jitteringjr

Thats 3 in the past 3 days.

No point to this thread other than venting.

daytonian

Take a few and share with the group.

DannoXYZ 

Heh, heh... I know how frustrating that is.... Get some tyre-savers, scrapes them off on the very first 1/2 revolution of the wheel before they've had a chance to work through the casing...

Surferbruce

i took a trip to sedona arizona a couple years ago and did some riding and had never dealt with goatheads before. leave it to mother nature to design the perfect puncturing device. everyone there was running slime in tires but it seemed you could count on at least one flat per ride.

Saddle Baggins

What's a Goathead?
besides the head of a goat...

It can't be worse than being a longsuffering Vikings fan can it???
(Minnesotan, here).

Miller2

what the hell is a goathead?

phantomcow2

cyccommute 

Only the most devious, ingenious, devastating, nasty little plants ever devised by nature! Phantomcow2's picture below should send shivers down your spine Every cyclists on the planet should run screaming in horror from this evil!

The plant is a flat to the ground but can be 3', 4', even up to 10' wide (and 1/4" tall). That little seed pod (about 1/2" across) can break into 5 or 6 thorns that sit on the ground with the pokey bits facing up. Ride a bike over them - or, worse, walk over them - and they instantly penetrate through the tire, tire liner, thick rubber tubes, kevlar lining and 12" battleship armor plating to leave you with a tire that is gently hissing its last breath.

The seeds are starting to cure out this time of year and there is always a bumper crop in Colorado. The insidious little piece of devilry will stick around for the rest of the winter. In fact the seeds will remain viable for up to 50 years although the thorn may be gone by that time.

Be thankful that you pick the wrong team to back...it could be worse! You could have to content with goatheads!

Want some? I can send you several tons.

BladeGeek

LMAO......I will turn down your offer. Here in Arkansas we do not have them but every bug here is small and either stings, bites, or sucks your blood until your dry. And we have them by the trillions.

granite4brains

This won't help with road bikes, but on my mountain bike, I got the slime tires and the plastic strip insert that goes between the tire and tube. I live in the high desert so the goatheads are a real problem around here, but I haven't had a flat since and I've even been picking the occasional goathead out of my tire.

I understand that there is a road tire that has thicker "walls" on it that helps a little too, but I haven't tried these to know if there real effective or not

stonecrd

This is the one and only reason that I like FL over CA, no goat heads. I use to have to carry three tubes with me on every ride and could count on a flat at least 25% of the time. They are the worst

Sea Green Sky

Same here for me in SoCal last week, three in three days. Super annoying.

Personally I think it's gnomes in the bushes with thorn blowguns nailing my tires for their own amusement. Must be really funny to them because they keep doing it.

norskagent

looks like what we call sandspurs down at the coast. Last week, I walked my fixy across a ~100' grass lawn at emerald isle, then pulled at least 10 off each tire. No punctures because I didn't ride across it.

Ritterview

Description
Goathead is an annual weed in the caltrop family. The prostrate stems radiate from a tap root. The opposite leaves are pinnate. The flattened fruit breaks in five nutlets, with two strong, woody spines. The flowers are small and have 5 yellow petals.


Distribution and Habitat
Goathead is an introduced weed from Europe. It is widely distributed in disturbed areas, along trails, roadsides and may become abundant in severely overgrazed pastures. It is found throughout Texas except on the gulf coast and extreme eastern portion of the state.

Great, we find that Goatheads are Euro. Is their anything else from Europe we could do without?

BladeGeek

Wow the map shows they are in AR. I have never seen the little devils.

JOEPIPPAS

Here in west Texas they are the worst. then the winds blow them everywhere. there are times when you can get 2 or 3 in a tire at a time......They really suck.. and you cant use a gloved hand to sweep them off your tire while you ride. cuz then you're picking them out of the palm of your hand...

Namenda

According to that map, no goatheads in Mass. Unfortunately, we have plenty of broken glass on the streets, which gave me a flat about an hour ago.

Ritterview

They are not everywhere in Arkansas. The USDA site has county infestation maps for each state.

https://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=TRTE





Little devils is a bit too affectionate a term for these infernal weeds:

"Fred"

I have never seen them in Northern Michigan and we dont have to many bugs either. Then again I had to look out for frozen puddles again this morning. I guess we all have are problems.

leob1

I don't recall ever seeing them here in NJ, but we do have lots of wild rose bushes. These little bastards have curved thorns, that are, of course, razor sharp. Get to close to one on the trail, and you will have holes in your $90 jersey, and you will be bleeding in streaks. If you are lucky, you can get almost pulled off your bike(yes it happened to me). They stand upright for the most part, but if one is on the ground, and you run it over, the thorn will break off in your tire after puncturing your tube. Then it will cut your finger when you try to find it inside the tire.

STW

It's amazing, from looking at the map, how fast it spread across our nation considering they came from Europe. I'm not gonna mention names, but it's pretty funny how that "less developed" state down in the South doesn't have em.

Sporkinum

Wikipedia's page on caltrops.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caltrop

BTW.. They plagued my existance when I live in eastern New Mexico.

blue_nose

I thought this weed was called "puncturevine" - nasty stuff. My kids seem to find it on their bikes more than I do with my roadie.

cyccommute 

My understanding is that they came from central Asia instead of Europe and they came in wheat. They live in disturbed soils, like along bike paths (see the picture from Ritterview), but they are a pioneer plant that doesn't do well in competition with other plants. As grasses and other plants grow in around them, they will be forced out. But, since they can last for 50 years, they can lay fallow for a very long time to wait for the next disturbance of the soil.

jitteringjr

Well the Vikings don't cost me money, but these somanabiatches do.