Studs won’t make any difference in deep snow
And don’t believe anyone who says different! In deep snow the issue is about floatation, which is dictated in turn by the size of the footprint your tyres present. Look for wide mud tyres with wide spaced lugs that won’t pack out with snow. Floatation is further enhanced by running a low tyre pressure in the (experts suggest you can get as low as 10-15 PSI), which allows them to flatten out, and the use of wide rims (but more of that later). Tyres will tend to creep around the rim at low pressures, and some people suggest glueing the tyre to the rim, but remember, only glue one side and remember which one you glued!

If you are never likely to encounter ice on your rides, then there is no real need to consider studs at all.

Our Own Views

We had great fun putting the Nokian WXC300 and Ground and Mount, and the Schwalbe Ice Spiker tyres through their paces in the French Alps through the winter seasons. Our regular set-up was on Avro snow rims (4 cm wide and no longer available), but we also did some riding on standard Mavic 317 rims for comparison. We found that the wider rims gave a marked improvement in floatation, though there were of course times when neither set-up, or indeed both, sank into the snow.

Our thoughts:

NOKIAN Ground and Mount
This is basically a studded commuting tyre with a road tread, and it would be unfair to expect much in the way of off-road performance. Having said that, we were pleasantly surprised about just how far we got with these tyres. Certainly, where the tracks were flat hard packed snow or ice, we found them fairly grippy, although there was some tendency to break away on climbs. The tyres are narrow at 1.9, but when used in conjunction with the wide rims they spread to give reasonable floatation. Despite this, in deeper snow the tread pattern was just not up to the task and in these conditions they became very sketchy.
Verdict: a great commuting tyre that at a push will handle some basic off-road snowbiking

SCHWALBE Ice Spiker
These tyres are something of a hybrid of the others tested, with flat-headed studs similar to the Ground and Mount, and a tread pattern similar to the WXC300, and though not without their problems, they worked out to be pretty good in the conditions we experienced. The tread-pattern worked relatively well in looser snow, and we noted neither stud loss nor marked stud wear. However, we purposely kept the time spent on bare tarmac to a minimum, so the issue of stud durability has not been fully addressed. One problem with these tyres was the running pressure. In general snowbiking terms, the lower the pressure the greater the floatation over snow, and it has been suggested that it can be taken as low as 10 PSI for maximum effect. The sidewalls of the Ice Spikers display a “minimum 30 PSI” marking and it would appear to be sensible to heed the warning; we ran ours at a much lower pressure, and after only a few rides there was evidence of considerable sidewall damage.

NOKIAN WXC300
These are similar in tread to the Ice Spiker, but the similarities probably end there. The folding format means they are much lighter than the other wire-beaded tyres above, and the studs come to a slightly menacing point. Impressively, after a winters riding, and despite the fact that the aluminium carriages looked a bit battered, the hardened steel studs themselves were still pointy! There was no evidence of sidewall damage despite running at similar pressures to the Ice Spikers, and no stud losses occurred over the winter, although one was lost during the run-in period.
Verdict: The definitive cross-country snow tyre. “Reassuringly expensive” as the old beer advert had it, and worth every penny. Probably.