Which wheel travels furthest?

On 9 July, 12:55, Ian Smith wrote:
On Fri, 09 Jul 2010, bugbear wrote:
*Ian Smith wrote:
On Fri, 9 Jul 2010, TrailRat wrote:
*Anyway on my return, I inspected the valves expecting to find them
*still aligned and was surprised to find that front one was about 4" in
*front of the rear one.

*So, I turn the scientific analysis to my peers and ask that ultimate
*scientific question, huh??

The back wheel cuts every corner. *It will travel less distance.

*Agreed.

*Further, I doubt if the (effective) diameter
*of the wheels is closely enough matched to have
*the valves line up after 10 miles, even if one cycled
*a (Euclidean) straight line.

Well, if it's teh same tyres with the same amount of wear and the same
inner tubes, same rims and same spokes they won't be the same
diameter, because teh wheels have different loads. *I don't have an
immediate feel for what teh difference would be, however.

Not much. The tread length is the same. Tyre pressures are usually
adjusted to give similar ride heights. Also sometimes a little more
care goes into a rear wheel build resulting in a stiffer structure,
not obvious to the casual observer.