Goats for goatheads?

[[email protected]]

Hmmm . . . Twelve flats in the last three weeks. I wonder why a friend
sent me this article?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/319789_goats14.html

Hmmm . . . Goats that eat Washington blackberry (west coast thorn
vines, not east coast PDAs):

"They suck down blackberry vines like it was spaghetti. I don't
understand it, (but) the thorns don't bother them at all."

Hmmm . . . Goats, goatheads. Only $450 per day, plus $250 transport,
fencing extra.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

 

[[email protected]]

On Jun 14, 7:15?pm, [email protected] wrote:
> Hmmm . . . Twelve flats in the last three weeks. I wonder why a friend
> sent me this article?
>
Carl, have you had similar results with the puncture protection tyres,
such as the Marathon Plus. I had no where near your nightmare number
of flats, but since i swapped to the Schwalbes, i've only had one very
slow flat in the last year (last week) and when i got the tyre off, it
turned out to be rim rub from the holes. These goatheads sound enough
to make you put on wooden wheels.
cheers, Nick.

 

[[email protected]]

On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:55:17 -0700, [email protected] wrote:

>On Jun 14, 7:15?pm, [email protected] wrote:
>> Hmmm . . . Twelve flats in the last three weeks. I wonder why a friend
>> sent me this article?
>>
>Carl, have you had similar results with the puncture protection tyres,
>such as the Marathon Plus. I had no where near your nightmare number
>of flats, but since i swapped to the Schwalbes, i've only had one very
>slow flat in the last year (last week) and when i got the tyre off, it
>turned out to be rim rub from the holes. These goatheads sound enough
>to make you put on wooden wheels.
> cheers, Nick.

Dear Nick,

I use "puncture protection" tires in the sense of Kevlar belts and
Slime tubes. (And years ago, "thorn resistant" thicker inner tubes and
Mr. Tuffy plastic tire liners.)

But not in the sense of tires with sidewalls thicker than goatheads:

http://i18.tinypic.com/2gtpxd2.jpg

http://i16.tinypic.com/44td0dx.jpg

I'm just grumpy right now, since the flurry of flats in the last three
weeks is due to the mowers running over ancient goathead beds and
spewing long-since harmless thorns onto the highway, along with sharp
bits of rusty iron:

http://i17.tinypic.com/662cbw6.jpg

It doesn't look sharp enough to puncture a tire, but the left-side end
went right through a Kevlar belt at over 30 mph on a downhill.

Fortunately, the state highway department is fixing things by applying
several miles of chip seal this week on what looked like a perfectly
good highway that they paved a few years ago.

And this is a sharper staple, about an inch long, cunningly worked
_through_ the tire in two spots in the middle of the picture:

http://i9.tinypic.com/5xsbmg1.jpg

The staple is hard to see, but it's the mess in the middle, flanked on
either side by Slime drops oozing out the usual holes in the tire.

Off to test tires before the sun sets!

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

 

[* * Chas]

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:55:17 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>
> >On Jun 14, 7:15?pm, [email protected] wrote:
> >> Hmmm . . . Twelve flats in the last three weeks. I wonder why a
friend
> >> sent me this article?
> >>
> >Carl, have you had similar results with the puncture protection tyres,
> >such as the Marathon Plus. I had no where near your nightmare number
> >of flats, but since i swapped to the Schwalbes, i've only had one very
> >slow flat in the last year (last week) and when i got the tyre off, it
> >turned out to be rim rub from the holes. These goatheads sound enough
> >to make you put on wooden wheels.
> > cheers, Nick.
>
> Dear Nick,
>
> I use "puncture protection" tires in the sense of Kevlar belts and
> Slime tubes. (And years ago, "thorn resistant" thicker inner tubes and
> Mr. Tuffy plastic tire liners.)
>
> But not in the sense of tires with sidewalls thicker than goatheads:
>
> http://i18.tinypic.com/2gtpxd2.jpg
>
> http://i16.tinypic.com/44td0dx.jpg
>
> I'm just grumpy right now, since the flurry of flats in the last three
> weeks is due to the mowers running over ancient goathead beds and
> spewing long-since harmless thorns onto the highway, along with sharp
> bits of rusty iron:
>
> http://i17.tinypic.com/662cbw6.jpg
>
> It doesn't look sharp enough to puncture a tire, but the left-side end
> went right through a Kevlar belt at over 30 mph on a downhill.
>
> Fortunately, the state highway department is fixing things by applying
> several miles of chip seal this week on what looked like a perfectly
> good highway that they paved a few years ago.
>
> And this is a sharper staple, about an inch long, cunningly worked
> _through_ the tire in two spots in the middle of the picture:
>
> http://i9.tinypic.com/5xsbmg1.jpg
>
> The staple is hard to see, but it's the mess in the middle, flanked on
> either side by Slime drops oozing out the usual holes in the tire.
>
> Off to test tires before the sun sets!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel

How did you get the goathead snakebites so far up the sidewalls?

Chas.

 

[[email protected]]

On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:02:23 -0700, "* * Chas"
<[email protected]> wrote:

[snip]

>How did you get the goathead snakebites so far up the sidewalls?
>
>Chas.

