The Golden Boy 

I'm just not a fan of the idea of using old rubber.

I ought to see if my old Specialized Ground Controls are out in the garage.

These Ground Controls came on my Stumpjumper- I thought they were pretty cool. The looked and felt kinda dry to me, but I rode them all over the place- I mean, a tire is a tire- right? So one day, I'm riding over to my brother in law's house- I hear this "flip-flip-flip-flip" sound, and I see what I think is a leaf stuck to my tire, and the noise is the "leaf" hitting the fork leg. I stop and realize the sidewall had separated and a big ol' "thumb" of innertube was sticking out between the strands and the "thumb" of innertube was striking the fork leg on every rotation. Because I thought these Ground Controls were something really special, I tried patching up the interior of the tire with patches and even a big patch of innertube- but it kept separating once I got the tire up to pressure.

I don't really know what could have happened- probably just a catastrophic bang flat, but no idea if it would have put me on the ground or whatever. A few years later, I had a set of Specialized "Touring" and "Expedition" tires that looked and felt about the same way. As plush as those tires felt- I knew riding on them was not a wise thing to do.