I can second the suggestion to 'check your equipment'. As the rider of a 1980s conventionally framed bike, I've always carried, and used, a frame fitting pump. When I bought the bike new, it came with such a pump, which broke after many years, so I replaced it with another cheap frame fitting pump. For months, I didn't ever use it, as I'd always inflated my tyres with a track pump. For some reason, I had occasion to top up my tyres with the frame pump, only to discover that the thing was actually useless. Fortunately I was at home when I realised this, so after asking on this forum for recommendations for a good frame pump able to reach high pressure, I was advised to get either a Zefal HPX or a Topeak Road Master Blaster. I opted for the latter and it's fine. I did buy a mini-pump from a supermarket as it was on offer; it's fine for putting a tiny bit of air into a tube when refitting tyre and tube but I wouldn't fancy using it for a roadside puncture.
Are co2 inflators the way to go?
- Thread starter johnnyb47
- Start date
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Sbudge
Cyclist
- Location
- NW London & The Chilterns
One other thing I've not seen mentioned here. They can get very cold indeed (freezing) when used. I've had issues in winter with tubes getting brittle and splitting immediately after use. You can get round it with an adjustable inflator (slowly letting CO2 into the tube to begin with) but if you give it 'full gas' on a cold winter's day the results can be horrid!
Should do that anyway irrespective of the weather, if you've seated the tyre/tube even slightly badly you can get a pinch puncture if you just full-gas it. Although you can avoid that by putting a bit of air into the tube with a mini-pump first.
byegad
Legendary Member
- Location
- NE England
I carry a pump, for initial inflation prior to finishing off fitting the tyre. And a CO2 inflator to quickly inflate to get me on my way. I then reinflate at home with a track pump. CO2 doesn't stay in very long.
Found tyre deflated today on checking...Luckily no commute otherwise it would have been the Brompton or a rush repair.I'm generally up one and a half hours before I leave but whether I would have checked the tyre is another matter.
I thought it was a bit strange yesterday but as I don't use the Audax every day I just thought it was natural wastage.
I thought it was a bit strange yesterday but as I don't use the Audax every day I just thought it was natural wastage.
Johnno260
Veteran
- Location
- East Sussex
I carry CO2 it's ok but I have frozen my fingers a few times, but that's operator error.
I always use my main pump once home as the CO2 leaks out way faster, if I could find a decent minipump I would use that instead.
I always use my main pump once home as the CO2 leaks out way faster, if I could find a decent minipump I would use that instead.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Which is a bit silly as the air that surrounds you is 78% Nitrogen anyway.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
BalkanExpress
Guru
- Location
- Brussels
I was on a ride a couple of weeks ago where someone forgot to open the valve on the tube before unleashing the CO2.
Luckily it was a posh lezyne inflator which separated, rather than exploded, into two . I assume it was a safety feature.
It was a vintage ride, if he had used a Silca he would have been okay
Luckily it was a posh lezyne inflator which separated, rather than exploded, into two . I assume it was a safety feature.
It was a vintage ride, if he had used a Silca he would have been okay
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
Thought I'd check timings the next time I had to inflate a tyre (after deflating to remove a wheel with one 28mm wide through the calipers).
Using a Cannondale Airspeed LX (348mm long, which I clip/strap to my seat tube/bottle cage braze ons, remaindered at £5) it took me 150 pumps to achieve 100psi (622-28 clincher tyre) in 99 seconds. During a group ride, I've observed a fellow rider using a CO2 cartridge, taking less than 10 seconds, including removal. But achieving what pressure 'nobody knows'. Is 90 seconds during a ride where a puncture occurs (rather few with sensible choice of tyre and attention to detritus on road) really worth the capital and running expense of CO2? If unused, after what length of time is it prudent to replace the cartridges?
100psi is more than I normally run in my front tyre (80psi). When I'm forced to inflate a tyre on the roadside, unlike those having to rely on CO2 canisters, I know what pressure I will achieve with 100 pumps (80psi) in 68 seconds and if, during a long ride, say, I think a tyre needs checking/inflating a bit more I have the flexibility to do that too.
Using a Cannondale Airspeed LX (348mm long, which I clip/strap to my seat tube/bottle cage braze ons, remaindered at £5) it took me 150 pumps to achieve 100psi (622-28 clincher tyre) in 99 seconds. During a group ride, I've observed a fellow rider using a CO2 cartridge, taking less than 10 seconds, including removal. But achieving what pressure 'nobody knows'. Is 90 seconds during a ride where a puncture occurs (rather few with sensible choice of tyre and attention to detritus on road) really worth the capital and running expense of CO2? If unused, after what length of time is it prudent to replace the cartridges?
100psi is more than I normally run in my front tyre (80psi). When I'm forced to inflate a tyre on the roadside, unlike those having to rely on CO2 canisters, I know what pressure I will achieve with 100 pumps (80psi) in 68 seconds and if, during a long ride, say, I think a tyre needs checking/inflating a bit more I have the flexibility to do that too.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
There are a few C02 inflators with gauges but no-one buys them, probably because they're a few ml bigger than ones without. Heck, loads of people carry mini pumps without gauges for similar reasons.
