VegasJen

I come from the world of Corvettes and for generations now we have what we refer to as the "Corvette tax". That is additional expense added to ordinary items, or completely dedicated items, specifically for the purpose of extracting more money from owners than your average transportation appliance.

Do we as cyclists suffer the same tax? I think we do. Case in point. A few years ago when I began to get serious about biking, I went to Walmart and found a CO2 inflator that takes the standard 12g CO2 cartridges just like every Daisy BB gun made in the last 50 years. If I had known then what I know now, I would have bought 50 of them. The inflator cost something like $10 and you can get a 5 pack of 12g Daisy cartridges for $2.50. Now that my bike collection has expanded, I have tried to find the same inflator to no avail. I can find various 16g and 20g cartridges, some with threaded fittings, some without. And I can find inflators that accept 16g or 20g cartridges. And of course, the inflators are $20-30 on average and you pay almost as much for a single threaded 16g cartridge as you would for a 5-pack of 12g Daisy cartridges. But that cheap inflator that accepts cheap 12g cartridges has gone the way of the dinosaur.

So must we accept being screwed just because our hobby is seen as a cash cow by specialty producers? Have you seen this in your experience in the hobby?

Bully4

This reminds me of the time I complained about the price of tires at the bike shop. They tried to explain it away as a rise in the price of rubber. I just laughed at them. How much actual rubber is in a 23mm tire?

wolfchild

Use a pump instead of wasting money on CO2 cartridges.....but yes anything that is cycling specific is going to cost more. Every hobby is like that.

Russ Roth

There's issues with the oils in the pellet gun cartridges that aren't good for tubes which is the problem with cheap ones, the issue with 12g is that they weren't up to the task of filling the tire to a good enough pressure, hence the shift to 16g.

rsbob 

VegasJen

I wasn't aware there were oils in the pellet gun cartridges, but I can certainly see how this could be a potential problem. You don't think 12g is enough for smaller volume tires like a 23 or 25c?

indyfabz

Economics be tuff for sum.

Oldbill

I have never tried this electric cube pump, but if it works as advertised it may be a solution.
About the same weight as inflater/cartridges and it looks more compact.
https://www.cycplus.com/products/tiny-pump-cube

rsbob 

No taxation without representation!

tFUnK

About 10 years ago when I was doing group rides regularly, I carried CO2. I had a regular inflator and bought a 10-pack of 12g unthreaded cartridges for really cheap.

Over there years I no longer do group rides so I just carry a pump. A few months ago I was looking for something and incidentally found that 10-pack of CO2 cartridges. It took me a while to find a good inflator that took the 12g size and unthreaded stem. A 12g fills up my 25mm tires just fine but I can see why the industry has shifted over to 16g or larger.

VegasJen

Yes, that's totally what it is.
A new inflator? Do you remember where you got it?

mschwett 

get out with your facts. people prefer everything be a conspiracy against them by Big Something these days.

economics is a harsh mistress. a slightly specialized version of a product made for a smaller target market will cost significantly more per unit/use/whatever than a similarly simple product with a large market. ALL the ancillary costs beyond raw material are distributed over far fewer sales... and even the raw material pricing may be less optimal.

jaxgtr

Let me introduce you to my wife's world of homemade cards. That is the grand canyon of money pits that the biking world only dreams of becoming. I could have bought 10 of the most expensive bikes on today's market based on the amount of money she has spent on that stuff. We turned a bedroom into her craft room, I redesigned and rebuilt the laundry room to create a larger storage closet for her craft room. The cost of your co2 cartridges should be celebrated and a dance of joy by all. If I had one wish in life, it would be that the home made card market never was.

Now on the flip side.... she enjoys it, is damn talented and has about 10 people that pay her to make their holiday\birthday\ect cards for them, and I would change nothing due to the joy it brings her.
Here are some that she was testing some new watercolor and alcohol ink pens she wanted to try out.

