Pop Rivet Ice Tires for Your Road Bike

With the recent storms hitting the northwest there are a lot of bikers piling on the bus or even driving! Though you can order expensive European-made studded ice tires, you can also modify your own cross tires into effective ice tires with just a few dollars' worth of rivets. These tires will keep you upright on hard packed snow and glare ice.

There are other methods for DIY ice tires (like sheet metal screws in mountain bike tires), but these ones made with pop rivets are elegant and suited to narrower tires used on hybrid/cross/touring bikes.

Step 1 What you need

A rivet tool.

An awl, or sharp poking thing (not a drill or blade).

A knife if you want to slice off tread blocks (not pictured)

Some steel pop rivets, long enough to reach through the washer and tread. The ones I used were 1/8" capacity, for a pretty ordinary cross tire. If you have very deep tread or puncture resistance layers in your tire you might need longer ones. I wound up using 33 rivets in my rear tire and 90 in the front.

Washers just big enough to fit over the rivet body--some are usually sold alongside the rivets.

Some cyclocross tires (not pictured) -- I got some off the used rack at my local bike shop. You want tires with some good tread to propel you in snow -- the rivets will help with ice and strong hardpack..

Comments

[trf]

An idea for you.. Maybe a little bit of that Slime stuff would be a good addition. It would certainly seal any small holes that leak around the rivet up I bet. Just an idea!

[bwrussell]

that would only be necessary with a tubeless tire like on cars. Most bike tire still have an inner tube that holds the air.

[Jojo Leadbetter]

Update: Have done a few test rides on pavement, dirt and on an ice (a frozen pond) and here are a few thoughts. 1) These work AWESOME on ice. Rode on a frozen pond for an hour without even slipping once. Great traction, it felt like riding on packed limestone. 2) These are wobbly and weird on pavement when descending at speed, and overall lousy on clear pavement. 3) I lost a few of the washers, but it has made no difference as far as traction. Actually, without the washers the tires look more like store-bought studded tires. 4) No flats (knock on wood)! The main thing is that riding on frozen ponds, lakes and streams is amazingly fun, stable, and just plain rad. I had a sh*t-eatin' grin on my face zipping around that pond. Of course, take your speed at 70% tops, and take her easy on turns, but overall not too different from normal traction. Thanks again for the clever instructable.

[Jojo Leadbetter]

Hi, thanks for the idea. I just finished the rear tire and I'm halfway done with the front. It is time-consuming, but a fun project. I used 43 rivets in the rear, and will have 80 something up front.
Testing out the rear, I would recommend some strips of duct tape lining on the inside for a few of the uglier rivets. Some rivets leave a tiny sharp end on the inside, but most are flush and are causing no problem.
I live in Maine and we have a few months of icy roads ahead. I ride on dirt roads often, and ice is particularly bad on those. This project appealed to me because I saved a ton of cash compared to buying new studded tires, plus I had some of these materials laying around, and cross tires I never used much.
I took a nasty spill on ice last winter while going very slow, so I hope these help. I'll try to remember to post a follow-up after I use them for a while. Great idea. Cheers!

[SG1Oniell]

The way I was tought to do it(by my barber, a life-long cyclist) is to take quarter inch sheet metal screws and screw them into the tread at regular intervals, line the inside of the tire with duct tape just in case the screws rub against the interior, and slightly overinflate the tire before use. I later was inspired by the idea to take an old pair of work boots and screw some quarter inch sheet metal screws into the tread, making them pretty effective for gripping on ice, or any sort of slippery substance that can get spilled on the ground at work. Just don't forget to take them off before walking on any sort of wood floor, or any other material that could be easily damaged.

[abbazaba]

I just finished this procedure on a pair of 26x2" MTB tires and they work great.

Predrilled all the holes with a 7/32" drill from the outside of the tire. I found that if I didn't predrill, pushing the rivet from the inside of the tire could rip the nub on the outside.

At first I didn't line the inside of the tire with another tube, and instantly got a flat... now both tires are lined with old tubes. Problem solved. These are loud on the road. Took it out on a pond and the grip was surprisingly good.

Overall the task was quicker and easier than I though, and the result really is quite good... But it'll be amazing if anyone actually reads this post by making it past all the flaming comments about how someone reading a dedicated DIY site should just buy studded tires.

[origamimavin]

i like this idea a lot. i have a beater bike i've been wanting to use, so maybe i can try this on it. i dont have a rivet gun, but i can figure something out. well done.

[waterppk]

You won't find one cheaper :-) They probably have a local store if you live near any big cities so you don't have to mail order it.

