Sir_Ricardo

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Hello:

I just moved to Colorado. Great biking, but I've been getting a lot of flats due to goathead thorns.

Are there any thick, thorn-resistant tires that any of you can recommend? I realize that getting a thicker inner tube might help, or getting a "slime" type tube, but what about tires?

Any thoughts welcome.

thanks much -

Richard

2manybikes

Buy something like the Panaracer Pasela Tour Guard. The Tour guard has a Kevlar belt under the tread. One tire will not be the best you can do.
The old days, and some pros still do this. Get another tire with a Kevlar belt. Smaller than the tires you are riding on. Get a good knife or some very strong cutters like sheet metal shears, cut the bead totally off the smaller tire. Then use the small tire as an insert under the other tire.
Tire within a tire. For Pneumatic that's about the best you can do. Don't know if it will solve the problem for sure, but iit's the best you can do with air in the tire.

Google something like "Solid Bicycle tire" Or "foam filled bicycle tire". I'm sure you can find them. They are bumpy and heavy, but You won't get a flat. The pneumatic tire within a tire is heavy too. You will lose some speed for sure. I had a pro from the Old Postal team tell me had had great results, but lost about 5 mph at high speed.

Daspydyr 

I lived in New Mexico where the goatheads are nastiest! Slime helped a ton.

Maxxis tires with their Silkworm Technology are supposed to help similar to Continentals Gatorskins for road bikes. You can also use Stan's No Tubes as a sealer similar to Slime and still use tubes. Of course the Tubeless approach is also very popular.

Whenever I go out I ALWAYS have a spare tube and a patch kit, make sure your glue hasn't dried up. It still works better than the glueless patches. I hate flatting and asking myself, is ruining a rim worth not walking 5-7 miles to get outta here?

RoadMike

Go tubeless, no more flats from thorns, ever.

Daspydyr 

I was riding with a kid on a Tubeless Santa Cruz. Excellent rider! He was repping his skills, came blazing down a hill, jumped up off a rockface and stuck his landing. Only problem was both tires lost their seal on the landing. Two flat tires and nothing but hand pumps in the group. We had enough tubes to get him out. Tubeless can leave you naked.

tjax

Go to the bike section at REI and they sell a tire insert that goes between the tube and the tire. It claims that it cannot be penetrated, and will protect your tube. It's a very thin piece of material and comes in a transparent bright neon green roll. From what the rep at REI told me, it works great.

RoadMike

You should definitely carry spare tubes and some sort of co2 inflator even if you are running tubeless, but burping tires like that is uncommon unless you really like to run on the ragged bleeding edge of low pressures and/or also like to get insanely rad. For mere thorns though tubeless is what's up. I'd rather fix a burped tire with CO2 than a normal pinch flat, you don't even have to take the wheel off!

SpeshulEd 

I've had my bike for less than a week and am already looking for tubeless rims.

Would anyone suggest Tuffy tire liners in the meantime? I use them on the road bike to commute and think they do a pretty decent job against the occasional glass/thorn.

Dannihilator

They can cause more flats than they protect you from.

skibender

I've used the tire liners with good success. When I first bought my new bike, I think I had a flat every other time I went riding. I installed the tire liners and no flats since. My flats weren't from goat heads - I think they were from running over those small stumps from small tree that were cut.

catonec 

Mr. Tuffy tire liners may help.

SpeshulEd 

I think I'm going to pick up some tire liners next time I'm in Performance...just not sure if they would move around at all since the tire pressure is much lower with mtb tires.

ColinL

They do stop about 90% of goatheads, as well as most small shards of glass and other debris. I use them in our road bikes because roadtubeless is not great.

However, since MTBs can easily use tubeless, it is a far better solution than tuffys. There are many types of sealant and I recommend Slime Pro. You will still have to add sealant after going through a pile of goatheads, pulling them out, and letting the sealant do its job... but you won't have a flat tire.

Pamestique 

Well that's not true... but tubeless is more resistant to goat heads than tubes... and yes it has issues with other problems.

I also live in a area that is goathead heaven... I've learned to avoid riding over the plants so don't get flats often. I just ride with normal tires (Kenda Nevergals) and tubes and don't have to change flats much... don't think there's a perfect system but good luck finding one.