In spring 2018, Goodyear bicycle tires relaunched with a complete line of road, gravel, cross country and enduro/downhill mountain bike tires. Since then, the line’s been unchanged, until now. For road racers, the new Goodyear Eagle F1 and F1 SuperSport offer an “Ultra High Performance” option…
On the surface, the new Eagle F1 models grab the road with DynamicGSR, which combines the two hottest ingredients of the day: Graphene and Silica. Between them, they increase both wet and dry grip while still rolling fast. Those are blended into natural (resistance to cracking, drying) and synthetic (low rolling resistance) rubbers.
The Eagle F1 has long been one of Goodyear’s premium motorsports tires, and Goodyear Bike (which is a licensing deal from Rubber Kinetics, who works with both Goodyear and bicycle tire manufacturers to translate the technology to cycling) continues to use that naming scheme to identify their tire’s hierarchy.
What makes the “F1” version better?
Externally, the Eagle F1 and Eagle F1 SuperSport tires are differentiated by the addition of small grooves on the standard F1. They’re there for both traction and to aid water removal if it starts raining during your ride. The bigger differences are in their internal construction:
The standard Eagle, which was part of the original launch in 2018, is tubeless ready, has more siping and tread files, and have a heavier duty construction. That makes them good for all-purpose training and even e-road bikes.
The F1 and F1 SuperSport shed the extra rubber, which means they’re not tubeless compatible. And they’re actually optimized for the slightly narrower (17mm, so not really “narrow”) non-tubeless traditional road bike rims, whereas their standard Eagle is optimized around 19mm rims. All of this means they’re lighter. And they get that upgraded rubber compound.
Underneath, they both use a supple 120tpi casing. And both use their R:Shield puncture protection cap. The Eagle F1’s cap is a little wider, and the rubber on top of it is just a hair thicker and maintains the mild texturing. The F1 SuperSport has a narrower puncture protection belt and gets a slick center tread section for the fastest possible rolling performance. It’s meant for race day only, without exposing you to every little pokey thing on the tarmac.
Retail is $60-65 USD (€50-55 / £45-50), available first quarter 2020. These are the first tires made in their new R&D facility/factory in Taiwan, but they say you’ll see more coming from them next year.