Koyote

I guess it's easier to see conspiracies than it is to apply logic and to acquire facts.

You can go right on Amazon and buy 50 of those 12g unthreaded cartridges for $29, which is $.58 each -- only slightly higher than the price ($.50 each) the OP claimed to have paid a few years ago. The slight price increase is unsurprising, given that inflation is ever-present. And since the OP apparently bought the inflator, I won't provide links to the many available options.

Inflators that accept 12g unthreaded carts are unpopular precisely because 12g carts are unpopular -- they don't provide enough inflation for the tires that more and more people are running. Also, unthreaded inflators are generally less popular than threaded adaptors. Any threaded inflator will accept any threaded CO2 cartridge of any size.

tl;dr: threaded carts (and their inflators) and larger (>12g) CO2 cartridges are more popular, and that's why they are more widely available...Because capitalism.

PS: A "Corvette tax" is a hoot. Corvettes are high performance vehicles, which means that the parts are built to be lighter, stronger, more resistant to heat and other forces, etc etc etc. That's why a Corvette costs more than most cars, and it's why the parts cost more. Sheesh. Can't believe I have to explain this. Do you really think that, e.g., the wide speed-rated tires for a Corvette have the same manufacturing cost as the little low-performance tires that go on a Corolla?

PPS: Get a mini-pump.

jaxgtr

Oh also, I bought one of these the other day, it does not care about the size as long as it is threaded. The leather protects your hands as well. I've had one for a while, but sometimes I forget to grab it out of the bag when I take a different bike, so this one is going to go into a small pouch I will put in my pocket along with my tubeless kit.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KU8JDC2...roduct_details

VegasJen

Those cards are beautiful. Please pass on my appreciation for her artwork.

Outrider1

Wait till you get into boating.

CAT7RDR

If my failing mind remembers correctly, there were/are gas guzzler and luxury (yacht) taxes on super cars that jacked up the prices.
Low supply and high demand for track cars would also have dealers jacking up the prices well over MSRP.
Reminds me why I am inching ever closer to being carless.

VegasJen

Been in, got out.

Russ Roth

Sometimes, if I know what caused the leak then yes, it'll bring a 23c tire right up to 90psi which will get you home but will lose some pressure if you still have a couple hours left to ride. If I don't know what caused the leak and can't find the culprit, being able to give the old tube some pressure to hopefully find the cause and still have enough to ride is better. My main bike I ride on the road has 27c tires, with the 19mm wide rim and my weight, a 16g gets it just to the pressure I like. Which leaves me not enough air to test. Annoyingly, my last road ride I got a flat, spent forever trying to find the cause, and assumed it was a small thorn I found. Judging from the tire currently being flat again, I'm guessing it wasn't.

Look nice, I can see why people would send them. I've got stacks of mailing labels and haven't licked an envelope in at least 4 years, but I can see why people would pay good money for an artisan card that looks like that.

rsbob 

Oh a scolding on the cold hard facts can be so infuriating. Moral to the story: Shop Amazon first, unless you have ethical or religious reasons not to.

downtube42

My wife knits. She doesn't knit with acrylic yarn from Hobby Lobby. She knits with yarn spun from hairs individually hand harvested in the spring from the underbellies of Siberian Yaks who live on the Asian side of the Caucus mountains between 4,000 and 5,000 meters of elevation. I made all that up but you get the idea.

It's appropriately priced.

jaxgtr

The 2 best day of boating, the day you buy and sell the boat

Koyote

Anyone who starts a post by explaining that she bought stuff at Walmart is unlikely to have any qualms about shopping on Amazon.

I notice that VegasJen has replied to a couple other posts, but not mine. I think some people don't like dealing with facts.

tFUnK

Not exactly this one but very similar to it:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mP5tUqu

Supposedly works with 12g and 16g, threaded and unthreaded. In my experience, I've had to add a shim with the 12g cartridges (I usually just use a small piece of gravel I find on the road while I'm changing the flat).