froze

Mr Sheldon Brown; thanks for replying. Freako's statement was probably a bit exaggerated, but did you by chance read my last post?

Please note I DID NOT say that I felt your opinion was wrong just different; I have in the past read your site dealing with this tire rotating debate and think your opinion is much regarded.

As I kept stating over and over I do my way, or BikesDirect way, due to personal experience; and as you agreed with me that blowouts are rare...or rather few as you stated, and even more rare (or few) on the front due to the same reasons I quoted.

Yet I know plenty of road racers in the past that had blowouts on the rear while going around a corner and most crashed as a result, but I can't recall anyone crashing on a flat straight road having a blowout either in the front or rear except in cases where a tub or clincher came off the rim. In fact where most flats becomes a problem is when the bead of the tire...especially the FRONT tire...becomes unbeaded from the rim. In fact if a tire is properly fitted between the tire and the wheel beadseat controllability during a flat is greatly improved. In fact this is one area where I think there should be some sort of government requirement or standard set forth that would require or standardlize the rim diameters and the tire beads so that we don't run into issues with some tires fit loose and some fit tight etc. Maybe Sheldon Brown with your political awareness you could look into this????

Now I have seen cyclists strike a curb or a road defect etc with the front tire and go down due to the front wheel being jerked in direction different then intended or the front wheel just suddenly stops; but we were talking flats. Also keep in mind that less then 7% of all bicycle related accidents are caused by mechanical failure, which includes flats.

Let me repeat a sentence in my last post: have you notice the design of the Continental Attack Force tires? HMM...wonder why the better tire with better flat protection is for the rear?