Apparently there are tables of what pressure you should get from a given size of CO2 cartridge in a given size of tyre, like http://reviews.mtbr.com/wp-content/...-2016-08-01-at-12.48.36-PM-e1470082539825.jpg but that's going to suck for someone like me with everything from 25mm to 50mm tyres in the shed. I'd probably have to carry several sizes and label the tubes... a pump is far simpler and, as others note, it's a good idea to carry a pump as backup anyway, so we come back to:
No.
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andrew_s
Legendary Member
- Location
- Gloucester
Although I can see why people like CO2 inflators, I've never been in favour of them myself.
When you puncture, before putting the new tube in, you should always find and remove the cause of the puncture.
If you don't, you'll just be stopping again a way down the road. Even if you've got a 2nd CO2 cartridge and some instant patches, you've got 2 punctured tubes, and no reliable way of finding where the punctures are without using at least part of the CO2.
If it's a thorn or a sizeable lump of glass, the cause is easy enough to find, but if you stopped because your tyre was down to 25 psi or so, the cause might well be something like a fragment of glass or flint smaller than the thickness of the tyre, and not readily visible from either the inside or the outside.
Trying to find such a small flint visually can take a considerable time, flexing each little nick open, individually. You may have to check the whole tyre more than once.
The hardest to find are generally fragments of wire strand (usually from the steel reinforcing in car/lorry tyres, I believe)
It's much quicker if you put some air in the tube, find the hole in the tube, and then line it up against the tyre, so you've only got a couple of inches of tyre to check (you did remember to keep track of which way round the tube was, didn't you?). The trouble is that a small, slowish puncture isn't that easy to find in a tube either. The best way is to just keep inflating the tube until it's several times the size of the tyre. The hole stretches proportionally with the tube, and the air leaks out faster.
That could easily use the whole of a CO2 cartridge, if not more.
A tube from a 25 mm tyre inflated to 2" across will use the same amount of gas as it would take to inflate the tyre to 8 bar/117 psi. I've had to take tubes to bigger than that to find punctures in the past.
I prefer not to be limited to the amount of gas I decided to bring, and rely on a proper Zefal HPx or Road Master Blaster pump.
On the subject of pumps, the basic rule is that the bigger the pump is, the better it works. That's why everyone with any sense uses a track pump at home.
Those "mini" pumps that work reasonably well (Topeak Road Morph, or Ajax Bay's Cannondale Airspeed) generally aren't very mini at all (a bit like BMW minis)
When you puncture, before putting the new tube in, you should always find and remove the cause of the puncture.
If you don't, you'll just be stopping again a way down the road. Even if you've got a 2nd CO2 cartridge and some instant patches, you've got 2 punctured tubes, and no reliable way of finding where the punctures are without using at least part of the CO2.
If it's a thorn or a sizeable lump of glass, the cause is easy enough to find, but if you stopped because your tyre was down to 25 psi or so, the cause might well be something like a fragment of glass or flint smaller than the thickness of the tyre, and not readily visible from either the inside or the outside.
Trying to find such a small flint visually can take a considerable time, flexing each little nick open, individually. You may have to check the whole tyre more than once.
The hardest to find are generally fragments of wire strand (usually from the steel reinforcing in car/lorry tyres, I believe)
It's much quicker if you put some air in the tube, find the hole in the tube, and then line it up against the tyre, so you've only got a couple of inches of tyre to check (you did remember to keep track of which way round the tube was, didn't you?). The trouble is that a small, slowish puncture isn't that easy to find in a tube either. The best way is to just keep inflating the tube until it's several times the size of the tyre. The hole stretches proportionally with the tube, and the air leaks out faster.
That could easily use the whole of a CO2 cartridge, if not more.
A tube from a 25 mm tyre inflated to 2" across will use the same amount of gas as it would take to inflate the tyre to 8 bar/117 psi. I've had to take tubes to bigger than that to find punctures in the past.
I prefer not to be limited to the amount of gas I decided to bring, and rely on a proper Zefal HPx or Road Master Blaster pump.
On the subject of pumps, the basic rule is that the bigger the pump is, the better it works. That's why everyone with any sense uses a track pump at home.
Those "mini" pumps that work reasonably well (Topeak Road Morph, or Ajax Bay's Cannondale Airspeed) generally aren't very mini at all (a bit like BMW minis)
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andrew_s
Legendary Member
- Location
- Gloucester
Provided they look in good condition (not rusty, mostly), they will last indefinitely.
It's time to replace them when they are about to go bang.
roubaixtuesday
self serving virtue signaller
Always been a bit of a mystery to me why they're so popular.
The actual pumping up of the new tube is a rather small part of the overall activity viz:
remove wheel / unseat tyre / find hole/ remove object causing hole/ [repair tube if no spare] / [remove tube if have spare and replace] / reseat tyre / refit wheel / inflate tube
Jeopardizing this with a one off only method of inflating seems a bit pointless really.
The actual pumping up of the new tube is a rather small part of the overall activity viz:
remove wheel / unseat tyre / find hole/ remove object causing hole/ [repair tube if no spare] / [remove tube if have spare and replace] / reseat tyre / refit wheel / inflate tube
Jeopardizing this with a one off only method of inflating seems a bit pointless really.
