Cycle Oregon's come up with a goathead solution that, while not perfect, makes life far better. In the early morning they send a street sweeper around the route. Few appreciate it because they didn't ride the nightmare a few years back that will haunt those mechanics the rest of their lives.
Between drones and driverless cars, coming up with a pre-ride sweeper shouldn't be hard. Load your planned Strava, set it two hours in advance and just go ride.
Seriously, tire compounds make a big difference. Some tire treads have a compound that seems to attract debris and embrace it. Other compounds reject virtually everything. A dozen years ago, Vittoria made tires on both extremes. The Open Pave. Everything stuck. I rode them as winter tires because pavement stuck. Best gripping road tire I've ever ridden. At the same time the Rubinos had a hard, slippery tread. I rode those goathead years on Rubinos, slowed extra for every corner and had maybe one flat in several 500 mile COs. (And saw the road up close and personal a few times on wet brick, stone, paint, leaves ... Good thing, not much of that wet on the eastern Oregon CO goathead rides.)
Pretty sure the Rubinos have changed; that the wonderful goathead immunity has been traded for reasonable grip so I don't know what to recommend.
Edit: And there's the old trick. Brush your tires! With your hand or glove. Despite all the warnings of cuts, I almost never have and I spent years wiping with my fingers a) as a cheap racer that didn't want to kill nice gloves and b) better feedback on what was in my expensive sewups. I'm back to sewups and back to b).
Last edited by 79pmooney; 08-06-22 at 02:16 PM.