I say pfft to that! yeah ok having a barb on them would not be much fun in digging out! My little effort was had single tracking in Hokitika. Came down a rocky ridge line and then had to go down a sharp embackment to get down the bottom. Hit a big rock with the front, recovered only to have the font dig into soft gravel and flip me over the handle bars and down the rest of the hill into the thorn bush. No barbs I will give you that, but when you land in a bush you get enough of the f@ckers in you that it is not fun for about a week after that. Find new ones everyday when you happened to press them further into your body Mashed up left shoulder a bit as well, but beer numbed that one