that flat in the office, and ordered some Slime tire liners from Nashbar. After the day of work I rode home with no issues.

The next time I rode in, I got another flat. This was a real slow leak, so I managed to get all the way to the office. I hadn’t gotten the tire liners yet, so I decided not to repair, and got a ride home with my good buddy Carl. I took a break from riding while waiting for the parts to arrive. After I got the liners, I had to do some “custom fabrication” by duct taping two liners side by side to get full coverage, and installed them in each tire (so needed 4 tire liners total – my total parts cost has gone from $26 to $46 for two tires).

Today I rode in. A nice toasty 14 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. The roads were mediocre, I don’t think the plow truck drivers actually know how to use the plow. Actually, comparing the roads to the roads I remember in my Buffalo, NY youth, the plow truck drivers in New England really don’t have a clue. The ride in was awesome, had an awesome day. Then, on my way home, in the dark (but a warmer 27 degrees), I got a flat. Carl and Brent were just leaving so I was able to catch them by cell phone, and super-buddy Brent picked me up.

I told myself after all the effort I went through in constructing the tires, putting in the liners, and all the flat repairs, that if I got one more flat I’d be done for the season. I bought a trainer, and figure at the worst I could actually use it with my road bike (which is sad being stored in the freezing shed). After I put the kids to bed I went down to the basement and took a look. The stud heads had not punctured the tire liner, but rather a piece of grit ingrained in the duct tape perfectly positioned over a stud caused the hole. So, I removed the taped grit, inspected the rest of the wheel and liner, added a secondary liner (an extra sliced tube), and re-assembled. Now if I get another flat, again again, this time for real (maybe), I’ll stop for the season, maybe.

Actually, I think my plan will be to bike in the morning but get rides home – at least until I prove that the tires are more flat resistant. The next step would also be to actually buy a studded tire, at least for the rear (where I keep getting the flats) – either that or virtual-commute with my trainer in the basement, laptop and VPN.

Thanks go to Sarah for the “no cycling” picture.

Here are some links I found while looking for an appropriate image for this post:

• Lords of the Logistic
• Bike Hugger

And more links about studded tires:

• Peter White Cycles: Studded Tires
• Bike Tires Direct: Studded Tires (cheapo Innova for $35 each, or better Schwalbe for $50)
• Stud your own bike tires by Byron Kuster at Silent Sports
• Kent’s Bike Blog: Studded Bicycle Tires (lots of good comments)

I’ve already continued bike commuting much farther into the winter season than I ever had before. I overcame darkness with my 6 volt rechargeable 10 watt halogen headlight, illuminite jacket and helmet cover, and an array of blinky lights. I overcame freezing temperatures, wind and rain with my windproof balaclava, lobster gloves, neoprene shoe covers and rain pants. (The Nashbar/Performance Bike Gods own me.) Now I’m ready for anything, including snow and ice.

I made my own home-made studded tires for my mountain bike. I followed the instructions at Icebike.org. I used my super-cheap $7 knobbie mountain bike tires from performance bike, #8 by 1/2″ hex head self-drilling zinc metal screws ($4/100), and cut up some extra tubes ($4 each) to use as tire liners. It took a nice long time and my hands are pretty worn out, but I put 52 studs in my front tire, and 39 in the rear. Total cost for two studded tires: $26 – most of the brand name studded tires (not that many out there) are around $50 to $100 each.

I’ll continue to ride my road bike in most weather as I have been doing. But in the event of snow and ice (should come soon I hope!) I’ll be out on my mountain bike.

Talking about saving the planet. A few days ago I got a piece of paper in my mailbox as did the 3,000 or so other people who work at my office. The paper was promoting the use of compact florescent bulbs to save energy and help the environment. It boggled my mind that a group who was intent on saving the earth would make such extraneous use of paper, its was like robbing Peter to pay Paul. This group had an event a few days later in our cafeteria, where you could bring your signed paper and you would get a free light bulb. Of course, they also had a bajillion more copies available right there. It turned out one of my friends was working the event, so I mentioned I thought their use of paper was completely against the point of saving the planet. She agreed, and mentioned that of the 3,000 or so copies they distributed, only about 10 had been returned – everyone else was just picking up a new copy at the event.

In any case, to help make up for this I made up my mind to do even more. Before I left the office on Friday, I turned off the TV over my cube (which has been on since I started 7 years ago) and turned off my Mac and my MacBuntu (which I hardly even use anyway). I usually leave my computers on so I can remote access them, but I really only need my one Windows desktop. I’m going to look into a way to turn that off too and remotely wake it up if need be. Today my family went to Home Depot and we bought enough compact florescent bulbs to finish off every light in our house, which really didn’t have that much left. I had to remove a dimmer switch to avoid killing some of the new bulbs, but now I can say we do not have any halogen or incandescent lighting in use in our house.