Goat Heads

Schwalbe has different kinds of "guards" (how they call it) with different kinds of protection levels. I use Schwalbe tires with a high protection level for years now. They're slow, they're heavy, they're the opposite of supple, but I never had a flat. Unfortunately, as far as I know, there is no Schwalbe gravel tire with protection at the moment. You had to use a touring tire.

I voted to pull them out after the ride, but that's not how I did it when I use to live in the Mojave Desert in California. This was back in the tube days, but some of this will work for tubeless tires.

 

The first line of defense is the tires, not a liner, not a tube, not sealant! You have to stop the thorn from penetrating the tire, and the only way to do that is with a highly flat resistant tire, which will be heavier than a lightweight racing tire but you'll get a lot less to zero flats. Schwalbe has the best flat defense tires, but Continental has a couple as well, and a couple of other tire makers too, but without knowing the size you need I can't make any recommendations.

 

You can get a set of Tire Savers if you have rim brakes, and those things skim the tire and flick off stuff on every rotation, but they only work on smooth road tires; we use to use these way back in the 70s on our tubular tires. Some say the benefits were dubious, but everyone I knew back then said they worked, and I used them and they worked for me.  Tire Wipers – Rene Herse Cycles

 

Tire sealant wise, supposedly Peaty’s Holeshot Biofibre sealant is the best for sealing punctures up to 8mm? That's what they say anyways.

 

Others reading this might wonder about a tube tire setup. Once you find a really good puncture resistant tire, the only thing you should consider adding is a flat liner. Mr Tuffy does not work near as well as Clear Motion Rhinodillo; I tried to push a tack through a Mr Tuffy and it went straight on through without much effort, but I bent the tack on the Rhinodillo, even though they look like the same material they don't perform the same.

 

Also concerning tubes, don't buy thorn resistant tubes, they are extremely heavy, almost as much as a light weight tire! Plus, the quality control on these tubes are horrible; I put a set in my wife's bike so she wouldn't get a flat when riding, and one brand the stem would tear off the tube by itself without anyone touching it! The other tube company the presta valves broke within a couple of months; all of those tubes are junk. Latex tubes do not prevent flats like they use to advertise by stretching a latex tube over a broken bottle, problem however is when a latex tube tight with psi is inside the tire, it has no way of stretching, so thorns will go through almost like a butyl tube. TPU tubes are a bit more flat resistant, but not terribly so, I don't think spending $35 for a single tube is necessary, of course you can on AliExpress and get them way cheaper, but generic stuff usually have all sorts of problems.

I tried the Tubolito X-Tubo which comes with a 1-year warranty against flats (inside the Pirelli Gravel H).   I got a glass flat on the second ride and the tube is essentially unrepairable so I gave up on that idea.

 

I also tried the Panaracer FlatAway liner (inside the RH Snoqualmie Pass). No flats in about 500 miles and the tires still felt supple. However according to BRR there's a "massive" 14 W increase in rolling resistance. It didn't feel that bad to me but I was using a much faster tire at much lower pressure with a light TPU tube.

I get a lot of goat heads around here. I usually pull them out after the ride and let the sealant work it's magic.

What's the common strategy on dealing with them? Pull 'em or leave 'em, and why?

But is slow a bad thing if it saves your from flats?  

 

I knew of the riders of the Team Action Sports race team of the 2004 RAAM race broke the previous record, and this new record has held since they did it in 2004. So what? They raced using heavy and slow Specialized Armadillo All Condition tires that were known to be heavy and slow, but my friend said they won because they didn't have to stop to fix a single flat across the entire country! I'm sure along with the prevention of delays in fixing flats they also rode very well with an average speed of just a tick over 23 mph for the entire 2,959 mile journey in just a tick over 5 days...geez, it took me 7 days to travel with my truck towing a travel trailer to go 2,500 miles! LOL!! But riding 23 mph on those tires for a long ways like they did is an accomplishment by itself, I know because I used those tires before the team used them for the race, and they were harder to pedal, but getting a flat or 3 due to thorns in a day wasn't fun either.

 

Team Action Sports never officially announced who the team captain was, but if there was one, the nod probably went to Nat Faulkner since he was responsible for forming the team. I knew Kerry Ryan, he was, and still is, the owner of Action Sports cycling and sporting store in Bakersfield California, one of the best bicycle shops in all of California, but I'm a bit bias! Kerry is a monster on a bike even to this day. They did name the team after the bike shop, but that was probably for recognition because Kerry probably funded most if not all of it, again not something that was ever officially announced.

 

Being a tad slower didn't hurt a race team, and since we're not racing and getting flats, or losing sealant, is a pain, so being a bit slower isn't going to ruin your day. Today's flat resistant tires roll a lot better than they did back 20 years ago.

 

Happy 20th record anniversary Team Action Sports!