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I. Hate. Goat. Heads. !

5938 Views 39 Replies 20 Participants Last post by MTBMike Colorado, Sep 8, 2011

cda 455

Discussion Starter · Feb 22, 2011

Last Thursday I rode through an empty dirt lot on the way home from work at night. Went inside the house with the bike; saw a goathead on my front tire. Bummer.

I pulled up a chair with tweezers to pull it out and saw more. And more. And more

!

After spending approx. 20 mins. going over both tires I pulled approx. 2 dozen goatheads and thorns.

Saturday; getting ready for work. About to roll out the bike for the commute; look down and see my front tire completely flat. Bummer; must of not gotten all the goatheads and thorns. Back bike is solid as a rock. I swap front tire/wheel and head off for work.

One block from work I feel my tail get wobbly like the back tire aired down real low. Hop off the bike; squeeze said tire. Very low air pressure :madman: . So I walked the final block to work.

Today; I break down said tires/wheels to swap inner tubes and proceed to pull yet more thorns. Over a dozen more. After inspect outside of tires I inspected the inside.

I bought Slime 5X Thicker inner tubes last Fall because I read more flats happen in Winter

confused

but ended up swapping them out for lighter inner tubes because they're HEAVY! As in 7.5lbs rear studded tire/Slime inner tube/wheel. The front is 6.4lbs studded tire/Slime inner tube/wheel. I guess I'll just HTFU and ride/commute with 14+lbs of rotating mass until the end of Winter. What does not kill me will make me stronger; right :lol: :cryin: ?!!

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rodar y rodar

· #2 · Feb 22, 2011

Damn. 2 dozen+ in the tires and at least three flats would have me hating them too. I`m surprised you`re having so much trouble in the winter, though. Maybe because when they get damp and then freeze they get like steel?

cda 455

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 22, 2011

rodar y rodar said:
Damn. 2 dozen+ in the tires and at least three flats would have me hating them too. I`m surprised you`re having so much trouble in the winter, though. Maybe because when they get damp and then freeze they get like steel?

Definitely a lesson learned.

It was a vacant dirt lot on a corner of an intersection. I didn't want to deal with the intersection (Rush hour traffic) so I cut into and through a grocery store parking lot and rode behind several stores before the lot came up in front of me. Riding through (what I now know is Tribulus Terrestris) ground-level foliage I was more concerned with holes and ruts because of poor lighting and I didn't know what plants goatheads came from. After Googling it; that's exactly what I rode through: A freakin' mine field of goatheads :lol: .

highdelll

· #4 · Feb 22, 2011

Best tip - learn to recognize them!!! :thumbsup:

It's like poison oak too - I hate them so much, I can spot them mixed in w/ all kinds of other foliage from a mile a way - for the most part ...

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highdelll

· #5 · Feb 22, 2011

Another thing about them, is that they're almost exclusively near roadways. I dunno if it's a chicken or the egg thing, but they're (thorn/seed) engineered to spread by sticking into something (like a tire) and then later breaking off and depositing elsewhere - to spawn more demon weed. - next to the road/walking paths.

You hardly ever see them anywhere else.

This wasn't supposed to be enlightening - just something I noticed

Also, when we were growing up we called them 'Bull-thorns' - might be a regional thing, but 'bull-thorn' yields little results on google

cda 455

Discussion Starter · #6 · Feb 22, 2011

highdelll said:
Best tip - learn to recognize them!!! :thumbsup:

It's like poison oak too - I hate them so much, I can spot them mixed in w/ all kinds of other foliage from a mile a way - for the most part ...

Yep; Those are the little S.O.B.'s I rode over alright. A whole field of them.

Lino.

· #7 · Feb 22, 2011

Recognizing the plants are of some use, but the goat heads are worse when they are dry and no longer attached to the plant.
When they are attached to the plant they are still green and softer.
I have never had a green one on my tire, never, and I have dealt with them things all my life.

rodar y rodar

· #8 · Feb 22, 2011

Yeah, when they`re still green, it`s tempting to roll around in them like a big green pillow

But I don`t get why you have them in the winter, CDA. Your profile says Boise, which I know to be colder than here, and we don`t have any weeds in the winter.

