By "backtrack" I mean a subword of a relator in a group presentation of the form $x x^{-1}$.

Let $X = \langle a \rangle$ as a presentation complex.

Let $Y = \langle a$ | $aa^{-1} \rangle$ as a presentation complex.

Now we see that $X$ is a circle and $Y$ is a pinched torus, and these two spaces clearly do not have the same Homotopy Type as $\pi_2(Y)$ is nontrivial.

However it was said in "A Covering Space With no Compact Core" by Daniel Wise that:

$\langle a, b, t $ | $ [a,b]^t = [a,b][b,a] \rangle$ is homotopy equivalent to $\langle a, b, t $ | $[a,b] \rangle$.

Is this always true when the backtrack is a proper subword of a relator? Is the above case with $X$ and $Y$ the only real nonexample?

Thank you all! :)