Originally Posted by
stephendm
I had my first commuting accident yesterday on the way home from work. I bike home through the old industrial outskirts of Savannah and cross a lot of abandoned (and some still used) train tracks. It had rained all day and the train tracks must have been slippery as my rear wheel just slid out from under me while crossing a track that was at about a 45 degree angle to the road. I didn't get caught in the rut between the asphalt and embedded track or anything, the tire just skidded to the right and I fell on my left side.
...
My question is -- would I be better served by switching to something like a Long Haul Trucker that can run much wider tires? My max tire width is 28mm on the Giant OCR, and I can't help but think that perhaps it would be safer for me to be riding on something with 38mm tires or so given all the train tracks embedded in the road with the ruts on either side of the tracks.
Wet train tracks at a less than 90 degree angle will still gobble up 2" tires. Not saying you wouldn't benefit from wider tires on rough pavement, but, really, you need to slow down and turn w/in your lane to take tracks from directly perpendicular to them, especially when they're wet.