swak

Do you notice a performance difference riding on tires inflated by air and tires inflated by co2?
Is it worth the extra $$?

Whats your thoughts

f4rrest

Get a compressor.

mooxster

its worth at least .00001g and .010096 sec off a 120k@500W

Busta Quad

Tubes inflated with CO2 will loose pressure more quickly than those filled with air, but it takes more than 12 hours for the difference to become really noticeable. Beyond that, no "performance" difference. At the scale of a bike, any molecule of a gas is (effectively) a point particle; A mole of gas is a mole of gas. You did pass HS chemistry?

swak

haha, i passed chemisty, but what i retained is minimal...
Science has never been my stron point.

grahny

I carry both. I notice no difference because I top off before each ride anyway.

Some interesting, mildly related, velonews items about CO2 are below

[velonews quoting]
From Velonews:
CO2 tales and comments in the below link:
https://www.velonews.com/article/8911...s-and-comments

One person's opinion on CO2 (not mine):
"I'm amazed in the continuing discussion of CO2 canisters that I haven't seen anybody bring up the environmental costs of canning air, transporting it and then tossing a hunk of metal that will never be recycled into the landfills, or the side of the road in the case of the particularly ignorant cyclist.

Think about it: you take air, which is free and all around us, and use electricity to pump it into metal containers, which had to be mined, smelted, formed, etc. Then you take these canisters and place them in a cardboard box made from trees and you put it in a shipping container and transport it across the ocean where it is unloaded and placed onto diesel trucks to be driven across the country to your bike store.

But it's not even good air: it's air that leaks out of your tires even faster. You are surrounded by air, free air, better air. All it takes is a pump and a few minutes of work to get it into your tire, where it holds longer than the CO2.

Cycling, as we all know, holds such a great promise for the environment. CO2 is a dark blot on that green sheen. We all know what the C in CO2 is.

Leave the CO2 to the mountain bike racer who can't spare the seconds. The rest of you can carry a pump. I love my new Lezyne pressure drive — more reliable and probably lighter than CO2 canisters. It's an endurance sport folks. Endure a few minutes of pumping."

The above is from here: https://www.velonews.com/article/8937...-brake-spoking
[/velonews quoting]

Discuss.

calRider

God. I hate hippies.

GP 

Why do you tell us "Leave the CO2 to the mountain bike racer who can't spare the seconds. The rest of you can carry a pump." but in the first sentence you say "I carry both."?

redtires

Apparently that typing class didn't pay off too well either... j/k!!

Ed in GA

OK, Discuss.

For a hand pump, you create a manufacturing process which uses aluminum (from mined Bauxite), smelted and formed in conjuction with plastic, a petroleum derivative. They are then placed in a Cardboard box, made from trees, Placed on a pallet, made from wood, wrapped with plastic, a petroleum derivitive, placed in a container, shipped across the sea where they are shipped by truck, or rail, unloaded and placed onto
another diesel truck, delivered to a distribution center, re-shipped on a deisel truck to your local bike shop.

There's not a net loss, or gain, here. When the pump is worn out, it goes into a landfill as well.

Superweirdash

Presumably a pump will take much longer to wear out than CO2 cartridges. Every CO2 cartridge goes through that process (give or take a few steps), and you go through far more of those than pumps.

Whether or not this difference is significant, or if you care are other issues.

Ed in GA

I would agree that more of the cartridges end up in landfills than do pumps.


My point was that the process from mfg., and the materials used up to delivery
to market has very little difference.

And, many people who ride bicycles don't do so with the environmental aspects in mind.

kayakdiver

On the touring bike I use a pump... roadie i go with CO2. How often do i flat and use said CO2? I figure I may use 1 per 1000 miles on average if that. I'm still using the floor pump in the garage for topping off every other day of so.

Let's get to the real issue. Cheap as@ tires that flat all the time and end up in landfills well before a quality tire. That would seem to be the real waste. Do you patch or replace/toss your pinched tube?

oh well.......

calyth

IIRC cartridges are steel, they can be recycled.

As to using CO2, as Ed in GA pointed out, it isn't all that far off compared to making a pump in the first place. If we particularly feel like being green, we can try using Carbon capture anyways.

I like my CO2 inflator. It actually fits into my frame bag, and my pump required me to get a separate mount that could work with a bottle cage. And honestly, on average, how often do you need your CO2 inflator compared to your floor pump?

Humongous

Helium is where its at.

grahny

I didn't say that... that was from the velonews link.

I carry both CO2 and a mini-pump. I'll fix my original post so it's clearer.

Busta Quad

Environmental_cost(cheeseburger) >> Environmental_cost(CO2 cartridge)

Nachoman

Environmental cost (bocaburger) << Environmental cost (CO2 cartridge).

Busta Quad

WTF is a bocaburger?

Busta Quad

Never mind, I goggled it. F bocaburgers. Real riders eat MEAT.

GP 

Oh.

I carry both too. One cartridge for most days and a frame pump for really bad days and to loan out.

Apus^2

+1. Somebody's signature says it all.

Soy = Hate.

schnee

Don't be disingenuous. A single pump will potentially fill the role of hundreds of CO2 canisters. You're shirking the math in order to make your point, when common sense dictates the advantage is on the re-usable solution here.

Busta Quad

If you greenies had any idea of the amount of methane I produce you would realize that a CO2 cartridge is far more eco friendly than me using a pump.

joshandlauri

+1, I just switch from old fashioned Co2 to Helium, Bike feels lighter than ever. Plus hills are easier to climb.