45NRTH Dillinger 5 Studded Fat Bike Tire Review

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The long awaited 45North Dillinger 5 and Dillinger 4 fat bike tires are now in stock here in our web-store and with the leaves falling fast it couldn't have come at a better time. We also now have a Stud Your Own option for the Dillinger 5 if you're looking to set up your own stud pattern or if the Dillinger 5's are sold out again.

Quick How To For Studding Your Own Fat Bike Tires

With snow comes ice and having studded tires in Wisconsin is almost a must. Whether you're commuting, or just riding local trails, studded tires give you the confidence and ability to ride almost anything. Having the room to fit 5 inch tires on our new Blackhawk frame, we wanted to compare the actual weight and size of the 45NRTH Dillinger 5 and Dillinger 4. 

The Dillinger 5 studded tire is a lightweight 120 tpi tire with 258 newly designed concave studs. The new concave studs are said to have a longer life and more contact points to the ground for increased traction. It is available in a full studded option that retails for $250 or a stud-less version for $160, which allows you to customize your stud pattern. We mounted the Dillinger 5 to an 80 mm rim and to our surprise the tire only came in at 4.3 inches. Our friends at Broken Spoke mounted the tire to a 100 mm for us since we didn't have one laying around.

Their conclusion was that it made a small difference, coming in at 4.4 inches. They did say that the tire flattened out nicely compared to the the round curve that is created on an 80 mm rim. Riding low air pressure in snow, the tire should flatten out nicely on the 80 mm rim as well.  The weight of the tire that we tested was 1535 grams. The crew at Broken Spoke also weighed out 10 of these tires and the weight did vary, going up to 1660 grams.

45 North DILLINGER 5

45 North DILLINGER 4

The Dillinger 4 tire is entering it's third Winter on the market, which is a testament to the solid design. We didn't have a Dillinger 4 in the shop, so we used a 45NRTH Escalator tire;  the Escalator uses the same tread pattern and mold as the Dillinger but uses a 180 tpi casing compared to 120 tpi in the Dillinger. The Dillinger 4 also is upgraded this year with 240 of the new concave studs. The full studded Dillinger 4 retails for $225 and the stud-less version for $135. Mounting the Dillinger 4 on an 80 mm rim brought the tire width to 3.8 inches as advertised. It is not recommended to mount 4 inch tires on 100 rims. The Escalator tire weighed in at 1267 grams. Full disclosure; the tire we used had half of the available studs in and the manufacturers advertised weight is 1275g  with a full set of studs. 

45 North DILLINGER 5

45 North DILLINGER 4

Given that the Dillinger 5 measures in at 4.3", it will be able to fit on many 4" compatible fat bikes, including the Salsa Bear Grease. Given the 1/2" difference in tire width the choice of a Dillinger 4 or 5 will come down to personal preference and budget.  A full review of the Dillinger 5 will be in the works once the snow falls!