Return to Goathead Mountain

Zack and I enjoyed our ride to Loma Rica so much the other day that we decided to do it again yesterday. As expected, it was a pleasant ride up there once again. We even tacked on an extra 5 miles and cruised up to Browns Valley, North of Loma Rica. But when we decided to turn around, I had a flat. No prob, I thought. I'll just throw on the spare. But wait, the flatted tire is my spare, I forgot to buy a new one. I sat on the side of the road in the gravel and pulled my tube out. Then I looked at the tire itself. Not one, not two, but five giant goat-head thorns were sticking out. I hope they didn't all puncture the tube... but of course they did. Just then a friendly soul drove up in a small truck and asked if we needed any help. He was a cyclist too and offered his pump/patch kit/whatever. We said thanks a bunch, but we had it covered. He smiled and drove away.

I patched the five holes, using all my patches and one of Zack's, and put the tube back into the tire. Pumped it up, mounted it, and then heard ssssssssssss. Crap. Took it all apart again and saw that I had missed a small rock or something that was sticking through the tire. Pulled it out, used another of Zack's patches and tried again. Ssssssssss. One of the original patches was now leaking, and we were out of patches. And 35 miles from my house. With no cell reception. Crap. We decided to ride quickly to the store a few miles away and see how far we could get between pumps. We just made it to the store before I was completely flat.

We ate fried chicken (our new Sunday ritual) and pondered the situation. Finally I threw in the towel and called Amanda to save me. She couldn't find her patch kit, and didn't have a spare. She would have to drive me home. Zack decided to finish the ride by himself and disappeared over the next hill. Amanda showed up a few minutes later and offered me Teddy Grahams while I loaded my bike into her car. We passed Zack a few miles later as he was flying down the hill we had painstakingly climbed an hour before. I threw a Teddy Graham at him.

What do you do to minimize flats?

Update - check out goatheads.com