At last, finally out on the trike again thanks to Schwalbe’s Winter Marathon tyres. I imagine many of us are going stir crazy in this weather, waiting for a thaw to avoid injury. Well, I couldn’t wait any longer!

I wasn’t sure what Santa had in store for me, so before the snow came I took the precaution of ordering some studded tyres for myself. It took a while for them to arrive – apparently they’re very much in demand at the moment – but eventually they did and this morning I spent a couple of hours fitting them.

They don’t come cheap, especially when you need three of ’em, but if the gulf stream continues to go elsewhere at this time of the year they should be a good investment. Assuming they do the job that is.

They have a regular pattern of aluminium studs designed to cut into ice or hard packed snow. I’ve taken them for a spin on both and they really do work. One of the fun things with a trike is the ability to fling it around in the snow without falling off and I had a go at that last year. It’s great fun, but not very practical; hills for example can be impossible to get up, or suicide to go down.

Traction with the Winter Marathons isn’t perfect when on loose or slushy snow, but it’s still better than a standard tyre. What’s really impressive is the trike goes exactly where you want it too on ice, with no slipping of the driving wheel either.

When you do get onto some clear tarmac though you’d think you were on a gravel path what with the noise the studs make. In fact it’s recommended to run the tyres at the maximum pressure of 5 bar when in normal conditions to prevent premature wear of the studs, dropping to a lower pressure (minimum 2 bar in this case) when it’s icy.

So they get a big thumbs up from me, and I’m looking forward to going for a longer run tomorrow when the roads are quieter. Merry Christmas folks 😮