Originally Posted by
kbarch
One other advantage of nitrogen or CO2 inflation; if there's fuel on the road and you have a blowout, the sparks from your wheel scraping the pavement won't cause a fire like they would if there were more oxygen present to support combustion.
Well, I don't live in Indiana, so up until now, I've resisted the temptation of riding my bicycle out on the Indy 500 race track during a race.
Pressurized 20% O[SUB]2[/SUB] is not much more flammable than just the air in the atmosphere. It may even blow out a small fire, although it can fan the flames of an existing fire a bit, perhaps due to replacing O[SUB]2[/SUB] depleted air. The volume in a bike tire, however, is pretty small.
100% O[SUB]2[/SUB] may be more dangerous, but still limited by the small volume in most bike tires. And, one still needs the spark, fuel, and leaky tire. Even pure Hydrogen gas might not give much more than a small poof if ignited.
Flames are not normally associated with bicycle accidents, although perhaps rarely with bike vs car accidents.