[smokehill]

A word of advice on cheap pop-riveters, since I've owned dozens over the years -- buy the best you can afford, and ONLY ones with a brand name you know (Bostitch, Arrow, Swingline, Craftsman, Stanley etc). If you decide to go cheap figuring it's a one-time use, then at least buy somewhere locally and MAKE SURE YOU CAN RETURN IT if it doesn't work after ten rivets. I'd never buy one via internet or the mail, since the aggravation and cost of mailing back a bad one is silly for something this cheap. In one of my businesses, we put together portable toilets, with about a hundred pop-rivets in each them. I started with a cheapie riveter that actually worked great until I lost it. The next few cheapies (Chinese or Korean) were awful -- either the rivets got jammed every 3rd or 4th one and took forever to clear out, or the cheap steel inside wouldn't pull hard enough to set the rivet. Eventually I bought an air-riveter, but my drivers usually carry hand-rivet tools for repairs on the road. Sometimes, though, they;ve had to just go buy one because it was faster than cheaper than going back to the yard. Over half the cheapies they bought (sometimes that's all that were available) ended up in the trashcan the same day. One warning, though -- KEEP YOUR RECEIPT! Occasionally, even one of the name-brand ones will give you problems, and you need to make sure you can conveniently return the thing. A good-working riveter is a marvelous thing to own; one that's got quirks and problems will make you insane. You can, though, usually get by with some junky, cheapie rivets themselves, as long as you have a good rivet TOOL. You'll also find that the "backup washers" they sell for most rivets (very handy in plastic materials) are grossly overpriced, and you can just buy the same size washer in bulk for a fraction of the price. Pop-rivets are so neat and handy that it really isn't worth p***ing yourself off at them by starting with a junk riveter when most people, even kids, blow the price of a decent tool in a day goofing around at the mall. A good one will last most people for a lifetime, and you'll be amazed at how many useful fixes you can do with them, especially after you discover all the neat, oddball specialty rivets available -- not usually at your local store, but readily available on the internet. They have brass, steel, aluminum, stainless ... threaded ones, etc. And if you see one at a yard or garage sale ... test it first. Even a good one can eventually wear out, though it takes quite a lot to do that. If you get seriously into Pop-riveting, there is a step up from the usual name brands, one that's made primarily for industrial use, like on aircraft. Most of those are put together with air tools, but apparently they still use hand-tools on occasion. Most are made by one company whose name I forget, but the really upscale tool distributors like SnapOn and MAC carry them with their own name on them. They can run 40-60 bucks, but if you sometimes spend an hour putting in rivets, or use the heavy steel rivets, they're well worth the upgrade. So much for pop-rivets ... As far as whether it is appropriate to urge people, on Instructables, to go buy something rather than build it ... I have no problem with that, and I'm one of the cheapest guys around, and would usually much rather spend a couple of hours making something that satisfies me even if I could buy something similar for twenty bucks. And I'd never lower myself to work for ten bucks an hour ... it's just the satisfaction, along with saving a few cents. Not being a bike rider anymore, I don't know whether it's really safer to buy the factory tire with all those traction rivets, but i think those that point this out ARE making a valid point. There's nothing wrong with fiddling about and trying to put rivets in a regular tire as long as you realize it's a risk, and probably not nearly as good (also read: "SAFE") as something made for the job. I think that's all the "Buy It In A Store" guys were trying to say, and I respect their opinion. I've made my own tire chains for tractors and lawn mowers, by cutting down used car-tire chains, which work fine -- but I'm not risking them at speeds where I could get injured, either, if they failed. Considering the speed some of these bikes go at, this is a very valid point, I believe. Some things you can make for yourself, but a little warning light should be blinking at the back of your brain. I've made explosives to clear stumps, and homemade firearms & fireworks just for fun. But we have to realize our limitations, and act accordingly. The 12-gauge made from gas pipe works -- but i wouldn't depend on it for self-defense against a burglar. And if I made a home-made studded bike tire, I'd first be testing it on some very safe courses at some appropriately LOW speeds, with no dangerous obstacles. Just my two cents.

[Lokisgodhi]

I'm old enough that I remember when if you bought something more expensive it meant it was better.  Also when a brand name meant something. 

Now these things don't seem to matter. Companies lease out their name for products made by someone else or slap their name on something made in China for the lowest possible price.

I think you're right about buying something local that has a good return policy. That's probably the best way to go.

