mr,grumpy 

For road bikes without bags and stuff besides a little underseat bag, what do you guys use to inflate flat tires? Little pumps, CO2 cartridges? I's like to have one solution or kit to move across platforms as I move from bile to bike. Sadly, the LBS near my house sucks more than the LBS near my work so going there for advice isn't my first choice.

tagaproject6

I use CO2 cartridges. I also carry a spare tube instead of patches. Simple and quick.

PatW

I use spare tubes instead of patches. Also I carry a pretty heavy duty pump. Having a robust pump makes inflating tires easier. It is a bit heavier. Nice thing about pumps though is that you don't run out of air. I used to like frame pumps. They were great for playing doggy polo if a dog took it into its head to pursue.

twinquad

I have a tiny underseat bag and I can fit a thin tube, basic patch kit, levers, plus a couple other tools. I carry a pump that mounts at the bottle cage bosses.

mr,grumpy 

Will one CO2 inflate a road bike tire? How about mtb? That is the rout that I went, just curious how many cartridges I should carry. Also, can I keep the dispenser "loaded" or will the gass bleed out over time?

tagaproject6

Yes, one 12 or 14gm canister should be enough to pump a roadbike tire...do not know about mtb tires, though. I usually carry 3 cartridges with one in the holder (not primed). A primed cartridge left in the holder will eventually bleed out. On a personal experience, I forgot that I had a cartridge that was used on a flat from a year ago. I was surprised that it still had some CO2 in it, but it was only enough to fill the tire halfway.

ahsposo 

Since I started to carry a phone on the bike I've gotten a little less paranoid about being stuck far from home. I find CO2 to be a better choice than a frame pump as CO2 can get to a higher pressure than my old Zefal frame pumps. Depending on the length of the ride I may carry one or two tubes. I carry some glueless patches and a tire boot also just in case because they take up next to no space. I only carry two gas cartridges and have yet to need more than one.

That said, I don't get very many flats. Some regions of the world are evidently more flat-prone due to local conditions (I have read many posts concerning "goatheads" in Colorado) and I believe MUPs and closed roads are more prone to have tire hazards than roads "swept" by auto tires.

Looigi

Good minipumps work for me...Lezyne Road Drive or my current fave, Topeak Race Rocket HP. Either gets my tires to 100+ psi. They're light and tiny so physics dictates it will take a lot of strokes and some effort to inflate a tire. I cary a spare tube and, just in case, stick-on self adhesive patches, which work well until I can either replace the tube or install a glue-on patch.

Though these will work OK for mtb tires, but because of their large volume can take forever to pump up. So, for mtb tires, I use high volume mini pumps intened for inflating mtb tires.

I only use any of these pumps for emergency road repairs. At home I have several floor pumps.

myrridin

+1

The pump I use is a Lezyne HPG mini pump. It can easily bring my tires to 120 psi. I don't really have anyone to call, so if I get a mechanical break down, I either fix it or I walk home.

beebe

I use a mini-pump mounted with a water bottle boss holder. My seatbag is just big enough for a multi-tool, patch-kit, and spare tube. I will probably stick a duct tape boot in there soon too. I feel safer with a pump rather than a CO2 inflator, but some people like them. Whatever floats your boat.

Drew Eckhardt 

Frame pump. It sucks much less than a little pump and still works if I get a second or third flat on one ride (little pieces of tire wire can be very hard to find).

wahoonc

I carry a spare tube and patch kit on ALL my bikes. I don't particularly like the CO2 crap. I carry a mini pump (Topeak Road/MTB Morph) and a few of my bikes came with frame pumps. I have a small kit that includes the pump and patch kit that I grab any time I head out on a bike. I have several bikes that I ride regularly, each one has a spare inner tube on it somewhere.

Aaron

ahsposo 

Yes they can!

One other thing I keep in my saddle bag with the tubes (I put my tubes in a zip-loc bag with a little talc on them) is a cotton ball. I'll run the cotton ball inside the tire and if there is a sharp it will grab fibers, marking it's location. If I can't find a sharp I look carefully at the rim tape and make sure all the spoke holes are covered. Once I nearly went crazy from flats caused by rim tape that had shrunk over time exposing a tiny gap the tube would pinch in at high pressure.

BHOFM

I carry a set of large nail clippers to get things out of the tire, and
to remove fishing line from the wheels and crank. Several ponds
along the way were kids fish.. Kids, fishing line. If you have ever
fished with kids, you will understand.

Guitarrick

Ditto, with a Lezyne pump. If I'm ever in need of a boot I'll use a few dollar bills.

wahoonc

I heard $50's work best

FWIW I have used everything from old inner tubes, duct tape, cardboard, plastic pop bottles to dollar bills. Haven't had to boot a tire in quite a while.

Aaron

mr,grumpy 

The presta pump was $30. The Shrader pump another $30. There was no tiny little combo. The CO2 dispenser does both and came with a cartridge. I got a spare tube that will fit my 27" wheel and my 700c wheel. I have a 26" tube for the MTB. I have some patches and glue and a little zip-lock bag. Business.

Guitarrick

Thanks, I'll try the $50 bill trick, but I'm not telling you where I store the bike!

wahoonc

My Morph was about $30 and does both types of valves. I have seen more than one cyclist exhaust their supply of CO2 carts and STILL have a flat tire. I also detest the fact that I see them littering the local greenways and cycle routes.

Aaron

Guitarrick

+1

If they're such awesome athletes you'd think they would welcome doing the additional aerobic exercise of bending over and picking that spent canister up... then working even more muscles by unzipping a wedge bag and inserting said empty canister. I think they're just too weak to carry the excess weight. Seriously, these guys are so pu$$y they can't even haul an empty Clif bar wrapper? Please.

If they were real men they'd train like Rocky, pulling logs through the snow vs Ivan using the latest greatest technology... just to still get his a$$ kicked in the end.

Looigi

Wrong... Frame pumps blow. Mini pumps blow less.



Schrader??? Get mtb tubes with presta valves. Schrader valves are just so automotive.

Brontide

Co2, patches.

Pscyclepath

What you carry is going to depend on what kind of bike, and how you ride.

The essentials:

1. New spare tube. Keep it in an old sock or a zip-lock bag to keep your other stuff from wearing a hole in it while it rattles around inside your bag.
2. Patch kit. The number of flats that you're subject to having can be easily calculated. The formula is Sum(# spare tubes carried) + Sum(patches carried) + 1.
3. Tire levers, to get the tire off the rim, and sometimes to help ease it back on.
4. Some way to get air back in the tube. Could be a frame pump, micro-pump, or a micro-inflator plus two or three CO2 cartridges. Why more than 1 cartridge? See #2 above; the same rule applies to CO2 cartridges.
5. If you don't have quick-release hubs, you need a small wrench to get the hub nuts off to remove the wheel.
6. A short length of duct tape is good stuff to have in case you need to boot the tire.

myrridin

All of my pumps, including the little Lezyne HPG that I carry on the bike will easily do both Shraeder and Presta. And they make inexpensive adapters of one to the other for those who already own a pump that only does one type.