Studded Shoes

Riding with studded tires is great. You get traction on ice and you are able to ride in conditions you normally wouldn't be able to ride in. They work so well that when you stop on ice and put your foot down, you are astonished when your feet don't have the same traction.

I've been thinking about ways to solve this problem for more than a year. I've thought about using one of the many traction attachments (Stabilicers, YakTrax) and trimming them to leave the pedal cleat exposed. Just from looking at the pictures of the traction attachments, I didn't think they would hold up if I started cutting them apart. Eventually, I decided that there wasn't a good solution.

Yesterday, I became more motivated. I was riding along a trail and encountered a difficult section of mud, water, ice and frozen leaves. The trail was lined with ice and I was looking for a good place to put my put down. I found a spot, unclipped and when I put my foot down, I fell faster than I thought possible. I had found a small patch of clear ice that was thin enough to see through to the leaves.

After work, I started looking at a pair of Stabilicers that I already owned. These have replaceable cleats, so I took one out to see what it looked like. These are essentially screws with a head designed to grip well on ice. I removed a few of the cleats and screwed them into the rubber sole of my mountain bike shoes. I experimented with the placement of the cleats and made sure I could still clip into my pedals. I ended up with three on the outside edge of the shoe and two on the heel.

This morning, I gave these a try and though the weren't perfect, they worked pretty well. I just needed to be aware that there was no traction on the inside edge of the shoe. I'll experiment some more to see if I can get better coverage.

A bit of advice - don't walk inside with the studded shoes on.