We have had some bad weather recently and all the cycle paths round my part of the world are covered in several inches of ice which makes cycling a pain. So I decided I needed a pair of ice tyres for the once a week trip into the office.

After researching how ice tyres worked, what a couple of the manufacturers offer and the DIY versions on here, I went down my workshop and found some self-drilling carbon tipped pan head screws used for fixing flat surfaced hardware to reinforced PVCU windows and a couple of spare tyres that came with a bike ages ago.

Step 1: Parts List

The parts list for this project was really simple and whatever I had on the shelves:

2 Tyres (Tires)

200 Screws

Glue

Old inner tube

Tools

Bradawl (or other hole making device - yes I used a scribe)

Screwdriver

Step 2: Add Some Spikes

After a little trial and error I found that using a sharp point to puncture the tyre (from the outside) in exactly the place I wanted the spike to come out, allowed me to just push the sharp end of the screw threw the tyre from the inside, the end result was a nice uniform double row of carbon steel zinc plated spikes, threaded into the chunky rubber part with no hope of being pulled out.

The screws stick through the rubber on these tyres about 10mm which if I am being honest is about 5 more than I really wanted but without buying chunkier tyres or shorter screws that's not going to change.... and I like the slightly excessive look.

At this point I started being paranoid about pushing a screw back into the tyre and shredding a perfectly good inner tube whilst riding.

So I coated every screw head with strong flexible glue and then glued an old inner tube over the glued screw heads. I can also guarantee that the good inner tube isn't stuck to the glue when it is time to change it again.

This whole process took just under two hours per tyre to fit two rows of 50 screws in each, this lined up with the tread pattern and as I am not heading anywhere remotely uneven I decided the outer edges of the tyre were best left un-spiked and if the grip wasn't good enough I could always spike the central row of tread too.

I decided to inflate the experimental tyres to 40psi as this was the lowest manufacturer recommended setting so if the spikes needed to flex a little they could without ripping the rubber blocks apart.

Step 3: Ride

After a nice little round trip of 5 miles in freezing conditions I can report that the riding experience on Ice is amazing, you have total control and complete confidence in applying the brakes. Acceleration has to be controlled as it's still possible to loose traction if you are powering up hill and the only problem I found was the groves left by other people can cause a little wobble if you aren’t concentrating, but you can comfortably climb out of them whenever you like.

Riding on cleared sections or crossing main roads is very noisy and a little slippery compared to the ice but completely controlled, I now understand the description of 'sounding like being chased by a pack of dogs', but I would also describe it like the first sound a flat tyre makes, it was enough to make me stop and check the pressure!

I love the look of the tyres although was very careful not to run into anything/anyone as the sharpened spikes would do some amazing damage. (If you build a set of these I am not responsible for what you do with them.)

Both tyres kept their pressure and although they feel double their original weight there is no other way to ride on ice.