To pump or not to pump?

[mow]

I'm sitting waiting for my new road bike to arrive starting to think of trinkets to add to it.
On my old hybrid I used to carry around a pump strapped to one of the bottle cage fixings. But on my nice new lighter road bike I'm wondering what the concensus is about wether to get a nice new slim pump vs co2 cans?

Also going down to skinny tyres is it worth carrying a folding spare or do torn up tyres only happen occasionally?

What do you use and any pro's and cons?

Mow

 

[jayce]

every person likes to do different things me i dont carry nowt my mate carries pump,puncture kit,multitool and spare links its what you feel you need to take to make you happy ,,i got a good wife any probs phone and she will pick me up,but never needed her yet ,the tyres a getting better all the time, pp

 

[beanzontoast]

I carry a Pocket Rocket min-pump, 2 spare tubes and a repair kit. I prefer to fix the flat rather than call the support vehicle out - it will get my tourer's tyres to about 70 psi.

Personally, whatever the bike, I always have at least the means to fix a flat along with me.

 

[John the Monkey]

Depends how close you are to a bailout option. On my old commute, I was never too far from a train station, or my eventual destination. Even so, I'd still sooner fix a flat than abandon...

Personally, for a 13 miles commute I carry two tubes, glueless patch kit and traditional patch kit, and a Specialized Airtool Road[1] (I did carry a Topeak Road Morph, but didn't like giving up a bottle cage for the bracket). The plus of a traditional pump is that it works so long as your arms do - CO2 pumps by nature can only resotre pressure a finite number of times.

[1] Very impressed by this, btw - no guage, but pumps to high pressure quickly and reliably - really nice piece of kit, and only a tenner.

 

[jay clock]

If it is hack commuter type bike I leave a cheap small pump attached to the bike at all times. For my usual winter/summer road bike I now have a CO2 device which also has a very basic pump function built in - a bit like this but also has a gauge. http://www.jjcycling.co.za/barbieri/images/moskito-b.gif I used it for the first time in anger recently and it is amazing. The pump allows you to add a bit of air to get the tyre seated, or would allow you to get it to 50-60psi if out of CO2, but the 16g CO2 allowed me to get to 100psi in about 0.5 secs. Stunning.

 

[HLaB]

I carry a pump because, touch wood I don't p'ture enough to justify a CO2 cannister.

 

[jimboalee]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Zefal-hpr-Graph...-Schrader_W0QQitemZ370147821384QQcmdZViewItem

Best little pump in the world.

 

[spire]

I have a full size frame-fit pump on the road bike and a mini pump attached to the bottle cage on the hybrid. I also always carry a gas canister, a spare and a repair kit.

As well as 'belt and braces' this gives other options:

1. If you are under no time pressure and conditions are good, you can repair the tube and pump it up.

2. If you are in a rush you can fit a new tube and gas it up (remember to let out the gas when you get home, then pump it up with air).

 

[jimboalee]

Why Spire?

Re 2. Is it because CO2 is heavier than Air? Or do you gas up with Helium?

I have decided to fit my heavy commute bike with a pair of SLIME inner tubes.

 

[spire]

CO2 molecules are smaller than air and permeate the tube, thus your tyre will be almost flat within a few days.

There is also a theory (of which I am not convinced) that CO2 combines with moisture to form carbonic acid, which will rot the tube.

 

[mow]

Wow, what a lot of opinions and ideas thanks to all.
Looks like theres definately two camps here

• Fly by the seat of your pants
• Belt and braces

I'm off to check my pants and see if I can attach braces....

Thanks again
Mow

 

[palinurus]

CO2 molecules are smaller than air and permeate the tube, thus your tyre will be almost flat within a few days.

The molecules are bigger than those of nitrogen and oxygen. However there is a lot of anecdotal evidence among cyclists that CO2 does diffuse out of innertubes quicker than air. I've got to put my hand up and say I've never searched for any proper data on this- there must be some out there. It's a subject that generates Campag. vs Shimano type discussion on some cycling forums.

 

[gavintc]

The problem with gas inflators is that do not take into account the odd occasion that you get a double flat from not having found the little sharp thing stuck in your tyre. I considered the gas canister option and have used a friend's inflator, but I think the potential for no gas and a flat leads me down the lightweight small pump route. You can get them petty small and they will onto your frame. With a tiny one, I can get enough in to allow me to continue the ride without spending hours pumping away. So, I carry just one tube, a few patches and a couple of levers.

 

[palinurus]

I would use a pump in almost all cases. I only use CO2 when time-trialling when I don't have anywhere to fit a pump (although I could tape it behind a tube I guess). Now there are really small pocket pumps available I may even get one of those instead.

 

[palinurus]

Back to the CO2 vs. air thing: Generally permeability is related directly to molecule size (although only generally: the rate of gas diffusion through a material is dependent partly on molecule size and partly on factors related to solubility, and these are both influenced by temperature).

However butyl rubber is more permeable to CO2 than to nitrogen (rate being 10 to 100 times that of nitrogen- from Rubber Basics, R.B.Simpson).