Originally Posted by
FBinNY
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.
That's surprising. I've been lucky enough to never have a blowout (even w/tubulars) though I saw a pro-am criterium race where a rider had a front blowout at high speed (going in a straight line) & immediately crashed. & on icy surfaces it seems as if a front slip is much more likely to cause a spill. However you could still be right on this. At any rate a lot of touring tires aren't esp grippy so it's good to take it easy on the fast sharp turns even with newer tires.
I switched from Schwalbe Marathons to lighter 35 mm Tom Slicks & since I added tire liners have had no flats.