Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 11,261
Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.
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I described my tire width choices for varying purposes in post 9 above. But thought of two more comments on tires.
Pinch flats. They can be common on skinny tires with inner tubes from hitting pot holes, etc. But the probability of getting a pinch flat is much greater with a narrower tire. I am not sure if there is a good rule of thumb for tire widths that are wide enough to make pinch flats almost impossible to get, but I think if you tour on 35mm or wider it is almost impossible to get a pinch flat. And if your load was light enough, 32mm is probably wide enough to avoid pinch flats.
Tubeless. All comments in this thread are for tube type tires. I have no clue if we will mostly be on tubeless tires a decade from now or not. I personally am sticking with tubes. Some people are trying tubeless and like it. The reason I am avoiding tubeless is that sealant needs maintenance, annually at a minimum. I ride several different bikes in any given year, but I only average one puncture a year. It would be too much time for me to maintain the sealant in several bikes compared to the time to fix one puncture on the road. And since tubeless rims are different than tube type rims, that would be a major effort to change rims on several bikes. If you are a one bike person, then maybe tubeless would work for you. In part your decision on that would be if you are in an area where you encounter thorns a lot or not.