Goodyear Wrangler MTF and MTR Tires

Deniz and I sat down with Bastien Donzé and Nick Pole of Goodyear Bicycle to get a little background on the company and these new tires. The first thing to know is that this is a licensing agreement. The automotive arm of the company isn't involved in the day to day operations of Goodyear Bicycle. As you may have noticed, these aren't always well-conceived and many of the products that result should be an embarrassment to the companies granting the licenses. Bastien brought up the Ford Ebike as an example of a licensing agreement that seems to be more about a quick buck than making a decent bike.

Not All Licensing Agreements are Created Equal

There are some key differences here that Bastien and Nick wanted to point out. The first is that the people who work at Goodyear Bicycle have a lot of experience in the bike world. Bastien, as one example, worked at SRAM for 15 years and at Mavic for 8 before that. We were assured that this is not a group trying to capitalize on brand awareness without trying to do their best with the product. Obviously that's an easy thing to say but our recent experiences with the product bears this out.

It was also pointed out that there are downsides to being the lowly bicycle arm of a manufacturing behemoth like Goodyear, Michelin, Continental, Pirelli and, to a lesser extent, Maxxis. This has been underscored recently by Michelin disappearing from mountain biking for a time and Pirelli releasing MTB tires in fits and starts. Getting approvals, access to manufacturing time and the proper attention can be a challenge when you are a tiny cog of an enormous corporate machine.

Instead of sharing time at Goodyear's production facilities, we were told that Goodyear Bicycle has its own factory in Taiwan and that they control the entire supply chain. This, along with their comparatively small size, gives the company the agility to try new designs and to fail quickly on the road to making a quality product. It was also acknowledged that their initial efforts didn't live up to their own standards (more on that from Deniz below).

Moto Tires and MTB Tires

Back to automotive tire companies making bicycle tires, Bastien told us there isn't much tire knowledge transfer that can take place between motorcycles and mountain bikes because the softest compound used on moto tires would be vastly too stiff for the hardest mountain bike tires, and that MTB rubber would be shredded in hours on a moto. An area Goodyear's designers did draw from is tread pattern. The simplicity of blocky moto treads puts more rubber on the dirt. I've heard it suggested before that elaborate tread patterns with different shapes are mostly about aesthetics. Big blocks provide stability because they resist deformation under load. Also like moto, there are no ramps on these tires, so it might be easy to put them on backwards (it also might not matter).

Bastien was transparent about this: "The impact of ramps isn't massive but it's there. The objective of this tire is not so much to be a fast pedaling tire, it's really to be as predictable and confidence inspiring as possible when going down."

Into the Void (Ratio)

Where these tires differ from moto is in the void ratio, that is the difference between the area covered by knobs and the uncovered area. Moto tires have a high void ratio with lots of space between knobs and some mountain bike tires do as well, ostensibly to aid mud shedding. Both the front and rear Wranglers have a lower void ratio than many competitors but the rear in particular has knobs that are comparably tightly spaced. This is attributed to the fact that the initial brief for the Wrangler was that it was going to be an eMTB tire. The more tightly spaced knobs are designed to roll well, resist shearing forces under acceleration and to provide lots of grip, primarily in dry conditions.

During testing, Goodyear's Enduro riders used the tires on their pedal bikes and liked them a lot which led to two versions of the tire: the ElectricDrive Wrangler and the Enduro Wrangler. The main difference between the two is casing and the E version weighs around 80g more front and back.

I mounted 2.6" rubber front and rear but I was initially sent a 29 x 2.4 front with a 27.5 x 2.6 rear. Apparently this is a trend in Germany(?) mimicking the way moto riders put a wider tire on the smaller rear wheel. I wasn't feeling Germanic so I asked for a 2.6" front to match. A little higher volume is nice for bony North Shore winter conditions.

On The Trail

Despite being told these were designed mainly for dry and loose conditions, we tested them close to home in mostly wet, cold and mucky conditions. We don't have a high clay content in most places so tires packing up with mud isn't generally a problem on the North Shore. Going further against convention, I mounted the ElectricDrive version on my We Are One Arrival 170. I can electrify them later.

