Ice-tyres can help you to ride your bicycle with complete confidence, even on heavily snow-covered tracks. Making these customized wheels does not require any specific professional help either. In what follows, readers will be familiarized with the basic ideas to prepare reliable and high-performance ice-tyres.
It has been a severely cold winter, and all the roads in your locality are covered with thick layers of snow. Does that mean you have to stop cycling, until spring arrives? Absolutely not! You can make the ordinary tyres of your bicycle into effective ‘ice-tyres’ – which are ideal for slippery, snow-covered roads. A little bit of imagination, and access to the necessary tools, is all that you need to make such ‘ice-tyres’. Over here, we will provide a brief rundown about how you should go about preparing such safe and reliable bicycle wheels:
- Gather all the necessary supplies – Screws, drilling machines, duct tapes and cable ties are some of the key items that you will require to make these tyres.
- Use a knob to drill through the tire – At the very outset, you need to determine the central point of the bicycle tyre (after removing it from the rim). Next, use the drilling machine to drill a knob into the wheel. Make sure that the area and depth of the portion drilled is not very large. You can consult a professional tyre maker for help on this count.
- Put in the screw – The knob has to be kept steady inside the drilled area, with sharp, rust-free screws. You need to take extra care to ensure that the screws are being driven in at a precise right angle to the circumference of the wheel. Any error at this stage can result in diminished tyre-performance on the snowy roads.
- Use cable ties and clips – Once the drilling has been properly done, you have to put the ‘ice-tyre’ back on to its rim. How can you do it? With cable ties! That’s right – these small and inexpensive wire maintenance tools come in handy in managing bicycle wheels too. You should use around fifteen to twenty zip ties to bind the tyres to the rims, to make sure that the former do not fall off. If required, use steel or iron clips to make the bind stronger.
- Check the traction levels of the ice-tyres – Next, you need to find out what the traction level of your newly-made ice-tyres is. Roll them along a snow-covered road, to see whether they are providing the requisite degree of stability, smoothness and braking options. If you feel that the tyre traction has to be increased, simply use a few more cable ties. That should do the trick!
- Protect the tube of the tires – If you are not using tubeless tyres on your bicycle (which, in any case, are not suitable for cycling in the snow) – you need to take due care of the tyre tubes. Attach durable duct tapes on the internal section of the wheels, which would protect the tubes, as well as the screws that you had drilled in. The tubes should be pointed inwards. Ideally, use 2/3 layers of tape, for that additional amount of safety.
- Show off your creativity – Yes, performance and reliability should be your two prime concerns while making ice-tyres, but that does not mean that you cannot lend a dash of visual charm to your bicycle wheels. Select cable ties of different colors, to make the tyres look vibrant and lively. You can also choose shaded rims and spokes.
None of the tools required to create ice-tyres bear high price tags. The procedure of making the wheels fit for snow-riding is also pretty simple. Follow the above tips to prepare sturdy, lasting ice-tyres – and step out with your bicycle in the snow with confidence!