Originally Posted by Starclimber
Hey, Sheldon. Thanks for stopping by. "or the fabric shows through the rubber." My experience is that the rubber becoming absent occurs at about the same time. I must have melded our experiences. A mindless meld, perhaps. My apologies. Seems pretty close to me, though. You don't mention front or rear, so I'm guessing this advice applies to either.
If you follow my rotation recommendations, this will never happen in front.
Originally Posted by Starclimber
Less rubber to deform equates to less rolling resistance, also in my experience. Experiment: Take two brand new tires, mount them on the bike, ride'm. Take two 'experienced' same brand tires, ride'm, and let me know what you think. I say the 'seasoned veterans' roll better.
Well, a
thinner tire will have lower rolling resistance. If rolling resistance is a high priority for you, you should
buy thinner tires to begin with, rather than starting out with thick tires and counting on them to wear thin.
Originally Posted by Starclimber
Lastly, assuming one puts a 'seasoned' rear tire on the front, and a newbie on the rear, one would tend to purchase fewer tires in the long term. Perhaps your experience is that front and rear tires wear at the same rate, but I don't think you'll back that horse.
They don't wear at the same rate front and rear, nobody says they do. If you follow my recommendation, when you replace a worn out rear with the tire that was on the front, that tire will likely have lots of life left in it. Tire consumption will be [exactly] the same, only you'll never have to ride on a worn-out front tire.
The concept of rotating tires rear to front only makes sense if you are going to replace tires in pairs, but there's no good reason to replace tires in pairs unless you run a different type/size front/rear...and if you do that you wouldn't want to rotate them either!
Originally Posted by Starclimber
PS: I still wipe my tires...and I'm pretty sure I get fewer flats because of that silly habit.
I don't think it's silly, do it myself sometimes, though since the passage of bottle deposit legislation here in Massachusetts, it's much less of an issue than heretofore. Also, most of my riding is on bikes with fenders, where tire wiping isn't possible.
Sheldon "Sssssssssssss..." Brown
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| Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge. |
| -- Benjamin Franklin |
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