kroozer 

I'm planning a paved road tour in Chihuahua in May (on my 74 Raleigh International). The region has goathead thorns, with which I have no experience. I have heard these are seasonal, and that May is not the season. Is this so, or is this just wishful thinking?

cyccommute 

Wishful thinking. Goatheads (Tribulus terrestris) produce prodigious amounts of a woody caltrop seed. They can produce hundreds from a single plant. They also exist for a very long time on the ground with their sharp points just waiting for something to come along and pick them up. Fall is the time when most of them cure out as the vine dies back but the seed remains sharp even through the winter.

What’s even worse is that the seeds can lay fallow for up to 50 years and still sprout.

evwxxx

Chihuahua, wow! Watch out for crazy truckers! As for the infamous goatheads, if they are the same ones as occur in S. California, they are year-round in occurrence. In scal they grow and flower in spring, seed in summer and fall. The heads (thorns) harden after seeds mature, generally starting in June or so. Trouble is these hardened seed heads can last over a year on the ground, as not all germinate in spring, so you can expect to run into them year round! Being a viney sort of annual, they send ground creeping arms everywhere, especially into roads and bike paths, since they love to grow on road and path edges. What to do? Heavy duty “thornproof” (sure) tubes and/or “Slime” tube application. Plenty of patches is also a good idea. Good luck and have fun!

albrt 

I live in Phoenix. Not sure what the weather is like where you are going, but by May it is hot enough here that the current season's goatheads are starting to become a problem. That's in addition to whatever is left over from previous seasons as cyccommute said.

Paved roads are usually not so bad unless there is an active infestation close by. The real problem is if you go over dirt for even a few feet they can get you pretty quickly.

The only good thing about goatheads is that the thorns are small enough that you can usually defeat them with thick rubber, aka "thorn resistant" tubes. Also if you learn to recognize the plant you can avoid riding over them when they are maturing and putting out lots of thorn pods.

Bad Lag

When in New Mexico, I was cautioned to fill my tubes with Stan's to improve puncture resistance. I did exactly that and never once flatted.

3alarmer 

...it's a reasonable bet that the goatheads that have found their way onto the paved road in the fall, will by May have been somewhat cleared away by getting picked up or blown aside by automotive traffic. It's not a guarantee, but here in the Central Valley, they are much less problematic on paved surfaces in a month like April, May, or June. They are endemics out on the American river bike trail, which is paved. But it gets blown off by the county park people regularly using a big fan blower trailered behind a pickup.

In Mediterranean folk medicine, the plant is traditionally considered an aphrodisiac, so there's that.

There are areas where eradication efforts are underway here, but I'm not sure how successful they've been. I still see plenty of them in season when they flower. I don't seem to have much problem with them, as long as I stick to the pavement.

HelpSingularity 

The best solution I found was to keep a sealant in the tubes. Goathead thorns are thin like a hypodermic needle so a sealant is perfect for a puncture. So if you use presta valves you need to make sure the valve core is removable.
If I was OP's shoes I would get some brand new Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires and then the aforementioned tubes with sealant.
Apologies to the tubeless crowd since I don't have any personal experience with them but I gotta think they would work just as well.

Peruano

Kevlar belted tire, Mr. Tuffy liner or something similar, Slime or something similar and ditch the thornproof tubes (they suck). Learning to recognize the distinctive yellow flowers will help you avoid the growing plants. The trucks in Chihuahua go fast enough to blow the seeds from the road except where they are growing in cracks. Its when you roll your bike across that siding or dirt field that you will get millions of goatheads. The problem is manageable but common sense is just as important as specialty equipment. An old used as a tire liner will help alot. Eventually you will have very few goathead flats.

albrt 

Just curious, why would a used-tube tire liner be better than a thorn-proof tube? I've used both and have not seen much difference in performance.

Schweinhund

Goat heads are horrible here. Every time they irrigate we get a new crop, and they are always irrigating the fields around here.
My Specialized Armadillo tires have been pierced by goatheads, but never my Mr Tuffy's, I run both with slime.

Hondo6

I see Tepic is about 20-25km inland from the Mar de Cortés. I've never been there, but based on the location I'd guess that means you get some humidity and temperature moderation from the ocean.

If that's the case, you might want to check detailed climactic data (temp/humidity) for those parts of Chichuahua through which you'll be passing for May and plan accordingly.

If the Chihuahuan Desert south of the Rio Grande is anything like the part north of the Río Bravo, it may be considerably hotter and drier than you're used to. I've traveled through the US portion of the Chihuahuan Desert in May, and I lived in the US portion of the Sonoran Desert for years. Both can get quite hot and dry in May - particularly during the last half of the month.

Published data indicates Chihuahua City has seen 39+ C in May - and Chihuahua City is at altitude (1400+ m). Lower altitudes may be considerably hotter. Might want to plan stops for fluids and/or travel schedules accordingly.

79pmooney

+1 I stayed away from sealants - until I rode Cycle Oregon last fall. 7 days in goat head country. On the road, it wasn't too bad but gravel an ddirt parking lots? Watch out! Carry your bike and carefully brush off your tires before riding again. I flatted day 3. Had the mechanic put sealant in and did nothing for that tire again. Three days later I pulled a goathead out of the other tire, had a mechanic go the same and haven't had an issue with it either. (Tubulars so the usual approaches like swapping tubes aren't so simple.)

Goatheads are what the sealants were designed for. (Well the inventors might never have heard of them, but sometimes the universe uses the ignorant to do amazing things.)

DiabloScott

The two strategies for goatheads are:
1. Don't let them penetrate to the air chamber - thicker rubber, thicker tubes, liners. The thorns are only a few millimeters long.
2. Let them puncture but stop the leak with sealants. The thorns are so thin that a little sealant can stop a lot of leaks if you do it right.

