Tioga Farmer John Tires

No longer available in the US, this is the first mountain bike tire to really gain mass market appeal. Up to the time of its introduction no one had specifically attacked the mountain tire market with something really credible. Tioga used their relationship with Mitsuboshi and the experience they had at marketing boys 20" BMX tires to develop a supple tire around which they could generate a mystique and personality in the form of "Farmer John" Tomac. The credibility Tioga achieved in this tire made further tire introductions more simple by line extending the "Farmer John" moniker. The Farmer John tread block pattern is based on a .45" wide raised chevron. This "V" shaped pattern has three cuts through it making the single shape into three tread blocks. There are very small side tread blocks between each of the primary chevron patterns, which repeat at 1 1/32" intervals. The Farmer John was made in the a 24 or 26 inch diameter with a Skin sidewall. Both diameters were 1.95" wide and had a hardness of 67/A.

Also no longer made is the Farmer John's Cousin, that had a tread pattern which is a variation on the Farmer John's. The John as we said uses a chevron based raised V-shaped tread block with cuts separating sections of the "V", the John's Cousin or "Cousin" as it's referred to, has more cuts separating the "V" tread into seven smaller blocks. Each of these blocks has a sipe cut across the top. The outer edge blocks have a 1mm deep sipe, while the five interior ones have a 2mm deep sipe. The Cousin is made in Japan by Mitsuboshi, and comes in a Skin sidewall only. It is made in two sizes, 26 x 1.95" or 24 x 1.95". The 26" diameter model has a tested hardness of 66/A, while the 24" version tested to an 70/A hardness.

The Nephew was Tioga's answer to the need for a quality tire at a price. It's made in a Taiwan, by who we believe to be Cheng Shin because of the mold patterns on the chafing strip. The Nephew has still another variation on the John's chevron pattern. In the Nephew's case the chevron, V-shape is cut into three blocks with broad open areas. The pattern of the cut-away areas reverses with the tread blocks that precede it. There is only 4mm separating each of the chevron tread sections. The Nephew is available in a Black sidewall only. It's made using Black pigmented rubberized casing fabric so its sidewall is really the exposed tire casing. Though the Nephew is available for importers to distribute in 3 sizes, 26 x 1.95", 26 x 1.5" and 24 x 1.95", we found no distributors had the narrow 26" or the 24" model on hand. The Import/Distributors had uncertainty as to whether they would ever import those sizes again as the Nephew tire is a little long in the tooth, meaning they feared its product life cycle had elapsed and were reluctant to tie their money up by keeping it in inventory. We tested the Nephew's hardness as 63/A. and sold it for $12.99 when it was still available