When I was a poor college student, I tended to ride tires until they were threadbare. (Or should that be "tread-bare"?) Then I realized that the cost of emergency room visits far exceeds the cost of even the most expensive FMB tubulars (not that I was riding those). To say nothing about the cost of patches and aggravation of fixing more flats as the tires get thin and worn. I started replacing my tires when they started getting more flats than usual and felt thin when I took them off the rim.
Sheldon's point was that if you run your tires down until they blow out, you'd be better off with a rear blowout. My point is that you don't want any blowouts. It's not worth risking an accident to squeeze the last dollar or two of life out of your tire. So I recommend replacing your tires before they blow out. To do that, you need to keep an eye on them. If you have fenders, you don't ever see the rear tire tread unless you lay down the bike or remove the wheel. Thus, I recommended putting the new tire on the rear. The front tire is always visible - even with full fenders. Thus, you'll see when the tread pattern disappears, and you'll definitely see if the casing shows through the rubber. And obviously, when the front tire is thin, check the rear one, too! Please don't try to set mileage records, but be reasonable. You don't drive your car and try to see how many miles you can squeeze out of a tank of gas when you go through Death Valley, either. You fill up at the gas station with the sign "Last gas for 180 miles" and then enjoy the scenery without worrying about whether you'll make it back to civilization on the last drop of gas. These days, I just replace each tire individually when it gets worn. Currently, the new tire is on the front, but once the rear tire gets worn, there will be a newer tire on the rear. Jan Heine Editor Bicycle Quarterly www.bikequarterly.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