 

[waterppk]

I've got one of these riveters and I know it works great, however, I absolutely agree with you about cheap tools. My particular case is that I'm in college and moving every 12 months, so if I were to buy nice tools ($30 versus $6) and lose it when I was moving it would suck. When I graduate, have my own house and know I'm not going anywhere, and then my cheapie breaks I'll probably replace it, but for $6 including rivets. . . I'm not sure you can beat that price when you consider that even the expensive riveter will only last X years before you lose it, break it or loan it to a friend. The other reason for going to the physical Harbor Freight store is that you can look at/try things out and see if they suck or not - ASK the people who work there, they're always helpful at my store and point me towards the stuff that works, they're never afraid to say that some is bad or they they get lots of returns. The other cool thing is that every store carries absolutely everything they have on the web, when you walk around and realize that you can load an entire cart full of tools for $50 that would cost you $500 anywhere else, then take them all home, misuse, destroy, loan, cut in half all of them and not even feel bad at the end of the day :-) Finally, my $0.02 - don't kill yourself on your homemade tires riding down hills at 40 mph, however, if nobody ever tried anything different where would we ever come up with new products? I would put a lot of money down that the first pair of studded tires looked remarkably similar to the these, and if nobody ever built and tested the first pair you wouldn't have carbide impregnated expensive ones to buy today!

[smokehill]

Yes, I know what you mean about cheap tools, and I do have some cheapie stuff mixed in with my Snap-On and other screaming high-price tools. Normally, if it's something for light or occasional use, I'll spring for Harbor Freight every time. That's where I got my 60-dollar air riveter, and it has been a remarkably tough tool for ten years now. The cheapie hand-riveters, for some reason, seem to be really hard for the third world to get right. However, if a Harbor Freight is close by, give it a try, but keep in mind how much it costs in gas if you have to return it, as opposed to just paying ($18) for an Arrow or Bostitch one time. Also, remember that you'd need to get the steel rivets separately somewhere, since the ones that come with the Chinese Cheapie are going to be aluminum, probably, and wear off almost instantly. I know what you mean about moving around and losing tools. When I was in the Army, I finally just bought a locking toolbox and KEPT it locked. The guys that were insulted were most likely the ones that would have failed to return tools anyhow. I was talking with one of my drivers today about these hand riveters and we sort of agreed that most of the cheapies we tried would fail before you reached 50 rivets, on average, sometimes less. He figured that if it got five or six rivets for one "remote fix" on the road it was still worth it to US ... but probably not for most people. That's why I try to discourage people from those entirely. Tools that fail when they are still shiny really bug me badly. I have no problem with experimenting with rivets in bike tires -- I just hope that whomever tries it uses their head and approaches it with safety in mind. You can make progress and still be careful, after all, rather than just slamming straight down the steepest, iciest hill available for the first test!

[origamimavin]

oh, wow. i didn't know they were that cheap. probably a good thing to have anyways for projects. there's a harbor freight about a half hour from where i am.

[Bardouv]

I might be completely misunderstanding physics here, but are those super awesome in mud?

[Wasagi]

 Woah, probably,!

[Funk_D]

Won't that pop the tires though? I'm afraid I don't understand how this works.

[Wasagi]

 So, there's two parts to the tire, the exterior rubber, which is rough and tough, and provides the traction, and the innertube, which is weak, but keeps the tire inflated. This only punctures the outer part and helps to add grip, but doesn't puncture the innertube.

I hope I helped :)

[seandogue]

Wow, All I saw was the addie for this and it's all i need for me to say Wow..very cool. smart, clever, creative..ingenious... Now to read and dl the ible... ;) Simply brilliant idea.

[jeandeau]

A wide flange head type rivet may be more secure than the standard head rivet shown in the lead photo. I expect these would not pull out when locking the brakes on pavement or such. second thought.. what about using heavy green package strapping as an inside reinforcement. I refer to the plastic replacement for 3/4 inch wide steel banding used for binding lumber shipments together and dicarded at your local lumber store. that plastic banding is a versatile product in my experience and it's free. .

[baggot]

they already make the equivalent to what you are trying to do but its made out of 1/8th rubber to line your tires to prevent thorns etc. from poking your tubes. The strap would wear away the inner tube causing a failure.

