If you’re a former rider who hasn’t ridden a bike much in recent years and you don’t even know when “it’s time for the GCN Show,” (the Global Cycling Network YouTube channel), things are probably different than you remember.
For example, if you think riding faster and farther means piloting a bike with thin 23mm-wide tires at rock-hard pressures of 120 pounds per square inch, those days are gone. Heck, even inner tubes are questionable tech in some cycling circles these days — and you can run Goodyear’s newest tires without them.
Bicycle designers and tire makers have adopted wider tires that operate at a lower pressure than the tires of yesteryear. And, contrary to what was considered common sense just 10 years ago, wider tires with lower pressure actually present less rolling resistance than those thin, hard tires of the past.
It might be a perfect stage for Goodyear to re-emerge.
“As we’re still relatively new in the cycling market, we have a distinct advantage in that we can take a fresh approach and account for these changes from the beginning, focusing on where the market is going,” Luke Musselman, Goodyear Bicycle Tires president, said in an email to Crain’s.
The company isn’t going it alone. It’s working with Zipp, an Indianapolis company known around the world for its carbon-fiber bike wheels.
Those wider tires are especially popular among gravel riders. Goodyear partnered with Zipp to design a tire-wheel combination that would use a very wide internal rim width and a tire specially designed for the rim. That width adds traction, allows lower tire pressure, and, most importantly, allows a wider tire to be used without deforming its shape or losing aerodynamics.
GCN presenter Simon Richardson was impressed, as only a bike nerd could be, when he gushed about the tire-rim combo in early August.
“It’s 32 mm!” Richardson said of the internal width of the rim and tire. “That’s way bigger than most cross-country mountain bikes and even trail rims. It’s so wide in fact that Zipp is testing all gravel tires on the market for compatibility with these.”
In other words, if Zipp’s new wheels do well, it’s likely to create demand for new tires—and Goodyear would seem to have a leg up and over the saddle there.
“It’s quite likely you will need to buy new gravel tires for your new gravel wheels,” Richardson said. “These Goodyear ones have been designed in collaboration with Zipp. They’ve got a revised tread pattern and a revised carcass shape in order to take into account that vast 32mm of width. In fact, they say on the tires that you can’t use them on anything else than these 32m rims.”
Goodyear hasn’t put out pricing on the tires, which aren’t yet showing up on the websites of major bike retailers. But whatever they cost, it doesn’t appear it will be cheap to run them due to the price of the Zipp rims, which are about $2,000 per wheel.
That’s not a typo, but a sign of the times. Bikes have gotten more expensive and, like a lot of products, have branched out into a reasonably priced segment, and a very expensive segment for those who have the cash to burn or an obsessive passion to feed.
Goodyear’s going for that high-end market, at least with this tire.
“Our focus is on the premium bicycle tire market—the quality you would find at your local professional bike shop. We have segmented this market into four distinct categories: Road, Urban/Trekking, Gravel and Mountain,” Musselman said.
The company expects Europe and Asia, where bicycles are far more popular than in the U.S., to be its largest markets, he said.
Developing a new tire is no small endeavor and takes about 12 to 18 months, Musselman said.
The tires not only have to be durable enough to last 2,000 miles or more, but they have to be light, provide excellent grip, be aerodynamic and provide a comfortable ride, he noted.
Musselman said working with Zipp has been advantageous as the two companies take a new approach to design.
“Working with Zipp has been an incredible experience. Historically, bicycle tires and bicycle wheels are designed independently with their independent performance maximized based on a set of industry norms which allows for mixing and matching,” he said.
“By working with a forward-thinking brand like Zipp, we can go beyond the standard to achieve higher levels of performance in areas such as rolling resistance, grip and even aerodynamics.”
