I similarly believe that wiping is quite helpful (although I don't seem to get many flats on my bikes with fenders that prevent me from wiping the rear).
But, over the years, I've also felt stuff get picked up on the tire and have wiped it off. A few times I've felt stuff I couldn't wipe off and have stopped the bike and removed items before they caused a flat. Therefore I find it simply WRONG to argue that wiping doesn't help. I can't say how much it helps, or what percentage of the time it helps, but there is something to wiping. I've even cut my fingers on debris that hadn't yet cut through the tire!
And on my bikes with fenders I sometimes stop the bike after going through glass and wipe the tires.
Now the author (Jobst Brandt) of the article on Sheldon's site is known for taking contrarian positions, and acting with a certain level of aggression (he once unfairly trashed a highly esteemed list member on a different forum) on crusades that are just pointless. So I take his stuff with a grain of salt.
Mike Kone in Boulder CO
> Oldtrikerider@aol.com wrote:
\r?\n> > I would have to second Bob's comments regarding the usefulness of tire
\r?\n> > savers. They do seem quite effective in removing goatheads. While Boulder
\r?\n> county
\r?\n> > doesn't seem to be plagued with them the roads in nearby Weld county are.
\r?\n> > You can see them growing at the edge of the asphalt. Another item which is
\r?\n> > very helpful (a must for children's bikes) is the goo that one puts inside
\r?\n> the
\r?\n> > tube but I didn't say that did I? ;-)
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> > Paul Patzkowsky
\r?\n> > Longmont, Colorado
\r?\n>
\r?\n> I commute to work on tubulars through the downtown Raleigh, so I ride
\r?\n> through a fair bit of broken glass. I find it hard to believe that tire
\r?\n> wiping doesn't help as advocated in:
\r?\n>
\r?\n> http://www.sheldonbrown.com/
\r?\n>
\r?\n> The rollout of a 27" tire is almost 5 feet. When I roll through glass I
\r?\n> think that I'm able to get my hand down on the back tire within one or
\r?\n> two revolutions, the front tire a little longer than that. When I'm
\r?\n> wiping my tires I occasionally feel the odd piece of glass rubbing
\r?\n> against my ungloved hand.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> It may be a futile gesture when I'm booking along in a paceline at 25 -
\r?\n> 30 mph, but in riding from stoplight to stoplight downtown riding I
\r?\n> think that it surely must help.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> -Eric
\r?\n>
\r?\n> --
\r?\n> Eric Goforth
\r?\n> Raleigh, NC USA