[murraybula]

I have rode my bike in the winter for the last 16 years. If you are buying studded tires I have heard the tungsten carbide ones are the best and will last for usually 3 seasons. I have a pair of Nokians on order, a lower cost version with not as many studs. The really good ones with lots of studs were $120 Canadian a tire which was above my current budget. The cheap studded tires I had years ago had non carbide studs and didn't last, and didn't really do much. The best traction I have had so far is with home made studded tires using mountain bike tires, and using round head screws from the inside, through the tire knob. Put in tons (ever knob for best traction), then cut them off with a small angle grinder with a metal cutting blade about 3/16 of and inch above the tire knobs. Cut an old tube apart and use as a liner between the tube and the screw heads to prevent flats. With lots of screws these offer incredible traction when they are ran only on snow and ice. Pavement wears them down fairly quickly, but the screws can be replaced. When I have more money I try a pair of the gnarly Nokians and see how good they are. A good quality tungsten carbide stud should work well when travelling on ice and pavement. From my experience riding a bike in the winter is perfectly safe, but requires one to avoid hard braking, and sharp corners, and adjust according to the "slippery factor".

[GEAR]

Having serched for a good way to stud tires I would like to say that this is the best way to do roadbike crosscountry tires... so I tried it. I put in 43 per side for a total of 86 per tire. They make tires look so cool. Thank you for your instructable. Notes: The idea of cutting down the tred is a very good one, this keeps the backup washer down below or flush with the other treds. Putting the rivet out where it needs to be. I have riden every day for about three weeks now and they have worked great. Two crashes before install, none since.

[ProfessorJWN]

Hi, That is an interesting idea using pop rivets rather than screws, on public streets screws tend to be "picked up" in other vehicles tires (bikes included). that said, this is an interesting application for rivets. one way to keep the rivet from pulling through might be a band of thin steel, aluminum, or even tough nylon or plastic inside the tire. This might give better lateral stability and keep the rivets in the tires contact patch more uniformly and reduce the bending of the "studs". Might really be interesting to combine this with the add on 2cycle or 4cycle weed whacker motor, adding a pulley to the wheel. If used like that, I would think that an application for the front wheel (pulling is usually easier than pushing in snow and ice). Probably easier to control as well. In any case, this is an original application for rivets, and I agree with other posters to get the best riveter you can afford (they even make compressed air powered ones) my father has a air powered one, and the rivets pull up uniform and very tight. A lot easier on the hands too. Good Job! Jim

[Thelemic_Potter]

Having wiped out on both ice and pavement, I'd prefer ice any day. Instead of coming to a sudden and friction filled stop upon impacting the pavement, you slide and dissipate energy over a longer distance, usually can get right back on your bike. If you are out biking in ice, you'll be wanting heavier layers of clothes anyways.

[instructables_user_4783]

Works well, I've studded my tires with 3/8" self drilling screws ( I used self drilling because they are hardened) it's great for ice.

[velojym]

Is that a Jake I see? (mine's a 2000 model, black n white, with glow-in-the-dark lettering) If I lived in an area that froze more, I'd sure give it a shot. Heck, I have enough Avex rivets, left over from my plane.

[Windhorst]

Brings me back to more foolish days when i had a set of tires for ice riding with sheet metal screws instead of rivets. Talk about dangerous, but oh so much traction!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[skok]

I rode motocross a bit in the 80's and I wish I woulda' thought about that. Those must be great in the dirt.

[tbuskey]

I did ice racing on motorcycles. Sheet metal (or ice race screws) with the points inside the tire. Just the head sticks out. We put another tire inside and used 1" screws. On the start on ice, you might spit out a screw. You had about 500 screws per tire. We tried trail riding with them too. In 1' of snow. They worked pretty well until you hit a log or anything other then snow. Then you spit out the screws. By then end of the ride your screws were gone. I've done the screws on bicycles too. You need to space them so you have rubber on pavement. The rivets look like an interesting idea but I'd wonder about wear. The screws could be easily replaced when they wore down. For everyone saying "Too dangerous, don't ride on ice" I bet you never did it. I rode bare tires on ice (bike & motorcycle). The racing even had a bare tire class. But you controlled your speed so you could make the turns & stop.

[Chico]

This is a nicely put together instructable and thanks for sharing! But I would caution most folks not to try these home-made studded tires because the consequences of wiping out on the ice could be tragic. I would stronly encourage folks to invest in a pair of good quality studded tires (they might last you many seasons). I personally vouch for the AWESOME quality of Nokian tires. I show a picture for comparison (of a mountain bike tire, but they make them for road/cyclo-cross bikes too), the huge number of studs will allow you to have an adequate number of studs in contact with the ice under various conditions. The ideal conditions for Nokian tires are perfect glare ice, as that keeps perfect contact. Bumpy ice is certainly more dangerous.

