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45NRTH Wrathlorde Update


I wanted to post an update about these 45NRTH Wrathlorde 26 x 4.2 studded tires. We initially mounted these bad boys on a set of 100mm rims and published a report here. We read some of your interesting comments about the Wrathlordes on our social media feed. One cat said we had created a very dangerous situation. I thought “dangerous for who?” As I mentioned in our last post, we wanted to mount the tires to an 80mm rim so as soon as we got our Reynolds/I9 set of wheels back in service I did a quick wet tire swap and the tires held air overnight on the first try.

L-80mm Rim – R-100mm Rim
L-80mm Rim – R-100mm Rim

The Wrathlordes 4.2″ width makes more sense on an 80 mm rim, but call me crazy…I’d run them on 65mm rims, 90mm rims and I’ve already run them on 100mm rims. Hell, I ran an 80mm rim in the front and a 100mm rim in the rear for a week or two, while we were getting things sorted with our rear hub. I9 rebuilt our hub and upgraded the free-hub. (Hydra = ultra-swank).

All of that being said, these tires look fat-gnar-propper when mounted on 80 mm rims. The widest shoulder knob is a couple of mm wider than the casing and that’s just how I like it. My hat’s off to the folks at 45NRTH. These tires are 4.2 inches wide (when mounted to 80mm rims) and that’s the number printed on the tire label. That doesn’t always happen in the bicycle world. We salute you for bringing some order to a cycling world filled with chaos.

We measured the Wrathlordes mounted to a Reynold Elite Carbon rim inflated to 10 psi. The casing measured 106.6mm (4.2 inches) wide and the tread (edge to edge) was 107.5mm.

I posted a picture or three of my bike, Ten Beers with the Wrathlordes to our Instagram feed with a Thundercat hashtag. I don’t just throw around references to the T-Cats lightly. It’s one of the highest compliments that I could give to an off-road tire. I believe that Panthro would approve of the cat-like traction that the Wrathlordes exhibit. These Wrathlordes are studded fat-bike tires on steroids!

I’ve had a half dozen snow rides on the tires, but nothing deeper than 3-4 inches so I think that the jury is still out on the overall winter review of the Wrathlordes. Down by the RR tracks, the smooth ice and trace snow over ice performance has been impressive. I’ve ridden more dirt with these tires and they rip on frozen dirt (most tires do). The Wrathlorde has set a new bar for studded fat-bike tires. 45NRTH combined big gnarly tread with 300 XL concave studs and somewhat miraculously they only weigh 1500 grams!

In the last month, we’ve lost a few studs in each of our test tires. Something to keep in mind. We should keep some extra studs around to replace the ones that take a powder. So far, I’m stoked about these bad boys. I’m not giving these up till…well ever. These are mine, you’ll have to get your own.

I’ll have a report down the line about how they do in deep snow and layer cake groomed snow, and corn snow, chunk and super chunk, slush, slush salad, crust, snirt (snow mixed w/dirt), frost, polycrystals, powder, dendrite and all manners and types of snowpack.

For more information visit – https://45nrth.com/products/wrathlorde

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3 Responses to 45NRTH Wrathlorde Update

  1. Erv Spanks December 13, 2019 at 8:04 am #

    Very Nice! I do like how squared off the tread looks on the 100mm rim, but that’s just personal aesthetics.

  2. Gary December 13, 2019 at 8:19 am #

    45nth….please make this tire in 27.5 Fat 🙂

  3. rickyd December 16, 2019 at 8:59 pm #

    Tanxxx for the review G! I wanted some fat studs, but was contemplating between the W’Lorde and the W’Child. I was leaning to the Lorde because I only have 65mm rims, and wondered how well the 4.6 Children would do on that size. Because of this review, I’m probably going to get the Lordes when enough pennies fill the bank.

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