Goodyear Eagle F1 R tyre review

The latest Goodyear Eagle F1 R launched in March, as part of a refresh of the American brand’s high-performance tyre range.

It’s pitched towards all-round performance road riding – a little beefier than the lightweight, time-trial focused F1 R Supersport, but racier than the Eagle F1 and Vector Sport, respectively.

There’s also pedigree here – the previous-generation Eagle F1 Tubeless tyre earned a coveted 5-star score when we reviewed it in 2021, meaning the new Eagle F1 R has big shoes to fill.

But fill them it does. While the latest high-performance road bike tyres are broadly setting new standards, the Goodyear Eagle F1 R is one of the very best for all-round performance.

Goodyear Eagle F1 R details and specifications

On paper, the Eagle F1 R is the second-tier tyre in Goodyear’s range.

It's in a similar vein to the Continental GP5000 S TR, Schwalbe Pro One TLE and Pirelli P Zero Race TLR, each of which have lighter-weight siblings aimed primarily at time-trial use.

However, the Eagle F1 R (and company) are the tyres most likely to appeal to everyday enthusiasts and road racers, who will benefit from a more considered blend of performance and puncture resistance.

The Eagle F1 R features a 120 TPI (threads-per-inch) short-ply fabric casing. Goodyear claims the use of its short-ply arrangement minimises excess material, which in turn keeps weight down and improves suppleness.

The tyre uses the brand’s Tubeless Complete technology, which takes the form of a bead-to-bead single layer of nylon fabric, designed to improve air retention and puncture resistance. The bead also has a ‘dual angle’ rubber orientation, which is said to ease installation.

Like the Eagle F1 R Supersport, the Eagle F1 R utilises Goodyear’s Dynamic:UHP compound, which it says brings top levels of grip across wet and dry conditions, and low rolling resistance (more on how it fared in our own lab tests to come).

Compared to the previous-generation Eagle F1 Tubeless tyre, rolling resistance is claimed to have been cut by 13 per cent, while grip in wet conditions is said to be 19 per cent better.

I weighed a 28c test tyre at 313g. That’s nearly on par with the Pirelli P Zero Race TLR, but 33g heavier than a Continental GP5000 S TR and 50g per tyre heavier than the Challenge Criterium RS (albeit in a size 700x27c).

We’re quibbling over grams here, though, so this will likely only matter to weight weenies.

The Eagle F1 R tyre is priced at £65/$80/€70, marking it as one of the most competitive among the latest-generation tubeless tyres of recent years.

For comparison, a GP5000 S TR retails for £79.99 and a 28c P Zero Race TLR is £78.99.

It’s still not quite as cheap as the Panaracer Agilest TLR tyre, however, which costs £60.

You can have an Eagle F1 R tyre in five sizes, offering plenty of flexibility – 700x25, 28, 30, 32 and 34c.

Goodyear Eagle F1 R installation and tubeless setup

I fitted the Goodyear Eagle F1 R tyre to a Hunt 54 Aerodynamicist Carbon Disc wheelset, needing a couple of tyre levers to finish the job on both wheels.

The tyre isn’t quite as flexible in the hand as the Michelin Power Cup TLR, Continental GP5000 S TR or Challenge Criterium RS, which is probably linked to its slightly portlier construction.

That said, it shaped readily into an easier-to-fit round profile out of the box – it just took a little lever gusto to pry/slide the tyre onto the rim. It's not difficult, but it's not the easiest I’ve experienced, either.

Both tyres seated using a standard track pump. I just needed to play with the initial fit around the valve to help the bead pop into place.

The tyres inflated to 28.3mm wide at 80psi/5.5 bar for my rolling resistance tests and practically identically for my ride testing (done at around 75psi/5.2 bar).

I was impressed by the air retention of the tyres. Although pressures would drop by around 5psi overnight, that left the tyres still very rideable the following day.

It’s always best to check and top up tyre pressures regardless, but it’s good to know that you stand a decent chance of being able to carry on the following day without a pump to hand, should you need to.

Goodyear Eagle F1 R rolling resistance

With Goodyear promising big improvements in rolling resistance versus the previous version, we went in with high expectations for the new Eagle F1 R.

Happily, it put in a strong performance at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub, producing 13.33 watts of rolling resistance for a single tyre at 30kph.

This put it fifth fastest of the eight tyres tested, although it lagged behind the fourth fastest tyre – the Michelin Power Cup TLR – by only 0.18 watts, which it’s fair to say is essentially a draw.

The gap to the fastest tyre on test, the new Pirelli P Zero Race TLR, was also just 1.47 watts. A measurable difference, but not a big one.

Goodyear Eagle F1 R ride impressions

On the road, the Goodyear Eagle F1 R tyre feels like a well-considered all-round performance tyre.

Although it doesn’t quite match the same levels of road feedback as the lighter Continental GP5000 S TR, Michelin Power Cup TLR and (outstanding in this regard) Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR, the difference is small enough to ignore.

This is because the Eagle F1 R compensates with a very smooth ride feel.

Some might refer to it as feeling ‘duller’ than some rivals, but the flipside is it makes textured tarmac feel a little easier to ride over.

To a degree, it’s akin to controlling the bandwidth of data coming through to your contact points – it smoothes over the edges, translating into a comfortable ride. This is an exchange I suspect many will appreciate.

Race-level speed is present and correct, as demonstrated by our rolling resistance lab test, and I had plenty of confidence that the tyre would stick when tipping into a high-speed bend.

I estimate it took slightly longer to generate the same confidence as I have felt with GP5000 S TR tyres before now, but once I was used to the ride quality and trusted it, I never felt inhibited.

I experienced no punctures or cuts to the tyre during testing – likely more a reflection of the prevailing summery conditions I was fortunate to test in. Grip on wet roads (I test in the UK, after all) was very good too.

My first ride on the tyres was on damp roads, but I was surprisingly quickly able to dispel any extra caution attributed to riding a near-box fresh tyre on grip-compromised surfaces.

Goodyear Eagle F1 R bottom line

The Goodyear Eagle F1 R tyre might not be the absolute fastest or most supple all-round performance tubeless tyre when it comes to our objective testing, but it’s competitive in every regard.

It produces a relatively comfortable ride compared to most rivals of the same nominal (28c) size. This makes it a strong choice if you’re after a bit more surface-nulling ability without notably sacrificing performance elsewhere.

To date, the Continental GP5000 S TR has been my personal favourite tyre of this type, and a valid benchmark to measure others against. Much like its predecessor, the Eagle F1 R can compete wholeheartedly with it.

The fact that it achieves this while costing £15 less than the German tyre means it’s arguably an even smarter buy than the standard-setter.