Thursday, December 20

tire chains

http://www.mtnbikeriders.com/2007/02/13/diy-tire-chains/

Though I've been riding on the snow packed cement trails fairly well, I decided to put chains on mary for some added traction.




Had some issues with clearance on the chain stay on the first extended ride. I removed the offending chains as a quick fix. Need 50mm wide tire instead of the 58 weirwolf.

Traction increase is really noticiable. Tread vibration and noise is also really noticiable without snow but not much different than a studded tire.

I'm not looking for gravel, I'm looking for snow and ice on the plowed cement trails, and Tranquility singletrack when I have the strength to pedal through the snow. I'm even riding sidewalks instead of bare streets. The chains make snow riding really fun.

With only 8 or so miles on them, the long term experience still needs to be formed.

I used #14 black jack chain, 10 links per strip rear. Front has 9. Probably 8 would have been enough. I'd count the links, pry open the next link with snips. Removed the pried link and then count the next strip. 9' of chain per tire is enough. Placed them everyother spoke gap (16 per tire). The second tire took an hour to cut the chain and install. 43 cents per foot for the chain. Black zip ties would have look better but white was available.

4 comments:

RF said...

so dale with your new contraption you get to call out where we'll have tnr tonight. where's it gonna be?

RF said...

too late. ypou've been trumped by those of us without chains. hardcore harlan is coming to town.

dale said...

I'm still having some chainstay clearance problems I need to debug. Going to try shorter chain length and twisting them.

RF said...

fix it soon and come ride with us.