Tioga Farmer John Tyres - Copies

On a few threads I have seen reference to Farmer John copy tyres. Does anyone know who makes them and what they are called please? Also where to buy? and are they in fact worth having?

Many thanks

Re: Tioga Farmer Giles Tyres - Copies

Do you mean Farmer John tyres?

Re: Tioga Farmer Giles Tyres - Copies

:mrgreen:

Re: Tioga Farmer Giles Tyres - Copies

pete_mcc":2fcompxy said:

Do you mean Farmer John tyres?

Click to expand...

I believe I do!

From memory, the Farmer John's Nephews were frankly terrifying on corners. Even though I was a penniless student - I ditched them pretty quick.

They did take ages to wear out though and looked exactly how you imagined mountain bike tyres to look like though - ie smaller tractor tyres.

Back in the day of the Tioga Farmer John tire series most of the major model tires were all built in Japan by IRC, Panaracer and Mitsuboshi. 93ish that started to change as the Japanese companies started moving their OEM molds to Indonesia and Taiwan so they could be more competitive price wise and grab more of the OE market. Cheng Shin/CST (now Maxxis is their advertised consumer brand) and Kenda were the major OE tire manufacturers in Taiwan and most of the tires had a model number not a model name. Both had tires that were similar to the popular tires of the day. Kenda's K-816 was a take off on the Panaracer Smoke. I don't recall the numbers for the Farmer John "Types" but there were a few. Doubt any of these older molds are in production today unless someone were to order a slug of them. I have an old parts catalog that I did in the 92-95 era that would have the mold/model numbers of the copies. If you really must have it shoot me a pm and I'll see if I can find a few minutes to dig it out.

I had a copy made by Duro (skinwall) - unfortunately I don't remember exact model
Other one I saw was made bu CST (blackwall)

Both of them are rather cheap options, so I don't know is that You're looking for

What I am looking for are tyres for my son's small Pantera. He wants very agressive off road tyres but they will also have some road use. They can be no wider than 5.5 cm when inflated and he ideally wants a 2.1 rather than a 1.95 but that really depends on the side lugs. I let hIm roam on here and that was one tyre he likes the look of. He also likes the look of Kenda Smokes and Tioga Factory DH!

...I have a pair of kenda tyres with blackwalls that are the farmer john tread....

Why would anyone copy a really bad tyre?

I had a Farmer John for one ride BITD as I got sucked into the look of the tread. They were probably the worst 'proper' offroad tyre ever made! That said, I've got some Farmer Johns Nephew tyres on my Rocky at the moment but it only gets ridden in a straight line on tarmac. I tend to get off and walk around corners.