I have a flat on my road tire that I think is from a goatshead sticker.
A lbs has thornproof tubes. Are they any good?
I don’t ride off trails- if I can help it, but a mower discharged onto the path and I am pretty sure that caused the flat.

Where I live, the goathead thorns are light enough to fly everywhere. They're in the roadway, on the sidewalks and paths...hard to escape them completely.

I find running Kelvar-reinforced tires - Specialized Armadillo, Conti Gatorskin or the like - helps prevent a lot of those thorns from becoming punctures.

I also regularly brush the treads with a fully gloved hand to make sure that if I do acquire any thorns in the tread, I get them out of there fairly quickly before they can do any serious damage.

I have no experience with thornless tubes. Is that reinforced / thicker tubing material, sealant inside the tube, or both?

The description said they were thicker but a review said if the thorn or sticker was long enough it would still puncture it.
There are self sealing tubes. I might try one or just deal with flats.

For many years we sold the heavy tubes due to customer demand. They are best at protecting flats caused by underinflated tires. Goatheads are going to get thru them. Thorns of most types will puncture those tubes.

they aren't as good as a tubeless setup.

Now you’ve done it.

😄

I found a tube I bought a few years ago and installed it. It’s a Flat Attack Freedom Tube. I will see it I notice any difference. At my skill level probably not.
I ran a red shop rag around the inside of the tire and didn’t snag anything, then ran my bare fingertips around and didn’t feel anything. I took it out in sunlight and couldn’t see anything so I guess it didn’t stay in the tire.
I inflated the old tube and found the hole. I laid it against the tire and looked in that area closely and found nothing. I would feel better if I had found a goathead thorn and removed it.
I will check the pressure in a few hours and see if I did miss something.

Does tubeless on a road bike perform as well as a tubed tire?
Does it have more or less rolling resistance?
I can see going tubeless on a mountain bike or gravel bike.

And...... we're OFF!

In general, tubeless has less rolling resistance. Again, in general.
As for how it performs, it largely depends in the tire width and psi you want to run at. Too high a psi or too narrow a tire isn't great for tubeless as the psi may be higher than what many rims are designed to handle an/or psi too high makes it difficult for sealant to work.

Again, all generalizations.
Details matter, so your situation may work or not, depending.

No thicker tubes aren't good they are a bad idea, rubber needs to stretch and unfortunately those thick tubes don't really stretch much. Still rubber and still subject to punctures just thicker, heavier with less stretch. I would recommend either more puncture protectant tires, tubeless or using something like Tannus Armour.

Someone recommended Gatorskins. If I keep having problems I will look into them.

😄
Now I done it!

I may just carry a spare tube and patches.

There was a time in Tucson a few years back when I got 6 flats in one week. Went and bought some 2 lb. "Resistant" tubes and only got three flats the next month.
There are more than goats head plotting our demise.
I then got some liners.
Yeah they still make the tire much heavier, but they are still on one of my bikes tires. I never got a flat after that. About $8 per tire at the time retail.
Can't remember the name but there are a few brands. The gatorbacks on my touring bike are still lined.
Just look up tire liners on eBay or some bike shops in Goat Head country stock them.

No such thing as thorn proof tubes, if a thorn is long enough to get thru the tire it will puncture the tube, it might just last an extra half mile with a thicker tube. Honestly, Gatorskin tires aren’t really goathead proof either, seen plenty of them puncture during group rides.

I live in goathead territory, when I moved here one bike was tubed, one tubeless. I remember getting three flats in six miles on my tubed bike, never made it to my group ride start. (Each was a separate thorn, first the front tire, then the back, then the front again in a different spot). Hung that bike up and rode the tubeless bike exclusively. Eventually bought another bike set up tubeless. The tubed bike is relegated to my trainer now. I looked at converting it to tubeless, but it would require new rims, it’s an older frame and max tire width is only 25mm, so I decided it wasn’t worth it.

if you stick with tubes, carry 2 spares, some self adhesive patches and tweezers, along with a few CO2s and a backup pump. Know where the nearest bike shops are and their hours in case you need to buy more tubes during a ride.

All my road bikes are running 700c x 25 and using puncture proof tubes.
The tubes are invisible and weigh 0 grams each.

They ride great and despite living in goathead country, they just don’t flat.

Barry

(Note: I never used the T_ b _ l _ s s word)

My tores are 700c x 28

I live in Colorado Springs in Goathead Country. Fifteen years ago I started using tire liners. First Mr Tuffies, but then other brands too in all six of my bikes. I like light supple tires. And with the tire liners I went from one or two flats a week to maybe one possibly two a year. I tried some thicker thorn resistant tires and found them heavy dull and a drudge. I'm not saying one way is better than the other but this is what works for me and why I do it.

I finally put thorn-resistant tubes, plus Mr. Tuffy tire liners on my Jamis Citizen 1, the bike I re-started riding on, just as I got another bike to replace it. The combo made the Jamis heavy and slow. It was very noticeable. Now it's the guest bike, and might become my rain bike if I put fenders on it...

I also weeded my street, believe it or not!


Goatheads are evil.


10,000 punctures (and future puncture factories) in a bag...

Weeding is effective, but weeding every street in the county is not practical, alas.

I haven't used any of these products in years but when I was a kid in 1980's-1990's Phoenix exurbs and desert...

Thorn "resistant" tubes were maybe 2x thicker than normal.

Thorn "proof" tubes were huge, they came in a box the size of a kid's shoebox.

Mr. Tuffy were effective at preventing thorns but if you let the pressure run down in the tire they'd let the tube slide and tear off the stem. This might not be a concern on high quality bikes, the problem occurred on a Huffy

With the benefit of the Internet, today I would choose a Marathon tire and a regular tube, for a regular bike.

I run most of my bikes tubeless with sealant but it's some investment and a learning curve to get going. If you already have an inexepensive bike the Marathon is a better choice.

If you insist on using tubes, another puncture proof option is the Tubolito X-City. This is a 176g TPU tube. They have a one year warranty against punctures. I just put a set of these on my mixte. While I don't have it on long enough to tell you how well the puncture resistance works, I can tell you that it rides a lot smoother than the old regular tube that it replaced.

Another, cheaper puncture proof TPU tube is FOSS:
https://www.foss.com.tw/inner-tube.html

Met this guy a few years ago during a Sandy Creek trail ride near Franklin PA ; he had recently completed a ride across the US

he said he had a number of flats - until he switched to Schwalbe Marathon tires and then never flatted after that

at one time I would often pick up glass on the nearby neighborhood streets where I would ride occasionally

at the time glass was not included in our allowable recyclables - but is now and the amount of small pieces of broken glass is excessive and clearing the streets of glass is no longer practical

so - no more neighborhood bike rides