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review

Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport R

8
£60.00

VERDICT:

8
10
Impressive grip and overall performance – for a lot less than some of the competition
Awesome grip
Loads of feedback
Easy to set up tubeless
Robust enough for varied weather
Weight: 
264g

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The Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport R is a tyre for those of us for whom speed and grip are our highest priorities. With a super-supple compound, they are grippy and comfortable and roll very well indeed. Going lightweight often means a compromise when it comes to durability, but I haven't found that an issue with these, even after rides on wet and detritus-strewn British roads.

Looking for new rubber? Check out our best road bike tyres buyer's guide.

Emily recently tested the Goodyear Eagle F1 R tyre and was very impressed. These SuperSport offerings take the performance up a notch, which is mostly down to coming in at a lower weight and having an increased thread count in the casing, which should give you more feedback and greater suppleness than the F1 R's lower count.

Both tyres share Goodyear's all-new Dynamic: UHP compound, which has a tacky feel to it out of the box and you know straightaway it is going to grip very well. And it does too, with a reassuring connection to the road surface that gives you confidence to chuck your bike into bends at speed and not feel that dreaded sensation of your tyres scrabbling for bite as you lean the bike over

Video: Learn the easy way to change a tubeless tyre

Side by side against the Continental GP 5000, which I regard to be one of the best race tyres on the market, the Goodyears perform very well, although they just come up a tiny bit short across the board against the GP5000s.

That said, I am talking pretty minimal margins. In isolation I'd say that the Eagle F1 SuperSport R is a very capable tyre and probably all the rubber you are ever going to want whether it comes to racing or just riding fast.

They grip very well in the dry and I have no qualms with using them with confidence in the wet too – and considering how wet July has been the Goodyears have seen plenty of rain. That's tested the durability too, and even with all sorts of road grit being washed out into the road the tyres have stayed pleasingly free of punctures.

The treads have picked up a couple of nicks over the last couple of months though, so they aren't the type of tyre I'd run all-year-round. This is more a tyre to keep for race day and predominantly dry conditions.

At 264g this 28mm option is relatively light too. It's only 10 to 20 grams lighter than the competitors so it's not like you'll feel the difference, but they feel light enough to aid acceleration and climbing.

The 150TPI (threads per inch) casing isn't anywhere near as high as you'll find on something like an open tubular tyre, where the thread count can reach as high as 320TPI, but the Goodyears do still respond well to the bumps and variations you'll find on the road surface, which means they feel comfortable even when I'm riding them at my preferred high pressures.

Performance aside, I found the SuperSport an easy tyre to live with – they're easy to fit and to set up tubeless. All they took was a bit of help from some tyre levers the first time I fitted them and they seated easily. The tubeless version is available in 25, 28 and 30mm widths and the clincher version, shown below, is available in 25 and 28mm widths. Both the tubeless and clincher tyres are available with black or tan sidewalls.

2023 Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport R  - 1

Thanks to an inner liner the tubeless tyres' sidewalls aren't porous, so once seated they maintained pressure from the off.

After they had been on the rims for around six weeks, they were also easy to remove, which gives me confidence that should you have a non-sealing puncture out in the wild, it wouldn't be an issue to whip the tyre off and fix it or fit an inner tube.

Value

As for price, while they aren't necessarily cheap, they aren't as expensive as their main rivals.

Those Continental GP 5000 S TR tyres that I mentioned earlier were £69.95 when Jamie reviewed them a couple of years ago and they're now £79.95 each. That's nearly forty quid a pair more expensive than the Goodyears.

Pirelli's P-Zero Race TLRs are also nearly £80 and at 305g are about 40g heavier than the SuperSports. I found their grip awesome and their feel very supple, but they're also nearly £80 and at 305g are about 40g heavier than the SuperSports.

The Michelin Power Cups are a slightly more reasonable £69.99, weigh much the same as the Goodyear and George was very, very impressed with them.

Conclusion

While the Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport R isn't necessarily the fastest, grippiest tyre out there – in my opinion it's very, very close indeed. The fact they're forty quid a pair cheaper than the GP5000s offsets that, as you're getting virtually all the performance at a price that won't require a meeting with the bank manager first when they need replacing.

Verdict

Impressive grip and overall performance – for a lot less than some of the competition

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road.cc test report

Make and model: Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport R

Size tested: 28-622

Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

Goodyear says: "The Eagle F1 SuperSport R is our fastest Road Ultra High-Performance tire. Optimizing low rolling resistance with reduced weight, the Eagle F1 SuperSport R is the go-to race day tire for Road, Time-Trial, and Triathlon competition."

"They offer plenty of performance, especially low rolling resistance and loads of grip."

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Construction - Tubeless Complete

Goodyear Bicycle Tires proprietary design that features all the benefits of a Tubeless Ready (TLR) tire with additional air retention properties.

A Multi-compound material layer is added to our high-pressure Road-UHP tire casing allowing for improved air retention while providing additional puncture and cut protection with minimal weight increase. Our unique design means more sealant remains after installation, ready for the moment you need it.

Compound

Dynamic:Ultra High-Performance

A proprietary blend of synthetic and natural rubbers enhanced with Graphene and next generation amorphous spherical Silica; our all-new Dynamic:UHP compound has been developed with the single purpose of expanding the 'Magic-Triangle' with improved Rolling Efficiency, Traction and increased Durability.

The combination of Graphene, Amorphous Round Silica allows us to independently improve:

Rolling Efficiency +36.1%

Grip Centre +14.0%

Grip Edge +8%

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
8/10
Rate the product for performance:
 
9/10
Rate the product for durability:
 
7/10
Rate the product for weight (if applicable)
 
8/10
Rate the product for comfort (if applicable)
 
8/10
Rate the product for value:
 
6/10

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

Fast rolling and grippy rubber makes them ideal for all kinds of performance road riding.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

Impressive grip and road feel.

How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?

They are cheaper than many of the tyres that we consider to be the best race tyres such as the Conti GP5000, the Pirelli P-Zero and Michelin's Power Cup.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes

Would you consider buying the product? Yes

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes

Use this box to explain your overall score

If you want a grippy lightweight tyre for fast riding you can't go far wrong with these Goodyears, and my overall score is helped by the (relatively) sensible price.

Overall rating: 8/10

About the tester

Age: 44  Height: 180cm  Weight: 76kg

I usually ride: This month's test bike  My best bike is: B'Twin Ultra CF draped in the latest bling test components

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, club rides, sportives, fixed/singlespeed,

As part of the Tech Hub here at F-At Digital, our senior product reviewer Stu uses the knowledge gained from putting well over a 1,000 products through their paces (including hundreds of bikes) to write in-depth reviews of a huge range of kit. After first throwing his leg over a race bike back in 2000, Stu's ridden more than 160,000 miles on road, time-trial, track, and gravel bikes, and while he's put his racing days behind him he still likes to smash the pedals rather than take things easy. Although, as he spends a fair bit of his time reviewing ebikes these days he's becoming an expert in letting the motor take the strain. He's also waiting for 23mm race tyres to make a comeback!

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