Carl Fogel writes:
>> I keep hearing about these mysterious cherts yet have never seen one
>> on the road or in a tire. I ride many miles of rocky roads here and
>> in Europe and have not had a flat from these mysterious sharp rocks
>> that don't seem to cut car tires or we could find examples of them
>> embedded in the surface of car tires.
> Er, goatheads don't puncture car or motorcycle tires, but I hear
> rumors that they can cause problems for bicycles.
Ah yes, but I find them in tires of cars that pulled off the road at
locations where the stuff grows. That they break off and leave only
their thorn once back on the road is the same as for bicyclists,
except that the thorn is too short to reach the air chamber... and is
hard to see, being a tiny tan colored pip in the huge tire.
> Since you insist that anything outside your experience can't exist,
> would you please tell us what your experience is?
I think it's a good measure, considering riding on all sorts of
terrain with people from around the world who also have not found
them.
> That is, how many flat bicycle tires have you had in the last year
> or ten thousand miles?
About six or eight, I don't recall. Of these, three or four were
snake bites.
> In my last sixty 15-mile rides, I've had 15 flat tires, an average
> of a flat tire every sixty miles.
I wouldn't be so proud of that. You seem to be attracted to roads
that are full of thorns and know where they are. Instead of crossing
these minefields, avoid them.
> As I recall, we've been through this before. Confronted with
> pictures, you insisted that you could see no goatheads. Confronted
> with close-ups, you changed your tune to asking why I ride a bicycle
> on a path that doesn't suit your theories.
You changed the pictures!
> For general amusement, here's the thread:
> http://groups.google.com/group/rec....6763342204c/37608e9e4b7ce770#37608e9e4b7ce770
> or http://tinyurl.com/m5ggx
> If you're as authoritative about flints as you were about goatheads,
> this would be a good time to fall silent, but it really would be
> interesting to know how many flats your experience is based on.
As I said, it is based on miles ridden on roads that you claim are
full of them. I have never had a roofing tack in my tires, but that
does not mean you cant get one, especially if you ride through an area
where they are used. I think you are turning discovery upside down.
The argument seems the same as broken spokes. Unless you break them
often, you don't know anything about spoke failure, so the current
argument goes yet I made the transition from spoke failure to
practically none with design.
Jobst Brandt