Hi,
I am fairly new to Stridas but not so new to riding bicycles.
It must have been some 45 Years ago that i rode my dutch bike across a frozen lake free handed.
I rode my Strida SX in Snow on Saturday and today. As shown in
Upgrade Your Strida: adjustable kick stand (Pic. 6) i even own winter tyres with spikes. This weekend, however, i rode the Strida on ordinary 40-355 18" tyres.
But to bring it down to Strida in general, i think that the QR seat molding kit is most essential.
When there is snow or ice, i get off of my Strida and bring the saddle down by two or three clicks. That way, my feet have a way better contact to the ground, should i slide on snow or ice.
I only ordered the 18" winter tyres (42-355) after i had tested 44-355 tyres so i thought the winter tyres should fit into the unmodified frame/wheels of the Strida like the 44-355 do (ever so close, but they do fit on Your lucky day). It turned out to be wrong.
42-355 winter tyres with spikes do need quite some modification of Your 18" Strida. Tomorrow i hope to get me a 16" Striida LT and may i notice, that -305 and -355 winter tyres with spikes are both discontinued by Schwalbe. Both, however, are still available in the market. As there are 40-305 winter tyres with spikes that should readily fit into the Strida LT and fenders, my recomendation is to
a) Modify a set of wheels and custom design a set of fenders compatible to the 42-355 winter tyres. It’s a challenge, bit i’ll do it.
b) Just get Yourself a set of 40-305 winter tyres with spikes for 16" wheels as long as they are still available.
It’s Heather of bromptoning.com, who purchased a Strida Evo for her winter bike.
And it will be my winter bike as i use the 18" Strida with the spikes tyres i purchased to give spikes tyres a try in winter times before i consider purchasing spikes winter tyres for one of my dutch bikes. The reason is simple: My Strida SX 18" has a QR seat post so i can stop and bring down my saddle by an inch or so on slippery grounds in just a few seconds.
regards: Klaus