How to Make Your Own Tire Chains Instructions

Winter cycling is becoming increasingly popular--and easy to do--with tire chains.

Winter usually means you'll find cyclists taking the bus or driving cars because the snow and ice prevents them from riding, but you can make your own tire chains and enjoy year-round riding, eliminating that first rough month of getting back on the bike and back in shape in the spring. Make your own tire chains easily and for less money than you think.

Things You'll Need

• 4 feet of 1/4-inch-wide light braided chain
• Picture-framing wire (10-20 lb weight)
• Wire cutters
• Zip ties
• Needle nose pliers
• (4) 1/16-inch cable ferrules (with ferrule stops)

Instructions

1. Remove your tires from your bicycle frame. Deflate the tires until they are soft to the touch (about a 10 to 20-lb air loss).

2. Cut all your braided chain into 6-inch pieces using your wire cutters. Make sure that each piece starts and ends with a whole link--it doesn't have to be exactly 6 inches, but get as close as you can while still having a whole link on each end.

3. Place one of your pieces of chain across the tire, and using a zip tie, tie the two ends together so the chain is across the rubber of the tire and the zip tie is snug to the rim. Place your next piece of chain across the tire 6 inches away from that, and zip-tie it into place. Repeat this until the entire tire has chain tied around it. Do this for each tire.

4. 

   On each side of the rim of each tire, thread your picture-hanging wire through the link that the zip tie is connected to, so all your pieces of chain are connected by the wire. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the two ends of the wire as tight as you can around the rim and press on the ferrules to lock the wire ends together.

5. Inflate your tires to their normal pressure and reinstall them onto your bicycle.

6. Spin each wheel until one of the chain pieces is at the brakes. Adjust your brake pads to accommodate the extra width of the chain passing through.

Tips & Warnings

• Use two pair of needle nose pliers--one to hold the picture wire tight and one to press on the ferrules--to finish your chains. This way you won't lose the tension on the wire you gained by pulling it.

• While you may have extra traction because of your tire chains, you must apply greater force to braking because the brake pads are farther away from the rim than before. Take this into consideration when planning the braking distance you need from stoplights, signs and other road obstructions.

References

• Deflate Tires

Resources

• Winter Cycling