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Product Spotlight – Terrene Johnny 5 (26×5.0) Tires

For some time now, Terrene Tire’s Tim Krueger has been talking about a true five inch wide, aggressive new tire that he’s been developing to give ‘the Surly’ Bud & Lou a run for their money as far as holding the title as the biggest and most aggressive fat-bike tires available (in the WORLD!) This new tire would be nothing short of World Fat-Bike Tire Domination according to Tim. I think the first time that I heard about this plan for world tire domination was way back at the CABDA show last February. Sea Otter echoed the building legend of the big fat snow killing tire that would eventually become the new Johnny 5 when it was officially launched last month at Eurobike. This week, we received a pair of production 26 x 5.0 Terrene Johnny 5’s to ride, review and share with our readers.

The Terrene Johnny 5 (26 x 5.0) by the numbers:

Weight – 1820g, 1802g

Flat Bead to Bead – 266mm

Flat Tread to Tread – 147mm

Just after mounting (tubeless) the casing measured 123.25mm wide. The tires expanded to 123.43 by the next morning. Both measurements were taken with the tire pressure at 10 psi

Mounted to HED 100mm rims at 10psi

Casing – 123.43mm

Tread – 122.41mm

Overall Height – 30.1996 inches

Overall Front Wheel Weight – 2930g

Tread Depth

Outer Shoulder Knobs – 6.6mm

Middle Knobs – 6.25mm

Center Knobs – 5mm

The photo to the (right) is a side by side comparison of a 26×5.0 Johnny 5 and a 26×4.8 Surly Lou with both tires mounted to HED 100mm wide rims and inflated to 10 psi. The Johnny 5’s are 1.4mm wider and .1429 of an inch shorter than the Lou. That’s what I would call very similar in size.

I had to see how these bad boys look on Ten Beers before I send them off to KBS for field testing (photo below). The shoulder lugs on this tread pattern are the biggest that I’ve seen and the center chevrons have a cut out that make them look like they’d gouge into the ground with righteous fury and maximum levels of traction! A big fat tire like Johnny 5 deserves to get tested somewhere that get’s twelve metric gnome-tons of snow and just for good measure, has miles of sandy beaches to roam. So we’re sending these to the great Manistee Lake Effect Snow Belt over in the mitten of Michigan.

Ten Beers plus two Johnny Fives equals ______.

Johnny 5’s fit fine in the Corvus FLT

Ken Blakey-Shell will get to wade into the debate on whether Johnny 5 is good enough to dethrone the Bud and Lou as the most aggressive (almost) five-inch wide fat-bike tire in the world. The fact that the Johnny 5’s are tubeless ready and can be studded helps differentiate the two a bit, but we won’t really know how things will truly stack up until Ken gets these bad boys out in the deep soft sand or fluffy fun powder.  You can look forward to a full review once the snow flies amigos!

Learn more about Terrene Tires at – https://terrenetires.com/

 

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10 Responses to Product Spotlight – Terrene Johnny 5 (26×5.0) Tires

  1. Erv Spanks September 14, 2018 at 8:26 am #

    I am so excited for this tire. I think, and I maybe wrong, that a studded J5 would pair up nicley with a studded Wazia out back as my winter set-up. The only knock I have against the Wazia is that it has a tendency to wash out at times on the front end, out back it’s awesome.

  2. Plusbike Nerd September 14, 2018 at 11:21 am #

    So the Johnny 5 is really the Johnny 4.8! Where I come from 5in = 127mm. The 2.8 Terrene McFly’s only measure 2.6in. Terrene must have a broken ruler?

    • Erv Spanks September 14, 2018 at 12:32 pm #

      All dudes round up 😉

  3. mike c September 17, 2018 at 6:47 pm #

    Perhaps you could clarify if the dimensions you gave were with stretched and ridden tires, or new and unstretched?

    Doing so might prevent *lots* of tire nerds from prematurely getting their undies in a bunch.

    • Gomez September 17, 2018 at 8:01 pm #

      The Surly LOU had been pre-ridden, but was freshly mounted and then measured to compare with the Johnny 5’s.

  4. Allroy September 18, 2018 at 6:03 am #

    I can always get behind any tire named after a robot from a cool 80’s movie. Correct me if I’m wrong,but isn’t Jonny 5 the name of the robot in the movie “Short Curcuit “?😄

    • R September 21, 2018 at 12:44 pm #

      Yes, you are correct sir. I thought it was related to the guitarist John 5, but . . .

  5. Kory September 25, 2018 at 11:18 am #

    have you guys checked to see if these will fit in a bluto?

  6. Bob December 12, 2019 at 4:23 pm #

    “You can look forward to a full review once the snow flies amigos!”

    Is there a follow-up review of over a year ago? I’m debating replacing my 7-year sidewall-worn Bud/Lou, each with 175 Gripstuds, with two J5 studdeds (Bud/Lou with 175 Grip studs still weigh ~80 g less than J5 studded). I’m wondering how easily studs come out of J5, and if/when they do come out, does this damage or widen the hole so that a replacement stud can’t be put back in, as happened to my Nokians. Also wondering how well these studs really grip on hard ice -where Gripstuds are excellent and also won’t come out of the knobs. thanks!

    • Gomez December 13, 2019 at 6:48 am #

      Not yet, but it snows almost every winter.

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