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Goathead Thorns


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Anonymous from Ben Gericke on 6/9/2021 5:49:16 PM:
For all those that cycle through, there are goatheads between Atkinson and Neligh. We went on the road for this section. We are on narrow tires and the loose gravel around Tilden made us work hard.

 
opedaler from Ne nebraska on 6/9/2021 8:41:41 PM:
We've been riding round trips between Norfolk and Tilden and have had no problems, but I did stop a couple riding the trail from Valentine to Norfolk. I talked to them west of Neligh. They were currently on the shoulder of 275 because of a wash-out detour between Clearwater and a little west of Neligh. I gave them a heads up that there would be another detour between Neligh and Oakdale. They were from Alaska and it appeared they had extensive trail experience. They had wide tires and were loaded down pretty well, but also also mentioned thorn issues. Their problem was solved by going tubless and it eliminated the need to ride the road outside of flooding detours. They did carry tubes for emergency use, but had not had to use them as the slime plugged the holes sufficiently. I'm not sure how wide their tires were, but they were considerably wider than the 40mm we've been using on all limestone trails currently. It seemed to eliminate the soft surface problems some have mentioned.