I would not take my sew-ups anywhere near a goathead zone.

evwxxx

Back in the day, when I was young (!) in southern cal all us kids road with “slime” sealant, and the local gas stations hated us to the point of banning us from using their air pumps. Seems the sealant likes to migrate into the air hose heads with the back pressure and clog them up. Perhaps a caution if you use sealant and want to pump you tires up with that expensive Silca pump? At least clean them out good after use,,,

Nwvlvtnr 

I Grew up in Goat head country and fixing a flat tire was an essential skill if you wanted to ride a bicycle. My advice is that there isn’t one solution. Kevlar belted tires are the best idea and thorn proof liners can also help as can slime but never count on any precaution or combination of them to work all of the time and be prepared for a puncture.

Carry a spare inner tube or two as well as a good patch kit. Check your kit often and be sure the rubber cement hasn’t solidified, I usually carry two tubes always at least one of them still sealed. Be sure you have plenty of patches as well.

Slime is very effective but Goat head thorns tend to break off in the tire carcass so to use slime properly you’ll need to remove inner tube and pull the thorn from the inside of the tire should the tire flatten. Slime makes an inner tube difficult (but not impossible) to patch and a large leak or blowout will make a huge sticky mess.

Tubeless does work well but introduces a number of other issues not usually seen with an inner tube. Tubless requires a sealant but as the tire is acting as the tube there is no need to remove embedded thorns. Tubless is however very difficult to service outside of a shop setting and I’d recommend carrying an inner tube as a spare in case you do get a flat, also a very messy situation. As someone who gets a lot of use out of things I’ve found many tires to not be sufficiently airtight for tubeless where they can be used safely with an inner tube, I have never used a purpose built tubeless tire and never done this on anything but old mountain bikes at 35 psi or less. Storing a bicycle with tubeless tires requires that you keep them inflated and periodically rotated to distribute sealant. Tubeless sealant has a habit of drying up and turning into a ‘buger’ so it needs replenished fairly often.

Recommend gear: Patch kit (or two) with extra tube of cement, tweezers, extra inner tubes, a good pump with a gauge, safety pins to mark small holes when patching them, tire levers and if using slime tubes a few alcohol wipes to clean the outside of a tube so it can be patched.

Atlas Shrugged

If you can manage tubeless that is easily the way to go. Pick the performance tubeless tire of your choice and have a great flat free ride. No need to ride a garden hose tire, life is to short to ride crappy tires.

gravelinmygears 

There's also the choice of whether to remove the goathead. The sealant will form around the thorn and if you pull it, you may go from a slow leak to a flat. Here in New Mexico, I have a variety of tire situations -tubeless, tubular, kevlar clincher and regular - that are bedazzled with thorns and goatheads.

79pmooney

Scott, I did it (and would again) for peace of mind doing big, fast descents that I'd never seen before. The memories of my clincher blowout and tire roll-off crash have meant I haven't enjoyed a fast descent in years and woken up many times after that nightmare re-play. This year they were fun!

unworthy1

nobody mentions "flint catchers" as the Brits called them. Maybe they are "too little, too late" but when I was a yout in SoCal I HAD to use them to have any hope in hell of getting down the road without flatting...YMMV.
We called the plant "puncture vine" and the burrs were "stickers".

The test was if you bought a fresh pair of Zorries (AKA flip-flops or "slippers" in Hawaii) from the grocery store at the start of Summer, the thorns would not penetrate the foam rubber soles (under normal wear conditions) until end of August.
At which time any walk in dirt would result in bleeding feet.
Again, YMMV

JoeBass

streetsurfer

John E

Back in the 1970s I put flit catchers on every bike that had either tubulars or low-profile, essentially treadless clinchers.

When I moved from west central Los Angeles to north coastal San Diego County in 1981, goatheads caused me to give up tubular tires -- too many flats, too much time spent sewing tire casings and fussing with glue.

With today's modern tire and tube materials and sealants, I might be convinced to put tubulars on one of the Capo Siegers, because nothing else would be quite right for that bike. (I bought it about 20 years ago with one flat tubular, walked it a mile home from the train station, and heard "psst" as the other tire hit a goathead, reminding me of why I had given up tubulars 20 years earlier.)

1952 Capo with Capo brand derailleurs
My own Siegers are from 1960 and feature Campag. Gran Sport derailleurs and Weinmann 999 centerpull brakes.

Peruano

albrt The latter are too stiff and deaden the whole wheel. The old tube is equal to a tire liner but wider and free. Just my bias.

DiegoFrogs

My memory of Albuquerque was that it would take a couple revolutions of the wheel, the ground hammering the spike into the tire, before it would flat. Tick... Tick... Tick... TICK-TICK-TICK-TICK... ppppppffffffffsssssshhhhhhhh!

One of those miscreants was still stuck in one of my tires and I got a flat from it 30 seconds into my first ride in San Jose.

Fredo76

In my experience, sealant is your friend. I use Slime for butyl tubes and Stan's for latex tubes. I have one bike with thorn-resistant tubes plus Mr. Tuffy tire liners that I've been running without sealant, so far. But that is a heavy set-up, and rides like one.

When a tire starts feeling mushy, stop and find the little sucker. If it has broken off, the spine that's left will be small and harder to see. Maneuver the tire so that the goathead or spine is at the lowest point, and wait a minute or two for the sealant to migrate down. Pull the goathead or scrape/dig the spine out. If sealant squirts out, put a finger over it for awhile to let some harden. When the sealant flow is stopped, try adding some air.

Have fun on your trip!