lilHinault

I grabbed the singlespeed to go do errends today and whoops! Rear tire flat. I looked and looks like a goathead thorn in there, if what I'm seeing caused the flat. So, I changed shoes and used the other bike, I'll take care of the flat in the morning I guess, more details later.

I wonder if I should make one of those tire flicker things? I only have several hundred pieces of stainless wire each of which would make a nice flicker....

gudel

I got some goatheads today too..TWICE! Front tire on my way to work, rear on the way back home.

Seanholio

https://www.goatheads.com/

Go buy some goathead weevils and release them on the goathead vines you find!

gudel

$75 is a bit steep, if it was some $40 I'd have purchased it.

Lone Prairie

Not to seem overly tree-huggy or thorn-friendly but the person behind goatheads.com advocates the use of herbicides to the point of troubling me terribly. I really can't see how dumping large quantities of Roundup and other poisons into the groundwater everyone and every living thing uses is preferable to thorns which, by the author's own account, can be controlled in ecofriendly ways. Three cheers for the myriad other methods! Sometimes there are no better substitutes for natural predators and a good pair of gloves.

Best,
e.

foehn

I never heard them called "goatheads" untill I got married about 20 years ago. We always called them "puncture vines" cuz they punctured everything: your tires, your shoes, your hands, your barefeet. . .

Young puncture vines are easily recognized and simple and thornless to pull. My husband rid our whole garden area at our old house by going out after rains and pulling the baby plants (bare handed; pulled them by their centers) by hand. A scuffle hoe makes quick work of them in the spring, and if you get right on it there are no seeds for next year, or at least alot fewer seeds for next year.

We used to live in a city park when we were kids. The park was in a wild state and every spring, after the foxtails had browned (and just as the goatheads were starting to get really going) the city hired someone with a disk harrow to come and disk the whole area. While they were doing this, we rarely had goathead punctures. Later to save money and cut down on dust, the city started to mow all the foxtails down and the goat heads went crazy and proliferated greatly.

gudel

i installed tire liners before going to work today. sure enough, half way to work, i saw this thing flickering on front tire. stop a bit, yup, goatheat sticks right in the center of the tire!
Well knowing it happened twice yesterday, I figure I was screwed, so I'll just let it stick it to the tire and deal with it later at work.
It came off on the way to work, didn't get a flat. I went home later, still good. So this liners seems to work.

Walkafire

I pulled 2 out... The GOO TUBE works great!

I know.... I know.... I should leave the dayum things alone... but it's like a scab... ya just gotta pick it!


or was that a Booger?

Rick G

Goat heads are a way of life here in NE Oregon.the little buggers are everywhere.the local LBS does a guarentee tube that they promis will not go flat.if it does they fix it for free.for life.since my family went to those there have been no flats.well one but it was a couple of years old.
I am thinking when I get my roadie goin I am also going to do the tire liners just to be sure.but I don't see a problem.
Now if I could just keep them from getting inside the house and in my tender feet.They don't make those liners for my slippers.
Rick G