Goodyear have some new tyres out – the Newton MTF and the Newton MTR. They’ve also got a new online tyre pressure assistant. From our preliminary messings about, it seems pretty useful.
(Here for tyre calculator? Scroll down a bit)
Goodyear are having another crack at er, cracking the mountain bike tyre market. They first dabbled with mountain bikes tyres in 2018 but they never really good much traction (pardon the pun).
The new Goodyear Newton MTF and MTR tyres launched this week appear to be something of a simpler range of rubbers.
For a start they’re focussing on tyres for harder hitting duties. Whether that is gravity/enduro bods or simple ebike-worthy tyres, there is nothing for XC duties in this relaunch.
Knobs
The Newton MTF is a rounder profile, more gappy knobbled tyre, nominally intended for front wheel use. With its really spaced out shoulder tread, it doesn’t really resemble any other tyre out there (that we can think of anyway).
Of particular note is Goodyear’s highlighting of the damping properties of the round-profile Newton MTF. “By utilizing a rounder profile for the Newton MTF, damping capacity is increased and the tire footprint is elongated; in the real world, this offers improved straight-line control while providing a greater contact patch for braking.”
The Newton MTR is a squarer profile tyre, nominally intended for rear use. The Newton MTR bears a familiar central-paddle and blocky-shoulder tread pattern common to other brands.
No particular damping claims for the Newton MTR. Just that “The [Newton MTR’s] wider footprint offers greater drive traction and confidence inspiring transition between center tread to side knobs.”
Rubbers
The Newton MTF is available in two rubber compounds: Trail2 and Grup3S.
The Newton MTR is available in two rubber compounds: Trail 2 and Grip3.
Trail2 = 50/60a
Grip 3S = 40/42/60a
Grip 3 = 40/50/60a
It’s these rubber compounds that hold most interest to us tyre geeks. Previous Goodyear mountain bike tyres never really seemed to get the formula quite right. The softer compounds were okay but the firmer compounds were felt to be a bit skittish on loose and/or wet terrain.
These new tyres have been developed in conjunction with Rubber Kinetics. These are the folk behind the excellent soles on Ride Concepts’ riding shoes.
Casings
Both tyres are available in three casing options: Trail, Enduro, Downhill. Nice and simple.
Trail = 1 x 60TPI with bead-to-bead anti-cut layer
Enduro = 2 x 120TPI with butyl sidewall support
Downhill = 2 x 60TPI with thicker butyl sidewall support
How much?
Trail Casing £54
Enduro Casing £60
DH casing £65
Tyre pressure calculator
Developed in conjunction with SRAM, there’s also a new online tyre pressure calculator from Goodyear.
Although it’s squarely aimed at Goodyear tyres (you have to select a Goodyear tyre from the dropdown menu to get a ‘result’) we reckon it can be used as a general assistant for all brands of tyre. You just need to select the Goodyear casing equivalent of your tyres’ casings.
It’s certainly seems to tally with how we set up our tyres. And it could be useful for everyone who’s wondered just how much they should alter their tyre pressures depending on ground conditions, casing types, overall rider-plus-kit weight and other factors.
Letting a couple of PSI out of your tyres (23.6 to 21.1) for when it’s wet out there seems like eminently sensible advice, for example.
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