There is no reason this wouldn't work today. With disk brakes, you don't have to disconnect them. They are out of the way. I'm curious how you dad and company tied off the ends of the wire.
I suspect the wire would do some cosmetic damage to the rims. If I had a beater MTB, I'd try this.
I thought the same thing. He used simple steel wire or even copper
(back then it had little value). They would just wrap it like a twisty-tie to finish it off and ride them until the wires broke and they had to do it again, or the chickens needed to be fed(...Idea...). I considered doing it for fun since I have access to LOTS of used guitar strings around here and it would take a ton less time to rig up than studding my own tires.
As for the rims, no real damage and he said there wasn't any real effect on the tire either. The pounding happens to the wire where it contacts the ground, if it's thinner wire, it's not going to affect the rim at all as it will break long before you get to that point, especially if you hit pavement(or rocks). Thicker wire may be more difficult to wrap and tie off. But, you couldn't do it on a pair of knobbys, they'd have to be relatively smooth for the wire to contact the ground with relatively little slippage. How about your beater road bike, Ben?
For knobbys, someone(a guy named Ben, I think
) put up a link a while back for chains...
http://www.icebike.org/Equipment/tirechains.htm check out the photo of the cleats. I think that's a great idea and would be stable and reasonably strong. I think I could easily replicate that and really cheaply. In fact, for myself, I'd try that before anything else.
Hey Ron, Ben will make you some chains if the stud thing doesn't work out
