Kapusta

What struck me is what a freaking moron the guy was who was taking them off. Could he really not find a second stick to flick them off with so they would just come off and not get moved around?

bobwysiwyg

Might come up when she goes in for her next piercing.

cyccommute 

I, like most people, don’t usually take close up pictures of saguaro. The majesty of them isn’t in the close up. I assure you that the picture is of a “real saguaro”.

Here’s less of a close up of the same saguaro

Untitled by Stuart Black, on Flickr

I do happen to have close ups of another saguaro showing similar sized needles

DSCN1895 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

DSCN1896 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

Close enough for you? Enough of a “real” saguaro for you?

On the other hand, your picture is a bit disingenuous as well. Your picture is of close up of a rather young cactus as can be seen by the closeness of the ribs. Here’s a picture of a couple of “young” saguaros that have similar rib spacing as yours

DSCN1898 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

those are “young” compared to my pictures in that they are 25 to 40 years old rather than 150 years like the one the bike is leaning up against. My point is cholla don’t have to be too old to be large enough to cause a rider problems if they run into one. A rider isn’t likely to run into a small saguaro in the same way that they can run into a even a small cholla. And they are far less likely to run into a large saguaro. And a saguaro isn’t going to let you take bits of it along with you.

cyccommute 

You seem to do a lot of backing into cactus. But, if cholla don’t hurt like you initially said, why did you cop the attitude and chop that one down? I, mean, it couldn’t hurt anyone, after all.

And why did you go all Machete! on the poor cactus. Although they are called “jumping cactus”, they don’t really jump. You backed into it. Take the blame and leave the poor plants alone.

I’ve got lots and lots of pictures of saguaros from out in the desert. Most of them are very similar to that “old spineless snaggletooth”. It also would hardly matter if the saguaro is well armed with spines to the ground. They are tall and cylindrical, not bushy like chollas.

Doug64

In the early 70s I was doing some training at Marana, AZ, and one evening I walked out into the dessert to take some sunset pictures. It was easy to get out to the spot where I wanted to set up, but I wasn't thinking about the return trip to the road. It was pretty dark when I started to head back to the road. I'm not sure what I ran into on the way back, but it was painful pulling those fine spines out of my lower body parts. I'm not sure how you can get pierced painlessly by cactus spines.

Cyclist0108

Good.

Me either.

CaptainPlanet

It's almost as though they chose that method of removal for extra pain and view counts

Oneder

He was a sadist and doing it on purpose, what a piece of work. Probably her older brother or something at least that's how he acts, if a bf then I feel extra sorry for her she has stepped into something a lot worse than cactus!

cyclist2000

In all seriousness, What kind of clothes could she have worn that would have prevented that? I have never ridden near anything like that, But if I do I would like to be prepared.

jimincalif

That looked pretty painful. When I see things like this I wonder about who is recording the video. If I was riding with someone who crashed into a cactus, last thing I’d think of is recording the aftermath.

Oneder

Nothing that is practical in the desert during afternoon.

alo

It appears that the person removing the cactus, is also holding the recording device in the other hand. He was already recording her before she fell in the cactus. That is also why he uses only one hand to remove the cactus pieces.

SethAZ 

What, you don't wear a full stormtrooper outfit when you mountain bike? Wow, I guess they don't have cacti where you live.

I agree with you. While she was wearing surprisingly little, it's not like a t-shirt or some longer shorts would have prevented what happened to her. And since that's about all I wear when mountain biking around here (plus gloves, shoes, helmet), I'd be one to talk.

LesterOfPuppets

Ya know what's really fun? Rolling downhill and having a cholla stick in your front tire, explode on your fork brace, then have needles fly into various parts of your upper body. Luckily I only got one in the face.

cyccommute 

And they were all completely painless, right? After all, one variety (the one with the big spines in my picture above) is called “Teddy Bear” because it’s so soft and cuddly

locolobo13 

Felt sorry for her. Cholla are just one of the hazards of riding in the desert. Never crashed into one, but have accidentally brushed them. Hurts. Not the end of the world pain but the description others give of my reaction is, "He screams like a girl." It usually hurts more to pull them out than getting them in. I'm one of those chicken****s that walks the bike by them a lot.

IMO the best tools for removing the thorns and burrs are a comb and tape. The comb works well on the burrs. The tape pulls the glochids out fairly well. Always have the comb on a ride. Usually forget the tape.

aland2

This is the same babe that skids in the snow on the way to the sauna and has to be massaged with warm oils

Wileyrat

Run into the one your bike is leaning againt vs one of the younger ones you speak about, and you'll tell the diffference. One you'll be unhappy, and the other one will probably be a trip to urgent care. Btw, go too hard into a corner, and it'll matter how spikey it is.

As far as the cholla goes, you remove the pods with a comb. Yeah not totally painless, but not usually a big deal either. The machete incident was having to sit inches away from said plant to do my job, and getting "jumped" a couple of times already, so I fixed it.

You ever go play in the Co mtns and break a branch in your way? Same thing.