Tires You Should Know About: Goodyear County Bicycle Tires

 The Goodyear County Tires

It's another edition of "Tires You Should Know About". In this post I will share a bit about a tire company you ALL probably know about. That's the ironic part. What you may not know is that they brand bicycle tires again now. 

I brought this to your attention with this post in May, and you readers with longer memories may recall that I mentioned Goodyear making bicycle tires again back in 2018 in an "FN&V" post. But if you are not familiar with what Goodyear is putting their name on for bicycle tires for gravel, read on....

First off, you might notice that I am inferring that Goodyear doesn't actually make the tires in question, and you would be correct if you are thinking that. Some other Far East vendor makes these. I haven't been able to ferret out just who it is, but I am certain we've all probably heard about other brand's that this mysterious factory makes. That said....

I'm sure Goodyear has some final say on design and properties of this tire, so with that in mind, I can tell you that while these are derivative in terms of tread design, they have a unique quality which may or may not appeal to you. Specifically, when I think about these County model tires, I would say that the excel at mostly paved travel with a little smoother gravel/dirt as a side dish. That's the short version of this review. If you don't need to know anything else, you could stop right here. For a deeper dive.....

Note how the shoulder tread is not at the outer circumference of the tire casing here.

I say that because of the way the casing and tread cap are shaped. The emphasis is on having the smoother, faster rolling central part of the tread hit the terrain you are riding on first. Those more aggressive tread features you see in the image above are set in such a manner that you'd have to be cutting into the terrain - or running really low pressures - to get that part of the tread to engage with the terrain. 

On gravel and most dirt, that isn't going to happen. Cornering tread? Yeah....You are going to have to lean over pretty hard to get that tread to engage and then what? I'm not buying it. Stability in loose gravel maybe? Yeah, but for the fact that the casing almost has what I would call a 'peak' for that central strip of smooth tread. It's rather obvious this is a tire for faster, smoother surfaces. Not that this is a bad thing. It isn't. But remember- horses for courses. The County is not my favorite loose gravel tire, and that's a predominant feature of our roads around here which are unpaved. 

 Goodyear makes more treaded gravel tires called the "Peak" and the "Connector" respectively, but even those tires look to have a similar casing shape. I'm not generally a fan of that casing shape for looser terrain because it makes the tires 'plow', or 'hunt' for the path of least resistance instead of floating up and over the looser stuff. That may seem counter-intuitive to many of you. However; when tires try to find more solid ground because of their casing shape on looser gravel, sand, or in loamy dirt, you end up with either a huge rolling resistance penalty, or a tire that rattles the front end severely causing the rider to have to 'herd' the bike down the road, or both simultaneously. That saps strrength and causes fatigue. 

Conversely, a tire which surfs up above the looser stuff rides calmer and causes less resistance to forward motion. An extreme example of this would be a fat bike tire in snow. If you can stay 'on top' of snow, you roll. When the tires cut into the snow, it's game over for forward motion and control. So, while having a tire that wants to find solid ground in loose terrain may seem safer, it causes a bunch of other issues and, in my opinion, is not a lot of fun to ride.
 

So, back to the Goodyear County tires. What would I use these for? Well, as mentioned above, any ride that featured a lot of back roads which had broken up, rough pavement, or any courses of off-pavement roads which were smoother, not having sections of loose rock for miles, and no sand or loose dirt. There I would ride this tire. It is fast, comfortable, holds air well, and has puncture protection. I like the rest of the tire's features and performance a lot.

The Connector and Peak have more tread, but I am willing to bet that they have a similarly peaked crown to the casing like the County does. That would be less appealing to me because more tread in the central strip area of the casing makes for less free rolling tires. Generally speaking, anyway, and so I'd say the pick of the litter in the Goodyear gravel range is the County. 

Now, you can ride it in loose gravel. I've done it. It just is not the best choice there. So, if you do have some looser sections of crushed rock, it's 'okay' there, just not optimal. At nearly 70 bucks a pop, I would not get this tire if I had roads predominantly in loose gravel. I'd look at something like the American Classic Kimberlite, or Donnelly's Strada USH for a better version of a tire for loose gravel that was also fast on pavement. 

But if you think the County is looking good for where you live, and you want to fly the Wingfoot on your skins, go for it. These are pretty nice tires if they are applied in the right places. 

Note: I purchased these tires with my own damn money- so there!