Studded tires are brand new for Maxxis, but they’re rolling into the category with a three-pronged approach to icy, winter riding. Offering versions for fat bikes, mountain bikes and city commuter bicycles, the designs provide a user friendly option to screwing your own studs in or risking slipping and sliding all over the place…
The stud heights have a 1.1-1.2mm protrusion beyond the tread blocks, which they found to be optimal. The bottom of the studs have a mushroom shape, and they’re pressed into molded cavities in the tread body, so once they’re in they’re unlikely to come out, but they’re also easy to replace and don’t puncture the tire’s casing. Concave stud tips put a ring shape on the ground rather than a point.
The skinniest of the three is the 700×40 wire bead Max Ice. It’s a tube-type, 60tpi construction with single compound rubber.
It gets Silk Shield bead to bead puncture protection and a heavily siped knob pattern and winter rubber compound to help it remain supple and grippy at sub-freezing temps.
The 29×2.1 Maxxis Matterhorn is a totally new mountain bike tread pattern for them. It uses the same studs and cold weather rubber and siped tread blocks as the Max-Ice, but it’s made for trail riding on ice and any 29er commuter type bike. It’s a 60tpi, tubeless ready casing with a folding bead.
The biggest of the bunch is the 26×4.8 Moosetrak. Not only does it add a studded fat bike tire to their lineup, it gives Maxxis a paddle tread design to help drive you forward in both snow and ice. It’s a folding bead, 120tpi, tubeless ready casing with a dual winter rubber compound.
They’re designed around a 95mm internal rim width. Look for them to be available late fall or early winter. Weights and pricing on all three are TBD.
