Quality dirt bike tires can usually handle soft or rough terrains. However, you need special or modified tires for winter riding or when riding in wet conditions to provide your dirt bike with better traction.
Fortunately, you can do DIY tire studs, which are easy to do and don’t cost much. You only need a few tools, such as a stud grip and studs, and you can easily customize your tires for snow riding.
So if you want to learn how to stud dirt bike tires and learn a few tips, continue reading below!
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Step-by-step to Stud Dirt Bike Tires
The studs for dirt bike tires are usually made of titanium alloys, aluminum, and steel, which allows your tires to really penetrate the areas they’re riding over. Thus, it’s essential to allow you to have a better grip when driving in dangerous situations.
For instance, studded sportbike tires are great for riding on soft terrain such as mud and sand, allowing the rider to penetrate the terrain effectively.
In addition, the studs are also ideal for creating ice racing tires, perfect when you want to ride over snow during the winter.
There are also two types of tire studding, which are temporary and permanent.
- Temporary one is ideal if you want to use your dirt bike tires for regular riding after the winter season.
- In contrast, the permanent is for professional riders, which is done by inserting a metal plate with spikes inside the tire.
In this blog, we’ll focus on installing removable studs for those who still want to enjoy leisure riding without replacing their tires every season.
Here’s the step-by-step guide if you want to stud your own tires.
Method 1: Without Removing the Tires
If you want to stud your dirt bike tires faster without removing them, it’s very easy and fast.
Step 1: What to Prepare
- Stud gun
- Socket
- Socket adapter
- Ice studs
Step 2: Inserting the Studs
Depending on your preference, you can start studding your rear or front tire. Make sure the stud size fits your tire’s tread pattern best to keep them in place when riding.
The first step is to put your socket in your socket adapter.
Then, use your stud gun to install tire studs on a dirt bike. You can choose the pattern where you’ll put the studs, but make sure you don’t put too many studs for optimal performance.
For example, in your rear tire, you can put studs in every knob in the middle of the tread pattern. In your outermost section, you can skip a knob every after inserting two knobs.
When doing your front tires, the most important thing to remember is not to insert studs in the outermost part of your tread pattern. The reason is that the tire will tend to climb over some ruts, which may cause some serious accidents.
Step 3: Final Check
Once the studs are embedded into your knobs, you can do a final check to make sure that the studs are inserted perfectly into the knobs.
Also, ensure you didn’t insert too many studs. Stick to the recommended number of studs per tire (which is 200 to 215 studs for each tire) to avoid having over-controlled tires that can lead to bad situations.
Method 2: Removing the Tires
If you want to follow the other method of studding your tires, check the steps below.
Step 1: What to Prepare
- Ice screws for tires
- Nuts
- Drill
- Screwdriver (normal or electric)
- Air wrench (if you want)
- Lining such as a yoga mat (if you want)
- Pliers (if needed)
Step 2: Deflate the Tires and Drill Holes
Deflate the tires first and remove them from your dirt bike. Then, in each tire, drill small holes into the knobs to guide the screws you’ll insert later on from the inside of the tire.
Drill two small holes in each larger knob and a single hole into a smaller knob. However, don’t forget to leave the knobs on the outermost side of the tread pattern to avoid the dirt bike from throwing you over.
Step 3: Insert the Screws
Your screw size will depend on your tread pattern or the size of the knobs. You’ll need around 250 concrete screws for each tire.
Once you can drill the holes, insert the screws inside the tire until it penetrates the knobs on the tread pattern using a screwdriver or an electric screwdriver for convenience.
Step 4: Install the Nuts
After inserting the screws, it’s now time to insert the nuts on the screws using your air wrench to keep them in place.
If you encounter issues when pushing the nuts, you can try to give them a few twists with your pliers to push them in with your air wrench easily. Keep going until the nuts are properly put in place.
For more guidance on how to install the screws and nuts, you can check out this video!
Step 5: Put a Liner
To protect your tubes from your studs or screws, it’s advisable to insert a liner, such as a carpet, an old firehose, or a yoga mat, inside your tires.
Simply cut the liner you’ll use and put it inside the tire. Once done, reinsert your tube.
Step 6: Reinstall the Tires
Once everything is set up, you can reinstall the tires on your dirt bike. You’re now ready for a ride!
4 Tips for Installing Tire Studs on Dirt Bikes
Before you leave, here are a few tips to keep in mind when inserting studs on your dirt bike tires:
- 200 to 215 studs for each tire is ideal, as over-studding your tires can be harmful
- Use the screws or studs that are appropriate to the kind of tires you have
- When choosing the size of ice crews for tires, keep in mind your tread pattern or the size of your knob to avoid damaging your tire
- Don’t keep tire pressure too low to avoid less friction. Try to maintain it at 30 psi for better traction.
Conclusion
Overall, studding your dirt bike is important for winter dirt bike tires or if you want to improve the traction of your tires. It allows you to be safe while riding in wet and snowy conditions.
There are just a few things to keep in mind to do the job efficiently and keep you safe such as not over-studding your dirt bike, never using low pressure on tires with studs, and using the appropriate screw or stud size.
Now that you know how to stud dirt bike tires, you can now continue riding for fun no matter the season!
