Are snow chains a thing still?

[Kram]

Yeah thats only a light dusting of frost, but Michellin Pilot Road 4's and 5's were excellent, cold or wet, even, if you look closely, you can see an inch of chain flung oil muck on the LHS of the rear, grippy enough.

I'd generally stick to motorways on the bike, but in -12 weather, 120 was no problem. A little more careful on the country lanes, after binning on ice November 2014.

With a car now, not a care would be given for a bit of snow.

 

[Ali]

What size tyres @JOEPRO ? I’ve got a set of snow socks I kept after selling my C Class you can have if you like. Did have chains also but such a faff to put on and the socks worked so well.

 

[Dragnet]

Apparently studs are:

"Only really for country people and farmers living in the lake country, where it stays cold and the roads never get cleared so they must drive on sheet ice or refrozen snow for months"

That is true. I lived in the far north of Sweden when I was in Scandiwegia and it was all studs.

 

[premmington]

Snow Trac - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[JOEPRO]

What size tyres @JOEPRO ? I’ve got a set of snow socks I kept after selling my C Class you can have if you like. Did have chains also but such a faff to put on and the socks worked so well.

If they fit that would be fantastic thank you - these are the ditchfinders with size

 

[Bornfree]

After reading this thread I've realised that in 42 years of riding bikes and driving cars I've never bought new tyres. I've bought new cars and always sold them before needing new tyres and all my secondhand car/bikes have had secondhand tyres put on them.

 

[bricol]

Off road knobblies won't be much better then "normal" tyres. Winter and snow tyres have "sipes". They have the same effect as polar bear feet and Lancashire and Yorkshire mill girls socks over their clogs.

I've bemused any number of super duper off roaders in my winter tyre equipped Lancia hatch over the last 30 yrs

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

Off road knobblies won't be much better then "normal" tyres.

I find they do very well in fresh snow, but as soon as it's compacted down or if you come across ice, they're no better than regular tyres.

The two days a year or so it snows heavily around here, I usually take the country lanes out the back of the village to meet up with a gritted route rather than the main road down the bottom, so I am not driving down steep hills on compacted slush.

 

[Turbo]

That is true. I lived in the far north of Sweden when I was in Scandiwegia and it was all studs.

The local girls must be happy!

 

[Smallfry]

I always run on all season tyres. I have Goodyear Vector 4 seasons on my 04 plate Vauxhall van. I battled through the 10mm of snow here today with no problem ! Its icy too. I find them quite handy in the mud we get here too.

Before them I had Kleber Quadraxer 2's They were good too

You still have to use caution though and I have never got stuck, but we don't get too much snow down here in Kent, but they certainly help.

 

[Turbo]

I find they do very well in fresh snow, but as soon as it's compacted down or if you come across ice, they're no better than regular tyres.

The two days a year or so it snows heavily around here, I usually take the country lanes out the back of the village to meet up with a gritted route rather than the main road down the bottom, so I am not driving down steep hills on compacted slush.

As an experiment I fitted a pair of rims clad with rally gravel tyres on the 406.
On fresh snow they were fantastic and gripped really well.
But on packed snow they were downright dangerous, no grip at all. Standard road tyres were better.

 

[Trevorleach]

As we get around two day's of bad conditions a year in the uk winter tyres are a waste of time and money.

I used to think that until we had two rwd mercs with large petrol engines, slightest bit of damp/wet manhole cover would light up the traction control and take away the throttle, from then on all seasons and never an issue again.

I sensibly went back to Land rover and had other issues!

 

[AVI_8]

Personally I don’t bother with 2 sets of wheels and tires for summer winter, I just get very good quality grippy tyres and for the very odd occasion in winter when there’s snow I just drive to the conditions, had Michelin PS4S, that’s an older design now as far as tyre technology goes, Got Pirelli PZ5’s to replace them, it’s been very cold recently and they’ve been very good, grippier than the 4S in the wet and in a few months when the cold goes, they’re apparently the best ultra high performance tyre according to the tyre reviewer guy on you tube, stiffer sidewall which improves turn in in a performance car.
The problem with all season tyres are that they’re a compromise in the summer if you're driving a car which handles well in the corners

 

[jmp49]

I usually get snowed in once a year because I live out in the sticks, but its been a couple of years since we had it bad enough to fret as I work from a home office anyway so as long as we have power,water and wood its ok, and then my (pre defender) 90 came to the fore, no chains or socks just narrow tall AT biased tyres and awd and a farm jack and waffle boards if I cocked it up too bad. I've never had the police question my lack of chains or socks either. I remember one year we got snowed in for a week, and after a week needed petfood and some other bits and bobs so we went a localish large supermarket about 40km away via the backroads, staying clear of well travelled routes and on virgin snow where possible as the busier roads would have been turned to slush then refroze. We were the only vehicle in the car park apart from a tractor, and as we pulled up, this farmer and his family came out the store, put the shopping in the front loader bucket, and they all piled into the cab for the journey home.
I'll probably pick up chains or cheaps ocks when the 90 is back on the road just to comply with the box ticking in case I encounter a idiot policier and they can live down behind the drivers seat with all the other crap I never use.

I imagine when the 101FC is on the road finally, I'll take it out in snow for a play and they'll be looking for the mountain logo on the tyres, which are military bar grips. In fact only one of them even has a date code. At which point I'll produce a set of snow socks several sizes too small just to fob them off with. The bar grips will probably live up to their reputation and do everything bar grip, never driven it in snow to find out yet...

