The whole CO2 inflator thing

[Brucey]

as for a CO2 inflator 'saving time'; does it? Does it really?

Yes it does.
Simple as that.
I'll be back on my bike and half a mile up the road by the time you've pumped your tyre up.

maybe. I've seen it go wrong for others as often as I have seen it go right.

When I get home I'm not going to be faffing about satisfying the needs of yet another needless parasite. Who is really 'saving time'?

cheers

[thelawnet]

(*) By which I mean something that doesn't look (and work) like it came out of a Christmas cracker. An acid test of whether a pump is 'decent' is, say, if you need to top up your tyres just before a ride, but it takes ten seconds to walk back to the shed and get the track pump out. If you then choose to use the pump on your bike it is at least half-decent. If you go back for the track pump it probably isn't.

what pump do you use?

[Brucey]

Zefal HPX (on my road bikes)

cheers

[MikeDee]

Zefal HPX (on my road bikes)

cheers

If you're using that pump, then it doesn't save much time. Now if you're using a mini pump like most do... Also, I appreciate not putting forth the effort to pump up the tire at the side of the road when it's 90+ degrees outside. I don't care if I have to reinflate the tire at home with my floor pump. That's easy. Your comments seem like they're coming from someone that doesn't have much experience using CO2 inflaters.

If you're riding with you a group, then saving time fixing a flat at the side of the road becomes more important. If it takes you too long, people are going to leave you and you will be way off the back. If you're riding by yourself, waste as much time as you want, like looking for the hole in the tube instead of running your fingers inside the tire to find the thorn, or patching your tube at the side of the road instead of using a spare tube. If I were on a group ride and someone insisted on patching instead of using a spare tube, I'd leave them.

[roubaixtuesday]

I agree that Co2 saves time, just not very much time

My puncture repair roadside routine:

1. remove wheel
2. remove one side of tyre bead from rim
3. pull tube out (leaving valve in place)
4. Inflate tube, attempt to find hole
5. Find culprit (much easier if 4 successful). Can take a long time
6. Remove culprit (not always easy)
7. Remove tube
8. Fit new tube
9 Reseat tyre
10. inflate tyre
11. replace wheel

For me, of these (10) takes at most perhaps a quarter of the total time. (5) is often the longest, and (9) can be a pain.

I don't bother with CO2 as I'd always want a pump in case of multiple issues. If I did, it might reduce a 10-15 minute job to 8-13 minutes or something.

[MikeDee]

I agree that Co2 saves time, just not very much time

My puncture repair roadside routine:

1. remove wheel
2. remove one side of tyre bead from rim
3. pull tube out (leaving valve in place)
4. Inflate tube, attempt to find hole
5. Find culprit (much easier if 4 successful). Can take a long time
6. Remove culprit (not always easy)
7. Remove tube
8. Fit new tube
9 Reseat tyre
10. inflate tyre
11. replace wheel

For me, of these (10) takes at most perhaps a quarter of the total time. (5) is often the longest, and (9) can be a pain.

I don't bother with CO2 as I'd always want a pump in case of multiple issues. If I did, it might reduce a 10-15 minute job to 8-13 minutes or something.

First thing I would do is look for the culprit on the outside of the tire. Where I live, it's often a goat head thorn, which can be seen easily.

[Mick F]

Remove wheel and remove tyre and tube.
Wrap tube up and tie it with the lazzy band that the spare tube is wrapped in.
Inspect tyre by turning it inside out to see what has punctured the tube. If nothing is seen, turn it back round and have another look.
I my experience, it's not often that I find the culprit.

Fit it all back together with the new tube and inflate with CO2.
Re-fit the wheel, put all the stuff into the saddle bag, and ride away.

At home, deflate the tyre and re-inflate with air via the track pump. CO2 permeates through the rubber tube over a few days so it needs replacing with real air. No rush for this, but it needs doing eventually.

Meanwhile, see if you can repair the punctured tube.

[Brucey]

if you are riding in group then the usual thing is that folk

a) ride a mile and then back again to where the puncture repair is being carried out (an approach that is favoured in cold conditions because most of the group stays warm) and/or
b) folk muck in and help. Therefore it doesn't slow you down in the slightest to have the tube examined, because one person does that whilst another investigates the tyre. Having witnessed this on numerous occasions, I'd say it is about 50:50 whether someone finds the thing in the tyre before they are told where to look exactly by the person looking at the tube.

It takes about two or three minutes to change a tube on a road bike provided the tyre comes off the rim easily and the penetrating object is found reasonably quickly. Plus or minus a bit to pump the tyre is neither here nor there.

One of the reasons why I don't much like CO2 is that it isn't as easy to partially inflate and check that the tyre is correctly seated before inflating fully.

cheers

[jb]

For the amount of punctures that actually happen these days and the advance in pump technology, a pump spare tube & a patch kit, should be all that's necessary.
All the rest is propaganda, to quote a famous film.

[MikeDee]

if you pump the tube up enough any significant hole will soon become evident. If it does not become evident thusly, it is clear that the leak is so small that you could have just pumped the tyre up again and postponed fixing the puncture to some other time, e.g. at the end of the ride. Really, you need to gauge how fast the tyre is going down before you pull the tube out.

How much stress does that put on the tube at the valve stem to over inflate it many times over its normal size? I've had tubes fail at the valve stem. This practice can't help.

[Mick F]

One of the reasons why I don't much like CO2 is that it isn't as easy to partially inflate and check that the tyre is correctly seated before inflating fully.

Oh yes it is!
Easy peasy to do a little quick squirt to partially inflate.

In fact, it's MUCH better to do it in short bursts as the cylinder gets iced up if you do it too fast. Also, the adapter and the valve can freeze up too.

[Brucey]

if you pump the tube up enough any significant hole will soon become evident....

How much stress does that put on the tube at the valve stem to over inflate it many times over its normal size? I've had tubes fail at the valve stem. This practice can't help.

well some stress rather than no stress. But that stress may be rather small and a bit different by comparison with the stress that is seen when the tube is installed normally; the thickened part at the base of the valve is bent into a weird shape and usually pulled about in strange ways. The part of the tube that is in the corner of the rim well is often the most stretched, pulling at the valve stem base in some cases, and because the valve is not always well supported by the rim drilling, this part gets pulled around too.

IME valves fail when the rim doesn't support the valve properly and/or when the tube is badly made, not the just because tube is inflated outside of the tyre.

Re CO2 controllability; as controllable as a pump? Nah, not a chance. Controllable enough? Maybe, sometimes.

cheers

[Patrickpioneer]

My issue with CO2 is why do so many throw the empty canisters away on the side of the road.
Pat

[Mick F]

Re CO2 controllability; as controllable as a pump? Nah, not a chance. Controllable enough? Maybe, sometimes.

Maybe EVERY time.
Easy peasy.

My issue with CO2 is why do so many throw the empty canisters away on the side of the road.

I agree though I've never seen any discarded. As for other rubbish .......... there's tons of it, so a few steel canisters would make much difference.

[Brucey]

depends on the CO2 gizmo you are using. Some are pretty useless, others are (with caveats about their inherent nature) OK. They are certainly not all the same.

cheers