Originally Posted by scarlson

Why not just use a pump? They are so light & good these days! Back in the days where the choice you had was Adhoc Ventose, Silca Impero, or Zefal HP/X, sure a CO2 inflator made sense. Nowadays it's a different story.

The Lezyne micro floor drive, for example, fits inside my Berthoud bag and weighs 150g. The even smaller Road Drive weighs under 100g. The carbon ones compete with the weight of a CO2 inflator. Many of Lezyne's offerings have a classic look to them and won't spoil your c&v lookin ride anyway since they can go inside a bag. For the budget-minded, there is the Topeak Mini Morph, which weighs 175g or so. A lightweight CO2 setup (chuck & one cartridge) weighs about 50g. So you're saving the same amount of weight as ~ 1 shot of espresso by using co2 instead of a pump. Less if you carry two cartridges!! (and you probably should). Run outta gas and you're stranded. Freeze your valve stem from inflating too fast and mess things up, and you're stranded. Some also say it leaks out of the tube faster, although this is anecdotal.

My opinion: CO2 is for seltzer.