Originally Posted by
CliffordK
On the other hand, with today's "armored" tires, I'm not convinced that simply wearing the rubber thin increases risk of flatting. My theory is that most of the protection comes from the tire casing, and thin rubber has less likelihood of picking up debris.
You are probably right - I have noticed that in the past 10 years I have gotten many fewer flats/mile than years ago. I'm buying better tires, checking them after each ride and running lower pressure/wider tires than I used to - all of that contributes, but the tires are definitely more armored.