I've been riding/working with my new atv on my property, and I've noticed I have some of that small round cactus that grows close to the ground every here and there. Do I need to stay away from these? Will they ruin the tires? Thanks.................

 

I had an ATV with stock tires get three flat tires in one weekend from a combination of those cactus and rocky terrain, so if you still have the stock tires you can plan on a flat tire on a rather frequent basis. Any of the better six ply aftermarket tires will be fine though. I ride in the deserts of northern Arizona and eastern Nevada each winter, and run over those cactus all the time without any problems from the replacement tires (Holeshot ATRs, and Pure Sport Bandits in my case).

OL

 

I lost the trail one day and ended up in a Jumping Cactus patch (sounds like the one you were in). When I finally got out, I spent the next 30 minutes or so removing cactus from the tires, saddle bags, underside of Rancher, and me! The next day I noticed two tires were low. I orderded some Tire X-Tend from Cabelas. That stuff is great! I bought 2 boxes (4 bottles each, 1 bottle per tire).

After I aired up the tires we went for a ride. My wife ended up with a piece of wire about 1" into her tire. I pulled the wire out & heard a brief hiss & then saw a tiny bit of the goop come out of the hole. That's it!

Two months later the tires on both bikes are holding air just fine.

One thing to note. This is NOT the Fix-A-Flat kind of stuff. Your auto mechanic will hate you forever if he has to change a tire with Fix-A-Flat. But Tire X-Tend is water soluble ... no stink, no mess!

-Frank

 

Wow, that sounds like a good idea. Will it affect the wheels in any negative way like fix a flat? Fix a flat causes them to rust, right?