Tires seem to wear slower on dirt tracks
 

I have not done a scientific study, but it seems to me that tires wear faster on hard surfaces, such as bitumen and concrete, and wear slower on dirt tracks. I suspect, the dirt particles being able to move, results in less rubber being worn off the tires.

What are the thoughts of others?

Yup, less friction. On roads your tyre is softer than the road surface so is what'll wear off.

If you could ride fast enough to ride across water they would wear even less. And if you could fly on your bike like ET or Mary Poppins you'd never ever have to replace tires.

In an amazing coincidence, and perhaps related to the topic at hand, I have noticed my bike stays cleaner on paved surfaced vs. on dirt.

All that slippage on gravel and dirt is your tires not gripping and not wearing. You can ride on deep marbles or ball bearings and get even less wear. Ice is pretty good also.

That's wild.

My bike stays super clean if I don't ride it.

Just a general comment on this topic....

https://i.imgur.com/ZqVTPEs.gif

Erie Canal towpath wore about half the tread depth off my nearly new rear tire in 440 miles of loaded touring. The front tire lost about a third as much.

Just make sure you don't fly too high or you may you may have issues with tire pressure :thumb:

The worst was about 20 years ago in radio controlled car racing, someone invented “mini pin“ tires for really hard adobe tracks. These would last eight or 10 minutes, or about two heats, which made them good for 2/3 of a race day.

Yup. This something that happens to all of us. Mud=lower tire pressure.