no motor?

I found another and unexpected benefit to using a wider tire on my trip home today. After thoroughly checking for the cause of the first flat, removing the small piece of glass that had worked it's way inside the tire, replacing the tube and then reinflating the tire twice to avoid pinching the new tube I discovered the wider tire does a better job protecting the rim for the walk home when the new tube goes flat after traveling for all of 5 blocks. I'm not sure if I'm going to fix it again soon, the allure of repairing yet another series of flats like I did a couple of years ago combined with the increased hassles of traffic I've been dealing with may get me to find some other way to get my exercise for a while.

adipe

it's not the tire being wide, it's the tire being thick (plenty of rubber) that helps.
you shouldn't continue riding on the bike with the tire deflated as you can damage the tire.

a wheel with no more than 500g rim weight can be built to sustain up to 400kgf dynamic load. the tire will be more vulnerable than the rim.
but you should not go with very high tension on normal length and with thin spokes, large spoke tension variance etc. etc.. the wheel is to have NDS approach zero tension when reaching it's maximum load (it's limitations) and not remain at a considerable tension because the spokes tension is added to the external load and that is just one argument against excessive tension.

except few people are able to figure out what excessive tension is for all the parameters of one certain wheel.

no motor?

Looks like you missed the part about the walk home - all 3 miles of it.

adipe

i'm not saying you did something completely wrong. i thought to point out the costs/risks to doing so.
you are free to do whatever you want to do with your bike. it may have been bad weather, you may have needed to arrive on schedule.
i won't dispute the usefulness of riding the bike on a thicker deflated tire on a particular occasion or in general.

but in general the tire is not thicker the more wider it is. it will just have a larger tread area so that the thick portion covers the rim edges.

this thread is about thinner tire sizes being of various benefits, not about larger tires being of various benefits like having a larger tread ensuring the rim does not get damaged too much,
maxxis hookworm comes to mind as being more safe for those unfortunate events and it will be my take for a rear wheel. riding the bike for miles with a deflated tire is not something you have in mind when choosing a tire.

so the conclusion with narrow tires being of benefit to you would be: prevent punctures for a front tire because front punctures can be very dangerous.
i suggest having a narrower front than rear as are used in motocross. i won't go to detail the reasons again. and i suggest ensuring a puncture resistant tire (marathon mondial is plenty) and/or a tubeless one with sealant.

bigbenaugust 

I have 1.5s (Panaracer Pasela) on my Trek SU100 right now, but would like to go to 1.75s with more aggressive tread when these wear out so I can hit the trails at lunch. The Continentals upthread look like just the thing.

KonAaron Snake 

My only regret is not changing sooner...

And Panaracers are the single most overrated product in the entire cycling ecosystem. Just one man's opinion, but I think their offerings outright suck for the value. The only nice thing I can say about them is they make a few lines with tan sidewalls that look pretty in photos.

bigbenaugust 

I got them on sale for a different bike years ago, so I never paid full price.