These just arrived and I’m trying to decide if I should run them with or without tubes. I hope they will last a couple/ few winters. What’s everyone else running in their studded tires?
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For max performance you’ll want to run them at a relatively low pressure, so in theory tubeless would be better.
Having said that, I run mine with tubes and have never pinch flatted. Probably because in the winter I’m not riding as aggressive or on terrain that’s as rough. Also I don’t want to have to deal with the sealant should all the snow and ice melt away and I want to swap back and forth between studs and no studs, which I’ve already done a couple times this winter.
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Good question, how does sealant hold up to sub-zero temperatures?
(I use tubes with mine, they work great.)
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I run both my fatty and trail bike tubeless. Much better performance/lighter weight.
But, if I was planning to swap back to regular non-studded tires, I probably wouldn’t bother because the sealant is so messy. I have yet to have an issue with it in sub zero temps, but I’d rather just deal with it when putting on new tires, not doing a swap.
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Obviously the solution to avoid mess and save money on sealant is to buy a second set of wheels…
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Thats a lot of tire changes to not have to make before you make up the cost of sealant. Mind you normal wheel sets are much much cheaper then a second fat bike wheel set like I would need 
I ended up going tubeless. These tires are extremely tight on my rims and I couldn’t get them on by hand with the tube in there.( note to self: buy metal tire levers for the trail, plastic ones are useless) Wearing gloves to protect my hands from the studs probably didn’t help either.
Now patiently waiting for everything to freeze again.
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Especially at -10c.
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I just mounted a set of Ice Spikers. They were really hard to get on for me as well. I ran tubes in mine.
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Just finished my first ride with these. They greatly exceeded my expectations.
If you’re on the fence about studs, don’t be!
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Pretty shocking how effective they are isn’t it?
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Agreed, worth every penny. Riding ice is a whole other level of stoke.
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I bought my ice spikers last year, and they turned up just as the last snow fell
Thrown them onto the XC bike today, tubeless & used my metal XL tire lever…
WOW, quick test ride up my back yard which is slick ice all the way down… The grip was like riding on granite
Can’t wait to get out and use them in anger!
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@m0rk, take note that ideally they’re supposed to be run 40km on pavement without hard braking to bed the studs in before using them hard.
They are pretty freaky. You can ride stuff that’s not possible to walk. In some sections you’re kind of committed because if you were to stop you wouldn’t have any traction to stand.
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Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll get out and get some loops round the block done this week to make sure I can get out this weekend