I am thinking of carrying a can of fix a flat and a co2 inflation kit when I head into the local mountains. How well does the fix a flat work on bikes with tubes? How many co2 cartriges do I need to reinflate a tire? Thanks for the feedback.

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John

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John

Hi ;

According to my information Co2 cartridges are not intended to be used with tubes.

Even in case you fix the flat by the conventional way and just want to inflate the tire with the cartridges, i guess due to excess sudden pressure, it tears away the patch.

From My experience after having way to many flats off and on roading. The co2 cartrages work the best with tubes. You may have to finish with a hand pump. We use the pumps that do both. Spend the extra few dollars for the good pump. If you are worried about filling the tire to fast the trigger on the pumps allow you to adjust the air flow. The cartrage never seems to fill compleatly. It can be a pain to get the cartrage to work wright.

Fix a flat has never worked except in tubeless tires. If you read the instructions it even says not to use in tubes.

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Rocket Ron

I suggest you have a repair kit for the type tire you have. Tube patch kit or tubeless plug kit. The only thing I have read about co2 is that when it is convenient you should repalce it with air. I don't know why.
Co2 cartridges come in different sizes. I think the common ones for M/C tire kits it takes 3 to fill a tire.
In Utah one time I saw a rented Harley that had a can of Fix a Flat explode in a saddlebag.
I don't know what the clean-up problems would be for a saddlebag or the inside of a wheel of a tubeless tire or how easy it is to remove a tube with the stuff in it.

You can get small 12 volt tire pumps that doesn't take up much more space than a co2 kit with 4 or 5 cartridges.

John

In my opionion, I think CO2 cartidges have dubious value. You can get small bicycle pumps that are lightweight, and probably amounts to less weight than carrying several CO2 cartidges and a CO2 pump.

Also, I'm not sure what kind of bike you're riding, but dirt bikes don't require much air, so pumping the tire to, say, 15 PSI really isn't much work.

Lastly, there's always a possibility that you'll run out of CO2 if you get multiple flats, and you'll have to pump the tire anwyays - becase of that, I woulnd't even consider getting a CO2 dispenser that doesn't double as a pump.

If I was racing, I might feel that the very small amount of time I'd save was worth it, but definitely not for casual riding. For travelling, it's just more loose bits to carry around, you have to worry about replacing them once you've used them (I always forget to) and I just don't find them to be much more convenient than a pump.

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Wright Bagwell
http://www.geocities.com/wwbagwell/

Actually, you don't need any kind of inflation device for using a product such as fix-a-flat. You just spray it through the tire valve and the pressure from the can inflates the tire while injecting it with the magic goo which seals the hole.

You can buy the small cans in motorcycle shops, they don't take up much space in your pack. Fix-a-flat is not designed to be a permanent fix, but at least it will get you out of the woods and back to civilization.

Dave

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Dave McMillan
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mcmillan/

Not sure how accurate this info is, but when preparing for our trip I was informed that co2 loses its ability to keep a tyre inflated after a couple of days and is, therefore, of limited use. This is why, in the instructions for use, they state that the tyre should be re-inflated with air at the earliest oportunity.

I fitted 'Goop' in my tyres. This is put into the tyres before any punctures occur and is supposed to seal any punctures up to a certain diameter (3mm, I think) When there's puncture it's supposed to leave a tell tail mark to let you know that there has been a puncture. There are three types of 'Goop' for tubed, tubeless and one thats supposed to do both. There are other manufacturers that make similar products. I have seen varied reports, both on this site and others, as to the effectivness of these products, however.

I also took a small 12v compressor which was very lightweight and some plugs for tubeless tyres. Luckily we didn't suffer any punctures so it was all superfluous.

I recently had a puncture on a trailbike and after repairing the puncture, re-inflated the tyre with a mountain bike pump. This worked really well, with some effort, and would be very lightweight to carry on a motorcycle.

[This message has been edited by mcdarbyfeast (edited 07 October 2003).]

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\"Bon Chance\"

I agree on the latter remark,
just bought the Touratech-puncture Kit.
It includes a manometer and a "mountainbike"-pump (telescopic). This really works excellent and is light weight !
gijs.

Thanks for all the promp replys. Looks like a spare tube or puncture kit is the way to go. with a regular old pump of some sort.

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John

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John

This is a Jurrasic thread , found via the search function, but I thought better to add to the comments above.

Had my first tubeless puncture today . Kit worked great but it took 2 16g CO2 cartridges to get 20 PSI in a Wee-strom front . Not a great idea if you are a thousand miles from home and only have three on board. I'm lucky, still getting used to the bike so only ten miles out and knew exactly where to find a petrol station to get back to a 100% safe pressure.

Looks like I'll be finding somewhere to carry the electric pump .

They do give the full 10 PSI instantly though. Might be useful to re-seat a bead? :confused1:

Andy

The answer is still a decent bicycle pump. Sure, it takes a few minutes, but works great and you can develop way more than enough pressure for any motorcycle tire--they develop plenty of pressure to seat a bead, assuming the bead is on well enough to hold pressure. Have used one for many years--I have some old metal Zefal pumps that are probably 30+ years old and can still do over 100 psi if I need them to.