studded tires on the Martin Goodman trail

Hi there - I rode all year from South Etob (New Toronto) to downtown last year, hoping to do same this year. All with regular tires since the Martin Goodman trail between Queen's Quay and Humber is plowed and salted heavily. (don't tell Ford, he'll cut it). Given the amount of road riding you'll need to do to get to Port Credit I wouldn't want to be on studs - but honestly, I've never ridden them, maybe they're not as bumpy/don't generate rolling resistance as much as I assume.

Only a couple days were 'treacherous', i.e. where snow fell during early morning so wasn't cleared, or fell before commute home. Or where thaw occured during the day and freezing occurs before ride home. Then you get sheer ice in spots. Again the path is heavily salted so freezing up isn't so bad a problem. There are 3 major sections to be vigilant at -
- West side of Coronation park (across from Princess Gates) - there's a hard turn on the path when you're looking over the water (across from Billy Bishop), where water flows off the grass and across the path - just where you need to turn it can become a skating rink
- In front of Sunnyside Pavilllion - lots of uneven pavement to capture pools of water to freeze into patches
- east of Humber Bridge - the path isn't cleared after the bridge so there's a 20m patch of snow, slush, ice, before you can get to the pathway to road in front of condos - DUH!

The biggest danger is to equipment-my front derailleur was seized-up by end of winter, and I had to replace all cables. I'll use more oil this year.
Lakeshore west from Park Lawn usually isn't very busy so is nice to ride, but slush can accumulate heavily in the area you'd like to ride Don't know what happens after Brown's line but power to you for going that distance. The road seems dark past there until Cawthra so I'd be careful....

all the best, keep the rubber down :-)

Warren