No more paying $80 for a 700c mountain bike studded tire.

No more worrying about falling or slipping on ice or snow.

No more excuses for gaining five pounds.

The game is up. I have you covered, and it will only cost you anywhere from a Hamilton to a Jackson ($10 – 20 for those who are not from the USA

Tools / Supplies Needed:

For a 700c Wheel:

24 ft of Braided Cable. 1/16″ or 3/32″ (I’m sure picture frame wire will work too)

Braided Cable Clamps x 4 – two for each wheel

Chain

Zip Ties

Adjustable wrench or Crescent wrench

Needle nose pliers

Cable Cutter – I used an old pair of Bowden cable/housing cutters from my bike tools. You do have one, right?

Note: You will need a bike with disc brakes for this to work.

Step 1:

Measure your Braided Cable around the edge of where your wheel rim meets the tire. Clip with an extra 2″-4″ for clamping space.

Once you have this piece measured, cut three more pieces to this length.

Step 2:

Measure the length of chain needed to have the chain reach both sides of the rim. Mine were roughly 5.75″ with a 700 x 51/53 (2.1″) Tire. Clip either 32 or 64 sections depending on how spread apart you want the chain.

Step 3

This is the point in which I goofed up. I was expecting to be able to make these tire chains modular enough for quick installation/removal. Nope. Not going to happen… at least not this time. You can see here that I used twist-ties to temporarily hold the chain pieces in place.

What you really need to do is properly space the chains equidistantly between your spokes and ZIP-TIE them into place. Pull the zip ties tight enough to hold well, but not tight enough to make indents into the tire.

Note: I deflated my tires to 10 psi before wrapping/zipping the chain.

Step 4:

Put the wire through the chains on the respective sides of the tire, then pull tight and clamp with the little aluminum clamps.

Note: This took two people do to for me.

Once you are done with one wheel, complete the other also.

All in all this project cost me $10, and about an hour and a half of time (even with twist tie fiasco). I was luck and found 20 feet of chain on sale for $3.00 or about $0.19 a foot instead of $0.50 a foot. 😀

Here is a quick video of me trying the snow chains out the night I made them. Fun Stuff

This is my second video of trying out the snow chains. You turn and move like you are in loose dirt with no slipping. It’s actually pretty equivalent to riding in August.

Other people who inspired me or have made snow chains for their bike:

http://www.icebike.org/Equipment/tirechains.htm

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=578635

Comment if you want to try this, if you have a question, or if you like them!

Snow Chains Pt.2: Here

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