DIY OROCs

[No Whistle]

For any other cheapskates out there I'll just mention that it's not too hard to create your own tungsten carbide spiked shoes. What you need: spikes from supatracks.com (sold out of shoe sized ones last week though), suitable shoes, best in harder rubber and a supportive stud, mine are in Salomon speedcrosses, old Inov8s the grey ones with quite big edge studs look good. Carbide spikes 50p each, I used 10 per shoe.

I drilled pilot holes and screwed the studs in with a bit of isocyanate glue (rally cars use this technique, the glue is a belt and braces approach), ten minute job. Few long mixed terrain runs now and very successful, all studs still present and correct .

They'll not work well in small studs in sticky rubber.

[Rob Furness]

That's a good idea, might get me some of them. Might purchase a spare set of Walshes and add them to those as a winter shoe (not that I have a big problem with grip but extra confidence would be a good thing)

[karen nash]

You might pick up some metal studded orienteering shoes in a sale, especially if you have very big or very small feet. I wore mine loads last year and they were great. Not cheap if you are paying full price tho

[No Whistle]

That's a good idea, might get me some of them. Might purchase a spare set of Walshes and add them to those as a winter shoe (not that I have a big problem with grip but extra confidence would be a good thing)

Walsh sole would not be ideal for this, studs too small and pyramidal in shape

[beasty1711]

Walsh sole would not be ideal for this, studs too small and pyramidal in shape

you might be ok with these ones though

[No map, no compass]

They might work, but the thread on the spikes is 8mm+ so you need a broad stud, preferably in a hard rubber to take them.

[Rob Furness]

I'll do some measuring, I might change my mind anyway and try and adapt my Harriers instead (as I rarely use these now anyway) although the rubber is a little soft they should take 8mm of thread no problem.

[No Whistle]

They might work, but the thread on the spikes is 8mm+ so you need a broad stud, preferably in a hard rubber to take them.

The thread on the shoe/bike tyre specific studs is 6mm, but they've sold out of those at present.

[No map, no compass]

Old Mudrocs with spikes in the edge studs make for a far more confident run on compacted snow, though probably not enough ice around to tell whether they really work.

[Fellhound]

I already have some Jalas O shoes with dobs but my first thought on reading this is it might be good to have a source of replacement dobs. Not sure how you'd get the old worn out ones out though....