Road Cycling - C02 pump or hand pump

I like the thought of keeping a pump small enough to fit in a bag under the saddle like the C02, but I've not used one before, which do you guys prefer and why?

co2. it's more compact, quicker and easier. end of story.

Hand pump.

The primary advantage of a hand pump is that it never runs out of cartridges.

I carry an HP-X on my old bike, but the new bike I just got doesn't have a pump peg. Went with the CO2 for the day rides, but also got a small Zefal mini in case I go on a big tour this spring and need the backup.

Actually like the way the CO2 fits in the seat wedge. Not too worried about multiple flats on a training or one-day club ride, but I would be on a tour.

I only carry a CO2 pump, but I always have a few cartridges, except for that one time...when I needed one really bad!

Hand pump. CO2 seems ...... i don't know..... unreliable? To many parts (pump and 2 - 3 cartriges) Prefer 1 frame pump or mini pump.

(then again I'm an old narrow minded Geezer... :D )

I have used both. I had a difficult time getting enough air in the tire with the hand pump. It was early morning with frost on the ground, I somehow caught my finger in the pump and cut it all up, but my fingers were so cold, I didn't know I was hurt till I seen the blood on the ground. CO2 is great for cold weather and for club rides when everyone stops and waits for you to change out your flat. I usually carry 2 - 16g cartridges, 2 tubes and a patch kit. In the winter, I'll carry a spare foldable tire in the water bottle cage as it hard to differentiate between salt and glass. On the last club ride, there were 4 flats among 15 riders and no one saw any glass on the road.

Hi
We carry CO2 cartridges as well as a hand pump on the tandem when training. When racing I carry CO2 as well as a small double action pump (for that third P$&^$^%#^%$e.... I am superstious about calling it by its name!!!!!!) The pump we use for training is a Topeak Turbo Morph with guage. I was able to pump a wheel to 140 psi with the pump over the weekend. It looks like a mini floor pump and is quite amazing. We will only use the CO2 cartridges in cases where a quick change of tubes is important (dodgy suburbs, heavy traffic etc) Hope this helps.

Keep those wheels spinning!!!!

Big H

I cary both on longer rides (over tow or three hours) or when far away from home/help.

I cary 2 16 oz. CO2, 2 tubes, tire irons and a patch kit in my wedge at all times! I use the Topeak Road Morph. Like the Turbo Morph it is a frame version of a floor pump. What I really like about it is the inline gauge and the flexable hose. Much less likelyhood of tearing off a presta valve that way. I got mine at Performance. Take in the sale price from the net and they will honor it ($25).

Bill

Co2 Is Fast And Easy But, I Ride Alone Alot So I Take
A Couple Of Co2 Cartridges And A Small Pump Just Incase.

At some point, the C02 will fail you... it'll break, or you'll have trouble with the repair and wind up using all your cartridges, etc., which is what happened to me. So, it's a minor risk. If you ride in a populated area or carry a cell phone, you can always get help. I wind up riding in the boonies a lot, and don't carry a phone, so I reverted to a frame pump.

I've also heard that, once you get home, you should replace the CO2 in your tire with air.

???
Personally, I don't understand why anyone would carry a frame pump & CO2. If the pump doesn't work, get one that does!

I have both in my bag.

I use CO2 and carry extra cartridges. I can't imagine a hand pump being smaller or less weight then that.

I usually carry 2 - 16g cartridges, 2 tubes and a patch kit. .

You do a lot of riding in the nail, tack and glass district of your city? Or are you just prepared for the potential 5 flat day? :p

Are CO2 cartridges capable of getting my sewups up to 150 psi?

You do a lot of riding in the nail, tack and glass district of your city? Or are you just prepared for the potential 5 flat day? :p
Twqo flats can happen easy on a ride.co2 will pump it up fast but if u screw up and use them up,you pump.First flat you use your extra tube,its fastest.Second flat you fix.Also i carry for people on the road stuck without.A kit,tube and co2 and pump all fits in my bag with the other stuff no problem,a very small bag.I would rather have it and not use it then the other way around.

pump, it's much more eco-friendly : )

I carry a CO2 inflator and three cartridges. I've used it once, at home in the garage, to make sure I knew how to use it. Haven't needed it on a ride. I'm sure I'll form a more certain opinion of it after I actually need it.

CO2 and two cartridges.

I cary a hand pump it is more reliable.Also air is free. Co2 is for BB guns.

Since I do a lot of long-distance riding in remote areas (just part of where I live), I carry a CO2 with 3 16 gram cartridges and a Crank Bros. double-action mini-pump.