Dear Chas,

You probably mean the goathead in these pictures:

http://i16.tinypic.com/44td0dx.jpg

http://i18.tinypic.com/2gtpxd2.jpg

One theory involves paranoia and ninjas lurking in the rabbit brush,
equipped with goathead blow-guns and willing to use them.

A slightly more plausible explanation involves delusions of grandeur
and leaning over in turns like this:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/images/tiretest.jpg

Well, not quite that far, but you get the idea.

All I know is that when I looked at my rear tire the next day, there
was that damned goathead, daring me to pull it out of the sidewall. As
soon as I yanked it out, the tire began hissing.

I usually spot couple of goatheads like that one every year, but on my
front tire, stuck in the sidewall and spinning around undamaged.

No flat tire today, just this fellow cleverly using the expansion seam
for extra traction to make a U-turn and writhe off between my feet
when I tried to grab him:

http://i7.tinypic.com/5x47t36.jpg

Nice 20th-century fossil leaf imprints in the cement.

I'm hoping that the needle-sharp metal wire that I brushed off my rear
tire was just harmless debris picked up from the garage floor. The
tire's still holding pressure five hours later, so maybe I'll get to
ride tomorrow without fixing a slow leak.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

 

[Johnny Sunset]

On Jun 15, 1:46 am, [email protected] wrote:
> ...
> http://i7.tinypic.com/5x47t36.jpg
>
> Nice 20th-century fossil leaf imprints in the cement....

"Dear Carl" should be aware that the snake is on a concrete surface,
not a cement surface. Calling it cement is similar to calling a
completed wheel a rim, when it also contains a hub and spokes.

A cement only road would be only marginally more useful than a bicycle
that had rims, but lacked hubs and spokes.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

 

[* * Chas]

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:02:23 -0700, "* * Chas"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> >How did you get the goathead snakebites so far up the sidewalls?
> >
> >Chas.
>
> Dear Chas,
>
> You probably mean the goathead in these pictures:
>
> http://i16.tinypic.com/44td0dx.jpg
>
> http://i18.tinypic.com/2gtpxd2.jpg
>
> One theory involves paranoia and ninjas lurking in the rabbit brush,
> equipped with goathead blow-guns and willing to use them.
>
> A slightly more plausible explanation involves delusions of grandeur
> and leaning over in turns like this:
>
> http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/images/tiretest.jpg
>
> Well, not quite that far, but you get the idea.
>
> All I know is that when I looked at my rear tire the next day, there
> was that damned goathead, daring me to pull it out of the sidewall. As
> soon as I yanked it out, the tire began hissing.
>
> I usually spot couple of goatheads like that one every year, but on my
> front tire, stuck in the sidewall and spinning around undamaged.
>
> No flat tire today, just this fellow cleverly using the expansion seam
> for extra traction to make a U-turn and writhe off between my feet
> when I tried to grab him:
>
> http://i7.tinypic.com/5x47t36.jpg
>
> Nice 20th-century fossil leaf imprints in the cement.
>
> I'm hoping that the needle-sharp metal wire that I brushed off my rear
> tire was just harmless debris picked up from the garage floor. The
> tire's still holding pressure five hours later, so maybe I'll get to
> ride tomorrow without fixing a slow leak.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel

I guessed that maybe you were riding in the dirt. Those old dried up
goatheads are worse than the green ones.

We used to make and sell "Sticker Flickers" that looked like these:

http://www.bikeman.com/content/view/307/47/

We made ours from very soft wire so that they could be easily bent to
position them and match the contour of the tires. The surgical tubing we
used was the most flexible available.

A lot of folks pooh poohed these but they had tried the stiff commercially
available tire savers that didn't work as well as ours.

Down in NM we had a goathead problem just as bad as yours. I picked up
numerous goatheads and saw them flicked off of my front tire without going
through to the tube. It seemed like many times they didn't puncture on the
first rotation of the wheel.

I ran Clement Paris-Robaix and Del Mundo sewups at 85-90 PSI much of the
time on my road bikes.

Our Sticker Flickers didn't provide much protection against glass or metal
but they worked on goatheads.

Chas.

 

[Bill]

[email protected] wrote:
> Hmmm . . . Twelve flats in the last three weeks. I wonder why a friend
> sent me this article?
>
> http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/319789_goats14.html
>
> Hmmm . . . Goats that eat Washington blackberry (west coast thorn
> vines, not east coast PDAs):
>
> "They suck down blackberry vines like it was spaghetti. I don't
> understand it, (but) the thorns don't bother them at all."
>
> Hmmm . . . Goats, goatheads. Only $450 per day, plus $250 transport,
> fencing extra.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel

I think the 'goatheads' around here would choke even the hardiest of
goats. They remind me of the WWII anti-tank barriers where you are going
to get stuck no matter what you do. On my mountain bikes even knobbies
were useless since the sticker always found the thin rubber between the
knobs. I now use thick street slicks and the extra+ thick tubes and
haven't had any flats but have a lot of holes in my fingers from pulling
the things out. Now I carry an Exacto-knife to pop them out.
Bill Baka