Late yesterday afternoon I was pushing hard to get home before twilight set in. About 12 miles away from my finish I come upon another cyclist who is wrestling with a flat on the rear wheel. I stop to offer assistance. He tells me he has been trying to get the tire with new inner tube pumped up for over 15 minutes without success. He asks if I have a pump as it appears his is not working. I do have a frame pump, but I also carry a Co2 cartridge as a backup. I'm looking at the sun getting closer and closer to the horizon and pull the Co2 out of my jersey pocket. He says, "Oh, I would never use that." I ask why and he responds, "Why carry something like that when you can do it by yourself with a pump?" I look at my watch and say, "Really, how long did you say you've been trying to get back on the road?" He, nods and says, "Point taken." Long story short, 20 seconds later his rear tire is fully inflated and he's saying, "I got to get me one of those." Two minutes later as I'm back on the road headed home I'm thinking that I will make it before twilight and thankful for having the Co2 cartridge with me. (BTW, I've been carrying that same cartridge for almost two years and was starting to wonder why I bother carrying it.)

CO2 is good -I started using it 3 seasons ago, used it several times. On my Tarmac I don't carry a pump - just 2 CO2 charges.
However - for distance riding - particularly in the dark territory - I only carry my trusty road morph.

CO2 alone let me down once when I had a series of flats which exhausted my supply, that day I got a ride back to the car.

This thread is NOT politically correct!

On the other hand, I had a flat yesterday 30 into a 48 mi ride. CO2 to the rescue!

I carry a pump that also uses Co2. The manual pump is nice to just put a few pounds in the innertube to shape it and I finish it off with the Co2. I always carry 2 cartriges with me. The pump body is carbon and weighs a little more than just an inflater but it works like a champ and in a worst case scenario, I'll always have air.

CO2, pump, whatever fits, works or suits you. The important thing is to always have some way to inflate a repaired or replaced tube in the inevitable event of a flat tire.

Politicians never use their brains, what do they know? It seems that some of the CO2 used in cartridges is collected from fermentation processes, for adult beverages for example. The CO2 comes from plant materials and the plants originally pulled it out of the air so all we do when we use the CO2 to inflate tires is to (eventually) put it back into the air. Completely carbon neutral. Other CO2 may be collected from sources that burn fossil fuels, like kilns for brick or pottery. That type of source is not carbon neutral but since "we" are only collecting it, storing it for a while, and then releasing it we are carbon neutral, we are adding no extra fossil carbon to the atmosphere above what the source was going to release anyway. As far as I have been able to tell on the web nobody burns fossil fuel for no other purpose than to make CO2 for these cartridges because that would be prohibitively expensive. The only way to make them economically is to collect CO2 from another process that was going to release it anyway. The steel in the cartridges is recyclable. Manufacturing, using, and recycling steel cylinders is not carbon neutral, but it is an efficient use of carbon since it takes a lot more carbon to refine iron ore than to recycle a steel container.

I use a floor pump at home and the seat post pump in my Dahon on the road. For my Fuji hybrid I use CO2. It just seems convenient and since flats are rare where I ride the floor pump at home does vastly more inflation work than anything I carry on the road.

So, when I pump up a tire at home with the floor pump do I release more, or less, CO2 as I exhale than the CO2 cylinder would have released??

Ken

I use a floor pump at home or at the start of a ride but I haven't used a pump to fix a flat on the road for at least 8 years. I still carry an Zefal HPX on my retro grouch bike because - well - it's a retro grouch bike, but I haven't had need for it.

CO2 is so fast and easy to use I don't picture myself ever going back.

Seen too many situations where My pump will work but the CO2 the rider has been trying to use has been the problem.

Too many?----3 in the last two years.

I will stick to me well serviced pump that is checked every couple of months.

Sounds like user error; not a reason to blame the method.

I have a pump on my bike, it kinda just lives there, need to get another one for my wifes bike though, been debating about getting an inflator for hers and a few CO2 cartridges. I think the nearly instant fill capability would be good for her, if she broke down without me.

Floor pump in garage before ride co2 on the ride. I don't own a pump for the bike but have thought about it. I just don't like the idea of mounting it somewhere, weird or stupid I know but hey that's me.

(I carry three bottles and two tubes)( most the time)

HPX, great pump. Last time I saw mine it was laying in the road, flatened just seconds before after it fell out of my frame. Still haven't figured how it fell. Still haven't gotten a new pump for the bike.

Interesting, what pump is that?

https://www.rei.com/product/793154

Innovations SecondWind Mini Carbon Pump / C02 Inflator
49 bucks at REI