Of flatting bike tires...

Utah has too many goatheads! Let me explain. I don’t mean actual heads of actual goats, but in fact a thorny little plant that is bent on letting the air out of your bike tires. I picked up one yesterday while riding my touring bike, and it left two tiny little pinholes, which I was only able to locate by putting the tube in the tub and watching for bubbles. After patching those, I plucked the goathead thorns out of my touring tire (which advertises a Kevlar weave built in for puncture resistance- a load), and went out mountain biking, since it was a beautiful fall day. I road the Mueller Park trail, as I often do now being as it’s so close to the new apartment. I had a really good climb, making it to the top in a very respectable time, and then sitting for awhile to enjoy the view of the mountains and the Great Salt Lake. I then took my descent back down somewhat slower than normal, since, like I said, it was a beautiful fall day, there were a whole lot of people using the trail and I didn’t want to grease a hiker. However, there are a few places on the way down where it is simply irresistible to go fast and get some air under your tires. In one such jump, I heard the huge bang associated with a blown tube right as I lifted off the ground. Front tire from the direction of the bang. So, this gave me a some undetermined amount of time (time moves slowly when your flying through the air on a bike) to think about how if my front tire was flat, I would have next to no directional control upon reconnecting with the ground, because flat tires like to roll sideways on rims. Wisely, I had told a friend where I was going to ride, because I don’t like to be out in the mountains without someone knowing. If something like, say, a bike crash happens and you are solo, it’s no good to be on your own. So I was covered, but it was still going to hurt. So the landing finally came after all the slowed down thinking time in the air….and no crash. No flat! My tire was fine, except I’d ripped off a whole tread knob on the rock I had jumped off, and the huge bang was exactly that. Nice. I rode the rest of the way down happy that I had not crashed, and that I didn’t have to patch another stupid flat. But when I got home, I did indeed have to patch another stupid flat. Apparently I didn’t get all the goathead thorns out of my gimmick super puncture resistant touring tire, and it was flat again! One more time in the tub and third patch now has it holding air again. Enough. No more flats for a while I hope…