Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
It is not so much how much wear there is on the tire. I am more worried about a catastrophic tire failure on the front than on the back, as on the back I have a better chance of avoiding a crash. I have had tires go bad with sidewall failures and a few times with casing tears under the tread, most often on the rear. And for that reason, I really do not want to move a tire that was on the back to up front.
Having ridden tubulars, which tend to be more prone to sudden catastrophic decompression (blowout), all my life, I've had my share on both wheels. IME - there's little control difference with flats on either wheel. OTOH there's a
slightly greater with a front failure because braking weights the wheel more, whereas on the rear you can use the brake to unweight the wheel and protect the rim.
I also ride fat wired-on tires on my commuter and know that they wallow at low (or no) pressure, and I've had the wheel slide out on hard corners. This happens on either wheel, but is slightly worse up front.
So, while there's some slighter greater concern about front vs rear flats, it's not nearly as earth shaking as some believe. If it were, we'd be hearing all sorts of accident/injury reports.