I have Nates on my Cooker, work great! Here in Northern Canada we get a lot of snow and some wild weather, we have a lot of snow covered ice, so I plan to stud the Nates with grip studs for added traction!
Wow...I guess Nates it is then! And what about running the Nates tubeless?
They work great tubeless on large marge and rolling darryls for me using 2 wraps of sil foam and a 24'' split tube. The only downside to Nate is the price. Great tire otherwise.
I have yet to run tubeless with them, but from some reading here many have with great success! I'm a newbie here too, but have been following for awhile. I have the cooker too, wanted the pugs but couldn't pass on the deal for the cooker, Nates came with it aswell as stock vee tires!
But if the 120tpi Nates are out of my budget, then it's still the 27tpi Nates over the Snowshoes?
Aggressive tread (Nate) wins over the extra width (Snowshoe), right?
And the Vee Mission shouldn't be considered, right?
If you're on a budget, don't discount the On-One Floater. It's very similar to a Snowshoe and about half the price. (About half the price of a Nate as well...)
Nates are awesome tires. I prefer them to studded Dillingers unless there's a lot of smooth ice in the mix.
Do nates maintain traction when you get out of the saddle? My hudu is okay until I leave the saddle for a climb, then it breaks traction and I am screwed. I may get one to go with the bud up front, which has proven to be excellent
The loss of traction might be more of a technique issue vs. traction issue. Out of the saddle try and stay as far back over then rear tire as possible, while pulling up on your bars a bit.
The loss of traction might be more of a technique issue vs. traction issue. Out of the saddle try and stay as far back over then rear tire as possible, while pulling up on your bars a bit.
I don't know, weight way back and pull up on your bars while going up hill sounds lke it would be good on video.
Aggressive tread (Nate) wins over the extra width (Snowshoe), right?
The snowshoe is actually very similar to the nate in size. Vee and Surly measure their tires using different methods.
On my mukluk, I have 27TPI Nates setup tubeless on Darryls and have been happy with them. There was a very noticeable decrease in rolling resistance after going tubeless. The 120TPI will roll even better because of their signicantly lighter weight and greater sidewall compliance.
The best way to measure the true volume of the tire is to measure the distance from tire bead to tire bead, outside to outside, with the tire laid flat. Measure on the inside of the tire.
I have measured Nates to 220mm, Vee Mission to 227mm and Vee Snowshoe to 238mm.
Specialized Grund Control is 241mm, Surly BFL 245mm and Bud/Lou around 260mm.
There will, of course, be variances from tire to tire.
If you're on a budget, don't discount the On-One Floater. It's very similar to a Snowshoe and about half the price. (About half the price of a Nate as well...)
+1
I've found they have excellent traction, especially as a rear tire.
Very pleased with Nate front, Floater rear as a snow combo for my Mukluk. Run the cheaper Floaters front and rear on dirt, since I find the expensive rubber wears quite fast (I'm cheap). If I were in the market for tires, I would consider the 60 tip tan wall Nates to save a few bucks. Don't care for the ride quality of the 27 tpi tires. Rolling resistance of the Nate on the rear is significant on pavement and hardpack. Don't mind it on the front though, and very good at off camber and for braking.
Correction to the comment below about not being in the market for tires. The ice situation up here in AK has me considering a set of studded tires for the first time. Too cheap to spring for Dillinger this season, but like the sound of the Vee Snowshoe XL studded. Does anyone know if these are going to be available this winter?
I have a Nate on rear, reversed, and it's amazing how much traction there is. Blows me away. I've been considering changing to Studded Dillingers cuz of an olympic style fall on some ice, but wish it was a Nate with studs instead.
Correction to the comment below about not being in the market for tires. The ice situation up here in AK has me considering a set of studded tires for the first time. Too cheap to spring for Dillinger this season, but like the sound of the Vee Snowshoe XL studded. Does anyone know if these are going to be available this winter?
Stud your Nates/Floater. Save some money. The Dillingers are possibly overkill with 240 studs per tire. The grip studs barely weigh anything and less than 100 per tire seem to do fine. I rode with a guy for a little bit during the Su100 this past weekend that was having no issues on the ice with a grip studded Nate rear, Bud front.
I already own the studded dillingers so thought I'd swap them out when on bike next...though I should have considered studding the Nates before purchasing, yes. :O
I have the Husker Du on front and Nate reversed on rear. Not super impressed with the Husker Du yet, maybe it's because it's not a fair comparison with the Nate. So in other words, not a comparison. Nate is da bomb.
I really don't like my snowshoes even though they are super light and i'm a weight weenie. They only hookup in super super hard compact snow, or at super low PSI, and at that point their rolling resistance is really bad.
I moved to a Bud/Lou combo for snow and will run the snowshoes in summer
I have the Husker Du on front and Nate reversed on rear. Not super impressed with the Husker Du yet, maybe it's because it's not a fair comparison with the Nate. So in other words, not a comparison. Nate is da bomb.
I switch my HuDu up front to a Nate when the snow gets challenging. The Nate is noticeably better up front than the HuDu in difficult snow conditions. IMHO the only thing better up front under those conditions would be a Lou. Haven't had an issue with the HuDu in the rear (reversed) getting enough "forward bite". I'm sure a Nate would be an improvement out back as well but I haven't needed to go that direction.
I really don't like my snowshoes even though they are super light and i'm a weight weenie. They only hookup in super super hard compact snow, or at super low PSI, and at that point their rolling resistance is really bad.
Stud your Nates/Floater. Save some money. The Dillingers are possibly overkill with 240 studs per tire. The grip studs barely weigh anything and less than 100 per tire seem to do fine. I rode with a guy for a little bit during the Su100 this past weekend that was having no issues on the ice with a grip studded Nate rear, Bud front.
Starting to think you're right. I only have one tire that for sure has deep enough lugs, but with some sort of a liner I can probably get one of my slightly worn Floaters to work. Still $200 plus just for studs, though, ouch! I know I'm cheap, but can't understand why these are so expensive.