The first thing I noticed was how planted these tires felt. Grip was very high and consistent and I have only ridden them in somewhat moist or entirely wet conditions. On both dirt and rock they dig in well and they impressed me when cornering, too. I could really lean on the Wranglers with very little squirm in response. They have a solid feel, likely related to the heavier casing and, while not nearly as supple as the Schwalbe radials, they still deformed adequately in response to small bumps at my usual 19/21 psi inflation.

Before my most recent ride I was beginning to second guess my conclusions about this tire designed for dry and loose on wet, hard and cold surfaces, so I went looking for some challenges. I rode some steep and slick ladder bridges, a slimy narrow log, and lots of wet rock. In each case not only was the grip adequate, it was as good as all but the stickiest tires I've used but only when they were at lower pressures. I began applying the brakes in perilous circumstances and I found it challenging to make the Wranglers slip at all. In fact, it was going to require so much braking force to get them to let go that I feared the release would be unexpected and dramatic so I reined it in after considering the conditions and the hour.

I look forward to finding the limits of these tires which seem very promising.

Deniz's Impressions

The iconic Goodyear logo captures attention from a great distance. The company that began making bicycle tires in 1998, before they made them for automobiles, no longer does so. Instead, as Cam mentioned above, they sold a license to use their name, but the principle seems to be the same: make high-performance tires for both on and off-road applications.

When Goodyear Bicycle arrived on the scene in 2018, its Newton series tires were not well received. The tires were not particularly suitable to the slick and demanding conditions of the wet coast. The carcass also left a lot to be desired when it came to rim retention. After some research and testing, the engineers came up with a new formula for the Newtons that Tim tested last year. He also had varying success when it came to grip and tread life. It turns out the bike folks at Goodyear have been reading the room and absorbing the feedback. They eventually brewed up something new and invited Cam and I to sample the result: the Wrangler MTF and MTR, front and rear, eMTB and Enduro-specific tires.

MTF and MTR

MTF and MTR are, on paper, dry conditions tires for mid to long-travel Enduro bikes. The Wrangler MTR exists in the Goodyear automotive catalogue as a Mud Terrain tire, which confused me at first. The Enduro casing 29 x 2.4” set I received had a familiar tread pattern that inspired confidence before they were mounted. The 120tpi casing felt robust and the Grip3S compound felt very, very sticky in my hands. The tires weighed in at 1,200 grams each at this combination which is about 100 grams lighter than the Continental Kryptotal DH tires that have been my benchmark for the last year or so.

I mounted them to a pair of well-used Reserve HD30 wheels that has been around the block a few times. There is Mucoff tape on the front and 311 tape on the rear, which unfortunately didn't seal up and had to be redone. Once seated I pushed a few ounces of Orange Regular sealant through the reserve valve.

Once inflated to 19-20psi on the front and 24-25 psi on the rear, we went for a pedal. The tall, blocky construction of the Goodyears was not loud but had a textured feel on smooth tarmac. The pedaling performance felt slow when the grip was high. The Wranglers are the most voluminous 2.4” tires I’ve seen, dwarfing 2.4 Continentals and even their 2.5 Maxxis counterparts. Keep this in mind if you are fighting for real estate between your chainstays.

On the descents, the Grip3S compound with its tacky rubber and slow rebound worked effectively. The bike had a muted feel and the mechanical grip was phenomenal, likely the most impressive of any tire I have used. Slimy roots that should deflect a tire like a greased bowling ball are no match for the siped and well-supported side knobs.

While Bastien was hesitant to share the Durometer with us, because it is one of the many factors that determine how a tire performs, he hinted at a 40a shore reading for the side knobs. On hard packed and marbley trails like John Deere and Paul’s, the Goodyears performed slightly better than Continental Kryptotals, with less drift when initiated into a bermed corner.

I never thought I would complain about the grip but here we are, and TBF this is a good gripe. I have about 60ish kms of uphill and downhill riding on the Wranglers and the front looks like the day it was mounted. The rear is showing minor signs of abrasion as expected from such a grippy tire.

The carcass on the Enduro Casing Wranglers feels great and I would happily ride with the MTF on the front of my bike for the rest of time. The rear would be more use-specific for me as I don't need that much grip for most of my rides.

Goodyear has produced a tire that can comfortably take on the established brands. It's nice to have another legit player in the market.

Goodyear Wrangler MTF 1095-1250g - 85 USD

Goodyear Wrangler MTR 1295-1450g - 85 USD