Caltrops

[Rickman1]

Apparently someone is causing a dangerous situation at a popular biking area near me. They are placing / throwing 'caltrops' (small spikes) onto the bike lanes in an area near me that is very popular with bicyclists. This is in an area that I enjoy riding occasionally. These can cause serious injury if riding at a clip and expensive damage if someone was to crash and definitely tire replacement. Something else to have to worry about and look out for.

 

[6zfshdb]

I ran across a similar situation on the GAP trail in PA a few years ago. Someone spread a few handfuls of carpet tacks on the trail near the Woodcock trailhead. I saw a group of riders ahead on the side of the trail with flats and managed to stop in time. My brother wasn't so lucky. There were at least a dozen flats before we able to warn approaching riders.

Unfortunately, there are far too many such incidents reported each year. The ones that scare me are those involving fine wire stretched across a trail. These can easily kill an unsuspecting rider.

Singletracks has an interesting article on how to deal with these boobytraps:

How to Deal with a Bike Trail Booby Trap

Learn how to identify trail traps and find out what to do if you encounter one on your next mountain bike ride.

www.singletracks.com

 

[ChezCheese:)]

That's nasty.

Reminds me... Used to be a corner of the Hira Mandi area of old Lahore, (literally "Diamond Market" but we would translate it as the "red light district"), where certain cobblestones would be removed in such a way as to trap cars nosing around the corner, so that coincidental young louts would suddenly appear to help lift the car out of the ditch -- for a fee, especially effective because the drivers would not want anyone to know they were wandering around the red light district. Perhaps somebody wants to make a business of changing tires.

Nah, you're right. They're just delinquent jerks.

 

[rtp]

Jesus. Saw the title, knowing what caltrops are, and hoping it was the wrong word in the title, but nope.
Just speechless..those or the wire can cause significant damage and not jut to the tires.
Was a police report filed?

 

[Rickman1]

Local news story:

https://www.azfamily.com/2022/03/01/caltrops-mesa-highway-bike-lanes-causing-worry-among-cyclists/

 

[6zfshdb]

Things like that make me want to dangle a magnet ahead of my front tire.

Maybe a smaller version of this:

AMK Manufacturing Roadmag Magnetic Sweeper 36in. Length, Model# R36 | Northern Tool

The AMK Manufacturing Roadmag Magnetic Sweeper features a powerful magnet that picks up nails, wire and other metal objects that can damage tires o...

www.northerntool.com

It could be hung from the bottom bracket to protect the rear tire which is more difficult to repair.

Won't help for glass or stainless steel though and you'd have to go slow.

 

[sc00ter]

Time to buy some trail cams and randomly mount them in the offending area. Cheap, easy to hide and always watching.