The CO2 is definitely the inflation device of choice. Open the valve on my CO2 inflator an the tire fills up almost instantly to nearly full capacity.

frame pump, i'd carry co2 if I flatted a lot in races, otherwise it just seems expensive, as it is I've flatted two times in the last 3000 miles and they were both due to massive pot holes, my pump gets used mostly by other people.

i carry CO2. i think frame pumps are ugly and always an ordeal to secure and so on. i've also had horrible times with mini-pumps, though i own a crank bros (which isn't that small) that works well. i feel it's too big to carry in my jersey, though.

i get very few flats, though - maybe 3 in 5k+ last year.

considering most of my riding is done in loops around nyc parks, my best pump is the metrocard that gets me and my bike on the subway.

Frame pumps are so 60's.

I use both. I have a medium sized pump that fits to my frame. I used that to make sure the tube and tire are fit right and pump it up to about 30 or 40 lbs. Then I care 2 12oz cartridges and use one to pump it up to my desired pressure. It usually takes me two or three tries to make sure the tube is seated properly. So I use the pump to make sure it's all seated on the rim right before I use the CO2.

I also carry an extra tube and a patch kit. I can never get the tire pumped up to the desired pressure with just the pump which is why I looked into the CO2 cartridges. Worst case, I run out of CO2 and pump up the tire with the pump as much as I can... it'll at least get me home.

In the past I've shied away from CO2, but since I sometimes ride near dark without lights, it sometimes becomes important to get a flat fixed quickly otherwise I'll have to find my way home in the dark with just the tiny maglight I keep in my saddle bag. Of course, now I usually try to allow an extra half hour just in case a flat happens. But I once got 3 flats in a row and ended up riding over an hour in pitch dark on an old fireroad. Wasn't fun. After a friend helped me with a flat by using his CO2, I decided to give them a shot. Not much extra to carry in the saddle wedge, so I went with it.

I carry a Zefal HP-X frame pump. A frame pump hasn't failed me in more than 25 years of cycling. I made sure that my Serotta came with a pump peg on the frame. Not only do you never run out of air but it can come in handy when chased by a dog. :)

Thats something i never thought about,it would make a great club.I still wont carry one unless it fits in my bag.

That one's simple for me. I prefer CO2 (I can get cartriges at 25 cents on the dollar,) but it's always good to have a pump for backup.

problems with co2 cartridges: if you seat the new tube improperly, it is a pain to inflate a bit, deflate to proper seating then reinflate. there never seems to be the right amount (even on the 16gm'ers)

How about those pump/CO2 combo units? They seem to make sense.

when you guys are talking about cartridge size i think you mean grams not ounces, a 12oz tank won't fit in your co2 tire inflator ;)

CO2 cartridges are the solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

Get the right tires for the job, pump 'em up to the correct pressure before every ride, don't ride in the gutter.

Oh, and Shokhead...........

if frame pumps are unfashionable, (and I think you may be right) you might have to agree that disdain for the environment is really............ modern?

Pump no ? Because it make's sense.

Pump hands down.

if frame pumps are unfashionable, (and I think you may be right) you might have to agree that disdain for the environment is really............ modern?

Now that makes sense! Why would anyone want to deliberately use a throw-away consumable product (cartridges) when a more planet-friendly option exists, with little or no ease-of-use penalty? And what of the repeating cost of purchasing cartridges?

If you are unable to fill a tire to the proper pressure with a frame pump you shouldn't be riding :D

i carry CO2. i think frame pumps are ugly and always an ordeal to secure and so on.

I always get sad when I realize that some people ride for fashion.

And it takes maybe 20 seconds to secure a frame pump to the bike.

For chissakes - to each his own. I carry CO2 because it fits in the saddle bag. Yes, I use cartidges and throw them away. But I do recycle at home!

co2. it's more compact, quicker and easier. end of story.

True enough. But CO2 is also less reliable, more expensive and heavier (for those that care about weight).

Hand pump ( or better the sigma mini pump that converts to a track pump ) because you can lend it to a friend or a stranger and still have it to use yourself - hands up all those that have srewed up trying to inflate a tyre with co2 ( and how many cartridges do you want to carry ; 2 ,3, 4 ?? )

Hand pump. Never failed me. I like to seed everything, pump in a little air, deflate it, repeate with more air, and then go full fill. This prevents any stupid hole from not seeding the inner tube properly. Nothing worse than flatting, and doing it again in 5 minutes. I don't know if the CO^2s can provide that much air. I'm tempted to try.

