I find myself looking at the trails around my neighborhood and wondering about riding my MTB on them this winter. It’s a 29’er with 2.4” Wicked Wills on it.
Would I need spiked tires? Is this kind of riding the sole domain of a fat bike?
Am I just asking to wipe out a bunch?
Rob you’ll probably get a bunch of opinions on this but here is mine. If the trails are packed down hard you should be able to ride on 2.4s if they are studded. Personally I would not go anywhere in the winter without studs. If there is new snow you will probably struggle even with studs. I had a Trek Stache a few years ago with 3” tires unstudded. I road it a few times and really struggled with handling. Sold it and got my Fatbike. I can’t think of any one in the club that does our Fatbike rides who doesn’t have studded tires. Bottom line if you are going to ride it in the snow get studded tires.
I’ve ridden the occasional hydrocut ride on my MTB with studded 2.2 tires over the past few years. In perfect conditions they work quite well. But perfect conditions means hard packed snow that isn’t too deep with wide trails. But if you drift off the trails the bike immediately sinks in which can make for a frustrating ride. New snow isn’t really rideable.
Walking trails can be okay but only after they’ve been packed-in for a while.
I have also ridden without studs which was okay most of the time. But all it takes is one small patch of ice and you’ll be sideways on the ground. It is a bit shocking how quickly you fall when slipping on ice 
I actually have a set of brand new Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro 29 2.2" (foldable) that I was considering selling, but they are pretty expensive. I also have 1 used set that is uninstalled that I probably won’t be using if you wanted to install and try them for a weekend or two.
Having said that, I’m also waiting for my new fat bike to come in!
@HappyOne One way to find out !!!
Kidding aside, we were on a very long, cold, windy, dark FatBike ride last night. 30km took us almost 3 hours from 6-9pm in blowing snow.
It was glorious. Floating on / through the snow. LOADS of ice. Definitely cold. And I fell twice with over 260 spikes in my tires.
But we joked at an old picture from the same time a few years ago. I was on my old Jake The Snake with 32mm slick tires in 3 feet of snow. Fell 13 times that night. That’s all we ever had to cycle through the winter for a decade.
What am I saying here? It’s not about a Rule#5, HardPerson attitude. If you grew up as a winter sports enthusiast. A skier. Loved tobogganing or playing hockey on a outdoor lake rink until your toes froze. Someone who joined the club to be outdoors. Someone who walks your dog on the icy sidewalk? You’re gonna wipe out. Alot. And be cold. And as I get older…that is a real concern !!!
But as I laid in the snow last night after falling off my Fatbike (for the second time) in the deep snow and ice…in the middle of a forest.
There was nothing by smiles and joy.
And all I can think about is getting back out this Saturday to play in the snow.
A.
P.S. I Zwift alot and ride the track at the velodrome in the winter. And that is unbelivabley GREAT. But it’s not the same as being outside with your friends once or twice a week. You should be able to do it all. It’s just winter.
P.S.S. Lower your PSI to a crazy low level. We ride fat bikes around 4-8 psi for the grip and cush. For MTB…18-20 psi ? And sure…cheap MTB Ice Spikers are a game changer, so if @KevinGoertz is offering I’d take him up on it. I road my Salsa Cutthroat with ICE Spikers for a few years and it was good…but always a struggle to keep it on the centre line of the hard pack snow on trails and found myself endlessly slipping into the deep snow and bailing. All that changed with the purchase of a Rocky Mountain Fatty from King Street last year.
I dare say. That Fatbike is possibly at the top of my 11 bike stable right now.
And here’s is Alain assessing the damage after one of his crashes. He makes very large sideways snow angels!
So true Alain, I started riding in the winter on my cx bike.
I remember when I first met @Robert Haskett We rode on skinny tires on pure ice.
but now I ride my fat bike with studded tires. I became soft 
Ana-Maria
To echo what others have said.
A hardtail will work in lots of conditions, pretty much all but deep snow and we don’t get a lot of that around here. How well it works often depends on rider skill and confidence.
Studs are worth their weight in gold, I’d certainly invest in some if you want to ride outside! We are in a freeze thaw location, when a bike slips on ice its instantaneous, and usually the ground is hard. @Francqlife crashes on Wednesday were because the snow was deep, those are usually painless.
I was dead set against fat bikes, if there is snow I’m skiing, otherwise just ride the gravel, I’ve spent a lot to get faster bikes… But as I said on Wednesday we were so dumb. Saturday there wasn’t much snow but the slow role of the fatbike gave both more grip but also more protection from wind chill.
Back to the studs, I fell walking after the ride on Wednesday and hit my head on the road and am enjoying minor concussion symptoms. Not once did I slip on the bike unless it was deep snow and hitting your head in a foot of snow is pretty harmless.
Oh man @AnaMariaBogatan , I remember that ride! It was crazy cold and super windy and we struggled to find a good line on the gravels that wasn’t just ice, but it was an awesome ride regardless! But yeah, now, all the bikes have studded tires and I wouldn’t go back, southern ontario winters are just so crappy with the freeze thaw cycle that any riding around the city is deadly without them. You can get away on the gravels without studs sometimes, but that depends on the weather/ice accumulation.
All the city trails get pretty well tracked and post-holed by the walkers, if you’re lucky, it’s a high traffic trail and gets packed well and not too lumpy, but otherwise, expect to get bucked around a lot on a skinny tire and like others have said, if you can’t ride a 6-8" skinny track for 20kms you’re gonna have a bad time when you touch the soft edges. Fatty’s are so much more forgiving and if you have the legs you’ll be amazed at where you can go with them. If you’re near the singletrack down along the grand river at the bottom of Wooler Trail, that’s ridable on just about anything 'cause Gooder and I have packed it to a perfect ribbon, lol.
Thanks to all for sharing. @KevinGoertz I may take you up on your kind offer.
Looking at studded tires I am a bit in shock with just how expensive they are 
but I think the bigger thing still holding me back is the wiping out part. As a bigger and older chap, falling can create some more significant injuries than if I were younger and smaller. I made it 57 years without ever breaking anything and in the last three years I have broken my elbow, ribs (several and more than once) and most recently my arm up by the shoulder - and all from falling off a bike. I think I have enough pins and plates in my right arm now that I might set off a metal detector. I still love to ride and will continue to do so but I need to be more careful going forward.
Maybe falling in the snow doesn’t hurt like on the pavement 
It does look like fun…
Not to take the fun out of it, but with multiple fractures, consider asking your doctor for a bone density test. My results were surprisingly low.
It’s a good suggestion Johnny. I’ll ask when I go for my post fracture follow up.
