Hello again, Finnish friends.
As promised I am here to report back on my first winter biking experience. We didn't really get any snow in Oslo until now, so in December I just rode with regular on studded tires on the tarmac. But now: A little bit of snow, at least!
My experience after some rides with studded tires on the Lightning P-38 is that it works fine for two kinds of conditions: Tarmac where the snow has been cleared (through salting or lots of cars), or on really smooth and flat hard-packed snow. But it does not work very well for slush, or when the hard-packed snow becomes uneven and full of small obstacles. I can get by in most conditions as long as I slow down and ride carefully. But I'm not comfortable riding at speed, unless it's tarmac without much snow. It's also a much rougher ride in the winter, as the hard-packed snow is bumpy, and that the municipality has spread lots of tiny stones all over so that pedestrians won't fall.
The problem seems to me to be that
a) the front wheel is too small
b) Both the front and rear tires are too narrow, but in particular at the front (I have them at the maximum now)
c) The bike is too rear-heavy
d) I really miss suspension both front and back (now I only have front suspension)
So: I have decided that I need to get a full suspension recumbent with large wheels front and back. Will use it for winter recumbent riding, and for gravel riding / very light off-road.
The question then is which bike to get... As far as I can tell there are four possible alternatives:
a) azub max
b) specbike extrim
c) flux s-max
d) rinzler touring pro
The first two have users here, and I think I know a bit about them. The flux s-max has some users in Germany - advantage is somewhat lower weight, and I have a feeling it might be a little bit faster. Disadvantage is no room for fatter tires. Rinzler touring pro is a very interesting bike, the manufacturer is able to do some pretty amazing tricks with it. But almost no users outside Russia, and it's heavy (around 21 kg)...