Blackburn Air Stick. Rated to 160 psi and I've never had an issue getting the tire up to 120 with it (checked it with a guage).

For road biking, I've always gotten by with CO2 unless I'm really heading off to nowhereland... in which case I'll be wearing a CamelBak and have my minipump in there. I carry two catridges on the holder. If I really wanted to, I could probably carry as many as eight catridges by adding more bottle mountpoints (two more holders at the seat-tube bottle mount and four more on a saddle-attached double mount). I've never felt it was necessary. I rarely get flats (hope I didn't just jinx myself) and each case I've used them, it's only to get me far enough to a gas station or bike shop which for my normal routes are plentiful.

Blackburn Air Stick. Rated to 160 psi and I've never had an issue getting the tire up to 120 with it (checked it with a guage).

I agree, the air stick looks nicer than the zefal hp and the flip handle makes getting to 120 possible. I've used co2 a long time ago, but all those empty cartidges really bugged me.

If I'm out riding with two cartidges and get a flat, I fix it and ride on with one cartidge. I come upon someone on the side of the road with a flat. She is very pretty and doesn't have a pump, what do I do? Should I help her and use up my last cartidge? Or do I stop and show her how cool my bike looks without a pump and explain that I only have one cartidge left and can't use it to fix her tire and risk getting another flat? :rolleyes:

Topeak Morph-type pump; becomes mini-floor pump instantly, 100 easy pump strokes gets you 100 lbs of pressure in road tire. We do carry one CO2, in case pump 'blows up'; don't laugh, have had it happen years ago, in the mid-70s. with a new fangled pump called "the No.1 pump". Remember those?

I am a recent convert to CO2 cartridges after a cycling friend used her CO2 gizmo to reinflate my tyre after a puncture repair. I hate using the pump, always find it quite difficult to get enough air back into the tyre, usually only getting enough to limp home or to the nearest bike shop. I think though this is more a reflection on the quality of pump I purchased.

I got a puncture the other evening on my way home from work. I had forgotten that I had bought a CO2 gizmo of my own and not having my pump with me started walking to the nearest bike shop which was nearly a kilometre away. Then I remembered the CO2 and whipped it out after first replacing the tube (I never patch, can never get the damn things to seal properly!). Worked great except I didn't have the tyre seated on the rim properly. The tyre was still inflated and wasn't rubbing on anything but I didn't want to chance riding the 10km home so I headed for the bike shop.

The shop didn't sell CO2 cartridges but the guy was happy to lend me the floor pump to reinflate the tyre which I did and then continued on my journey home with no further incidents.

I went to another bike shop the next day and bought another CO2 cartridge - about $5.50. So it does get quite expensive when you add the cost of a tube ($5) but it is very convenient...most of the time.

I think the plan should be to have a decent pump and have the CO2 as a backup just in an urgent situation.

Well as you can see your getting some liking CO and some liking a pump; but no one answered your question about a mini pump small enough to fit in a seat bag! The only one that comes close is the Torelli Aria, but it can also be attached to your water bottle cage (and still leaves room for the bottle) and comes with the brackets, or thrown into your rear jersey pocket. This is a very small pump and takes some pumping to get to 90psi. I own this pump and have used it and it works good for what it is.

I prefer frame pumps but since switching to Specialize Armadillos (now using Conti GP3000 4 Seasons on front), I haven't had any flats so carry a heavy frame pump just isn't rational. And CO's I won't consider because you can only carry so much air, and if you by chance have more flats then air...well, your walkin!

Nothing wrong the good old Zefal HPX frame pump. It took me 15 years to wreck my first one.
It's not listed on their web site, but on the new pakaging they're rated to 160psi, but I reckon I've got more out of them.

A few years ago someone sold me they were only capable of producing 130 psi, so I pumped up 2 brand new 20mm Continetal Ultras (the no-tread ones -- rated to 150psi) as hard as I possibly could, 'til my hands were hurting. About 15km down the road the front one exploded (had to walk to a shop for a replacement), then 10 more kms down the road the rear exploded!!!

Hoorah for Zefal HPX frame pumps :D

What size hPx do you guys use? My current is a specialized frame pump, feels unsteady as hell but gets the job done.

I like the thought of keeping a pump small enough to fit in a bag under the saddle like the C02, but I've not used one before, which do you guys prefer and why?Hand pumps never run out of air.
I use this. (http://www.topeak.com/2004/products/pump_002.html)http://www.topeak.com/2004/images/images_products/pumps/pump_002.jpg