I got an interesting answer to this question from the incredibly helpful and friendly Kingdom Bikes in Blue Hill, Maine.
Continental and perhaps other tire manufacturers include a piece of fabric that wraps from the inside of the tire, around the bead, and out onto the lower/inner part of the sidewall. It's meant to prevent problems from chafing. When the tire rolls, the fabric wears; my sidewall wasn't failing at all. The tire was just doing what it's supposed to do. All good! And if you own the Redwood that's at Kingdom for service: nice bike! -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/c55988bd-8c8c-4252-8e0c-1c4f44565a4c%40googlegroups.com.
