Stud party ?!

Even if I had invited by best riding friends to my stud party, I am pretty sure most of them would have been too worried to come when in fact It has nothing to do with half naked man wearing leather chaps. It’s usually a day in November that you sacrifice to stud your winter tires

 

Thanks to a tip by my friend Dan from Nashua, I use grip studs on 4.8 Lou’s.

 

 

They are expensive, very expensive: 1 $ a stud. When you think you put 150 in each tire….use that calculator  app on your phone and then be shocked by the result. Yes 300$ worth of studs on 300$ worth of tires. Most people are outraged by the price and they probably should be.

But living in south east Quebec we are often faced with icy conditions rather than snowy conditions and some times this is true for most of Québec and the North East US (except maybe last year). I rather spend 300$ to be able to ride 6 or 8 times more per winter than have my 2000$ fat bike hanging on the wall. And those times are always spectacular, rare and unique occasion to ride. It could be after a ice storm, riding a frozen cascade or crossing a crusted lake.

 

 

 

 

Last year we studded 2 pairs of tire: Isa’s Dilinger’s and my Bud/Lou combo.

 

Isa rode her Dillinger most of the winter but soon realized she was at a obvious disadvantage for flotation.  She switch to Lou’s and since the last half of the season had great snow condition we never studded them hence the stud party today.

I found a efficient way to do it this year, leave the tires on the bike, put the bike upside down and block the wheel with your brakes (easy to do with mechanicals).

 

There might be cheaper option out there like the new 5″ Dillinger but a pair of studded Lou’s are just unbeatable in any conditions and since fat biking is all about riding in any condition well there you have it! Now let is snow, ice or snot…