[zzyzx_xyzzy]

Certainly one needs to ride with caution -- I wouldn't ride (or drive) ANYTHING in frozen conditions without constantly considering and trying to minimize the consequences of losing control at any moment. Note that while a Nokian tire has many more studs, that the ones on a homemade job stick out further, which is six of one, half dozen of the other as far as keeping contact goes. On balance I would bet that the ones I make would do a poorer job at paved surfaces than a professionally made model.

[ac-dc]

No, it is not six of one, half dozen of the other. You fail to see the crucial difference, which is that with a properly designed tire you will always have at least two offset studs making contact at any one moment. With these, depending on the spacing and # of rivets the installer chooses, there can be moments when no studs are in contact with ice. That is an extremely significant difference. You aren't understanding the factors involved in traction on ice with a two wheeled vechicle, except going perfectly straight on a flat surface. Paved surfaces (without ice) are fairly irrelevant, you'll ruin either tire if riding around on pavement for more than a short stretch at a time on a trek that's otherwise mostly ice and snow. Granted, putting rivet studs in a tire may be a lot better than not having those studs, but at the same time it should not create a false sense of security and definitely not the impression they are as good as professionally engineered, TESTED PER THEIR PERFORMANCE(!!!!!) real snow/ice tires. There really is a reason they are different, it wasn't just a whim when they were designed and improved year over year.

[zzyzx_xyzzy]

When the studs stick out further, they are in contact with the surface over a greater angle of wheel rotation. Hence, the goal, as you set out, of having studs in contact with the surface at all times, is achievable. Your comment on Nokian tires' unsuitability for pavement operation is interesting. In fact Nokian specify that their tires are to be broken in by 30 miles of pavement running before ever being used on ice.

[ac-dc]

No, studs that stick out further are not in contact over a significantly larger angle of rotation because it is not assumed the studs fully penetrate the ice. That is, unless you space the studs very closely which is exactly what you should do for stability. It's stud spacing far more than length which matters. Breaking in and wearing out are two different things. That they are broken in shows what I mean, that it does put wear on them more than being on snow and ice does. 30 miles is not far at all for a bike tire so if that distance is enough to be considered a break-in length, that much wear over and over again will decrease the product effectiveness.

[zzyzx_xyzzy]

It is not assumed the the studs fully penetrate the ice, but that they are pushed into the soft, air-filled tire as it rolls over. The Nokian studs are designed so that the carbide center gets gradually pushed in to the surrounding insert as the tread wears. It is done that way because the carbide wears _slower_ than the rubber on paved surfaces.

[temp]

All these are "helpers". Not instant ice traction wheels. They HELP you get traction on snow and ice. Just because you have tires manufactured by a company doesn't mean they're better than any other tires. They all "HELP" get traction on ice and snow. Plus the homemade ones probably cost less.=)

[ac-dc]

I agree, none are foolproof BUT what I wrote still applies, that the important design factor for ice traction is to have more than one offset stud making contact at the same time. You could make your own with studs placed tighter together to achieve that too, it's up to everyone to make their own choice when doing it themselves - given more info they can make the best choice for their own needs.

[Phoghat]

I like your idea, but (and there's always a but) I checked out the Nokians and couldn't you do more or less the same thing with maybe a different sized rivet to go through the knobs on the tire like their's do?

[Chico]

Well, feel free to experiment with that. The advantage of the Nokians is that the rubber knobs are designed to nestle the studs just right. Maybe you can find a knobby tire with just the right knobs for the rivets. A caveat that I'm going to throw out there, the studs on the Nokians are really tough, I think they are a steel alloy, so you may want to use the hardest rivets you can find (perhaps aviation rivets??). Regular rivets might work, but may not be very durable.

[Spokehedz]

I also dislike the "Just go buy this!" mentality of people on this website. If we wanted to buy something, we would. We know all about buying stuff. Been doing that for years. But we did not know how easily made some products are, and more to the point if I need backup tires or emergency tires when my brand-spanking new snowtires are on another bike... Or if I have an extra set of partially-used mountian bike tires and I just moved to Iowa where there are no mountians, but loads and loads of flat snowy roads... And even more to the point, the Author says quite clearly in the 'ible that: "Though you can order expensive European-made studded ice tires, you can also modify your own cross tires into effective ice tires with just a few dollars' worth of rivets." Also, the whole "Be careful!" comments also annoy me. Duh. No need to belabor the point of being safe. Now, if you want to let everybody know of some NEW danger that you have had personal experience with--feel free to impart that wisdom onto us. But generic "warnings" don't help anybody--such as the "Bumpy ice is certainly more dangerous." part of your comment. That is useful information.