 

[sako243]

Off road knobblies won't be much better then "normal" tyres.

As @Jelly_Sheffield says in deep fresh snow they're okay, on anything else they're worse. Don't have the surface area and they're quite often a softer summer compound for grip on rocks so become quite slippy when it gets cold.

 

[jmp49]

View attachment 525566
Yeah thats only a light dusting of frost, but Michellin Pilot Road 4's and 5's were excellent, cold or wet, even, if you look closely, you can see an inch of chain flung oil muck on the LHS of the rear, grippy enough.

I'd generally stick to motorways on the bike, but in -12 weather, 120 was no problem. A little more careful on the country lanes, after binning on ice November 2014.

With a car now, not a care would be given for a bit of snow.

Street tyres, roadbike, snow and ice. feck that... I tried that years ago and went on my ear with a audience going down a mainstreet when it swapped ends suddenly & I decided that keeping my good bike good would be better served with it sleeping warm in the shed & wrecking a more suitable winterbike.
The perfect combo for me seems to be a enduro with dirt bike geometry and suitable boots... Some motox 2 stroke is a bit lary in icy conditions so smoother delivery of a 4 stroke but with a weight penalty...

The only bad bit about this sp400 is its a bit heavy when its really icy to dab back upright & the rear is a intermediate that I keep meaning to change, but have been too tight to take off before its worn out properly. A twinshock xl125 is even more perfect in these conditions. I had a dodgy job once where we checked up on and took food supplies up to security in remote compounds in wales and we took a transit, got as near as we could in it, and we got the bike out the back & I finished the job on my xl125 with a box bungied on the pillion with stuff for the poor sod in question. Quick warm up in their cabin and a brew, then head back to the van for the next drop.
Good money and fun, but looking back now, I'd have been proper fubar if anything had gone wrong on that last leg...

 

[bricol]

I imagine when the 101FC is on the road finally, I'll take it out in snow for a play and they'll be looking for the mountain logo on the tyres, which are military bar grips. In fact only one of them even has a date code. At which point I'll produce a set of snow socks several sizes too small just to fob them off with. The bar grips will probably live up to their reputation and do everything bar grip, never driven it in snow to find out yet...

I suspect you will be right.

Some years ago I really upset two guys in a LWB Land Rover pickup on bar grips by over taking them in a lot of snow in my Italian batchback on winter tyres (and drive to at least three wheels (front diff was free)) and bug gering off. A mile or two later, in the 20 limit down a steep hill, I was behind someone inching down, so I kept a sensible distance . . . after a little while, cue two idiots in a LWB Land Rover up my chuff with lights a-flashing and horn a-tooting.

Inching person turns off, I continue, complete with two idiots behind . . . I turn off to the right, up hill and away I go . . watching in the mirror the aforementioned LR slide straight into, up and over the kerb on the outside of the turn, I guess ending up in the school wall.

 

[bricol]

Thing with winter tyres, they do age - a few years old and they aren't as good as when new. Mine stay in the cool and dry most of the year in the pit in the garage. When they get down to say 5mm of tread depth, I flog them on.

With the Lancia, it used to take me a little while to become acclimatised to "normal" tyres after taking them off. Never noticed the extra squirm and distortion when I stuck the winters on, but really noticed the instant response from the Michelin Pilots I put back on - turning immediately and the full amount of turn I input - had to stop turning a little earlier and more than I needed to compensate for the movement in the winters with deeper, softer, more flexible tread.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I usually get snowed in once a year because I live out in the sticks, but its been a couple of years since we had it bad enough to fret as I work from a home office anyway so as long as we have power,water and wood its ok, and then my (pre defender) 90 came to the fore, no chains or socks just narrow tall AT biased tyres and awd and a farm jack and waffle boards if I cocked it up too bad. I've never had the police question my lack of chains or socks either. I remember one year we got snowed in for a week, and after a week needed petfood and some other bits and bobs so we went a localish large supermarket about 40km away via the backroads, staying clear of well travelled routes and on virgin snow where possible as the busier roads would have been turned to slush then refroze. We were the only vehicle in the car park apart from a tractor, and as we pulled up, this farmer and his family came out the store, put the shopping in the front loader bucket, and they all piled into the cab for the journey home.
I'll probably pick up chains or cheaps ocks when the 90 is back on the road just to comply with the box ticking in case I encounter a idiot policier and they can live down behind the drivers seat with all the other crap I never use.

I imagine when the 101FC is on the road finally, I'll take it out in snow for a play and they'll be looking for the mountain logo on the tyres, which are military bar grips. In fact only one of them even has a date code. At which point I'll produce a set of snow socks several sizes too small just to fob them off with. The bar grips will probably live up to their reputation and do everything bar grip, never driven it in snow to find out yet...

Good luck! Bar grips are possibly the worst things I’ve ever driven on, apart from in mud. Damp tarmac? Slide. Ice? Slide. A single wet leaf on the road? Slide. I’ve got Michelin XML on the 6x6 Volvo, but I’ve also got a stack of snow chains to go in the side lockers as I’m under no illusions they’re any good at all on snow.

 

[Robotstar5]

Good luck! Bar grips are possibly the worst things I’ve ever driven on, apart from in mud. Damp tarmac? Slide. Ice? Slide. A single wet leaf on the road? Slide. I’ve got Michelin XML on the 6x6 Volvo, but I’ve also got a stack of snow chains to go in the side lockers as I’m under no illusions they’re any good at all on snow.

The Onspot system looks good, but probably too expensive for the private user.