Thanks to the many of you who left constructive responses. No, I don't think I have any bike handling deficiencies. I am fairly confident and have excellent balance but tend to be cautious. I was thinking more in terms of a long tour with hundreds of hours of riding when on a descent for intance one might not have time to react optimally to a hazard. I was also generally appealing to your collective wisdom to see if there were other safety advantages/disadvantages of wider tires, as I consider going up in tire width.