Assault weapons.

It's winter in Missoula, and as usual there's simmering debate in the letters to the editor page about city plowing -- or lack thereof. Back in Salt Lake City there seemed to be an army of plows and an endless supply of salt to throw down; I can only remember one time where the roads stayed snowpacked for more than a few hours. Not so Missoula. When it storms the main half-dozen or so roads get plowed, and a dozen or so more get scraped the next day, and that about wraps things up. The street in front of our house gets plowed about once a year, and I have not seen evidence of a plow on the side street in three years. The result is that most residential streets stay snowpacked for a few months.

Since I'm still biking about 12 miles a day, and since almost all of that is on unplowed streets, I've been looking for a bit more traction. Bike stores here actually sell factory-made studded tires for commuter and mountain bikes, but as you can see, they ain't cheap.

I've made my own pair, and while I don't have a ton of mileage on them yet, they are working very well. And they cost $2.85. Total.

A great Missoula resource is Free Cycles. Free Cycles has a nice, clean, well-stocked shop and people who know what they are doing. They collected discarded, scavenged, and donated gear, spruce it up, and offer it and the workspace for free or by donation. Using the advice of Bob, the shop chief, I got four mountain bike tires, two which were about 2 inches wide and with good tread, and two which were about 1.5 inches wide and with well-worn tread. I then went to Ace and bought a box of 185 tiny sharp screws. I then sat on the kitchen floor for about two hours last weekend and screwed the screws into the good tires, then shoved the older thinner tires inside the good tires, then mounted the double-tire set onto the rim and inserted the tube. The outer tire has good tread about about 80 sharp-as-hell screws sticking out; the inner tire acts as a buffer to protect the screw heads from the tubes.

I can report so far that he upside is that I have very good traction. The downside is that I have bike tires that weigh about 10 pounds each and a LOT of rolling resistance.

We'll see how long this works.