TwoHeadsBrewing

· #9 · Feb 22, 2011

So you used slime tubes and still got punctures? I wonder how Stan's tubeless holds up to goat heads. We have them all around here, but I haven't had a problem with them on my MTB yet. Rode off the trail on my commuter once though, right through a patch and it sounded like I was rolling over bubble wrap. BRRRRAAAAAAPAAPAPAPPAPAAP! Punctuated of course with a few choice words

.

tk1971

· #10 · Feb 22, 2011

What the heck is a goathead?

I thought you were talking about some hipster slinging a goat-tee trying to squat on your front tire...

Quercus agrifolia

· #11 · Feb 22, 2011

I feel your pain. Had this problem continually last year, but in late summer/early fall with the dry goatheads.

Then, I installed Schwalbe Marathon Supremes. Problem solved. Heavy? Sure. Spendy? Definitely. But my sanity is worth it.

rodar y rodar

· #12 · Feb 22, 2011

tk1971 said:
What the heck is a goathead?

I thought you were talking about some hipster slinging a goat-tee trying to squat on your front tire...

Where`s Commuterboy`s artwork? This`ll have to do:
http://www.google.com/images?client...F-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi

J. Fragera

· #13 · Feb 22, 2011

Nature's caltrop +1

Yeah, I'm a geek.

ImaFred

· #14 · Feb 22, 2011

daaaamn, that sucks. Here in Vegas we ride through those and cactus and ghetto tubeless usually does the job, so maybe try that

Leopold Porkstacker

· #15 · Feb 23, 2011

I've been sold on Panaracer Flat-Away Felted Kevlar tire liners since 2007:

https://www.jensonusa.com/store/product/TU402Z01-Panaracer+Kevlar+Flat+Away+Tire+Liner.aspx

I've only had two flats in the past 2,900 miles on my current bike, one from a 4" long carpentry nail hit at about 22MPH, and the other was a pinch flat from nailing a boulder really hard on a trail. The Panaracer felted Kevlar liners are a stretchy fabric, and I've demonstrated to people with an ice pick how much force is required to actually puncture through it. They're incredibly lightweight, and add a tad of confidence to my rides; I still however, carry a spare tube and patch kit, since I'm paranoid.

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rodar y rodar

· #16 · Feb 23, 2011

Late to the party, but here it is. A team effort by CommuterBoy and MtbXplorer:

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cda 455

Discussion Starter · #17 · Feb 23, 2011

TwoHeadsBrewing said:
So you used slime tubes and still got punctures? I wonder how Stan's tubeless holds up to goat heads. We have them all around here, but I haven't had a problem with them on my MTB yet. Rode off the trail on my commuter once though, right through a patch and it sounded like I was rolling over bubble wrap. BRRRRAAAAAAPAAPAPAPPAPAAP! Punctuated of course with a few choice words .

The front tire had no Slime; Tire went flat over night. The back tire had Slime and it lasted a day and a half before it went flat one block from work.

Boise Jim

· #18 · Feb 23, 2011

Hey cda-
Live in Boise also. Ever since I went tubeless (Stan's) on both my commuter and mountain bike, I haven't had a problem with those little bastards.
Kind of a hassle to set up initially, but well worth it in the long run.

CommuterBoy

· #19 · Feb 23, 2011

Yay! I was gonna post my killer artwork. Thanks Rodar.

I have seen a few after the really, really warm january we had. now it's flipping cold again and there's snow everywhere, but they were waking up with that warm snap.

My salvation has been going tubeless. I'm a teacher and I keep track of driving days and flat tires. Last year I had 5 flats. Year before, I had 12. Year before that, 7. All goatheads. that's just on the commute. This year I went tubeless, and I'm at 0 flats, and 2/3 of the way through the year. I pull them out or brush them out with a gloved hand while riding, and forget about it.

BUT I grew up in goathead country, and learned to recognize them in my Jr. High BMX days... steering clear of the plants will save you a lot of headache.

cda 455

Discussion Starter · #20 · Feb 24, 2011

Boise Jim said:
Hey cda-
Live in Boise also. Ever since I went tubeless (Stan's) on both my commuter and mountain bike, I haven't had a problem with those little bastards.
Kind of a hassle to set up initially, but well worth it in the long run.

I think I might look into that.

If you know where the Fair Ground is, the triangular dirt lot I rode through is on the corner of Glenwood and Chinden; next to the quick-lube place.

Have you been to B.B.P. (Boise Bike Project)? I'm a regular there.

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