C02 cartridges are only for "temporary" air ... WHO KNEW?!!!!

[Aggie_Ama]

My personal research is this is false. I have changed plenty of flats using CO2 and not had another flat on the tire for months. I do air the tire with a floor pump before the next ride so maybe that is why but I haven't had recurring flats on the tire that had CO2 on the road. My husband and the LBS pounded into my head on a skinny road tire air it up before each ride unless you are a fan of leaving the bike open for a pinch flat. I have never had a CO2 filled tire be low in enough to call it flat 18 hours though, 10-20lbs pressure yes but I have seen this on regular old air too.

[VeloVT]

This is just not true. I usually only inflate every 2-3 rides (unless I've done a particularly long ride). I have on numerous occasions fixed a flat with CO2 and had plenty of pressure in the tire for another ride or two (I like to keep them pretty hard too).

Could it be that you are underinflating? If you are not careful with CO2, you can lose a fair amount of it trying to inflate the tire... if you are underinflated to begin with, you are more likely to flat. Also for some reason tires seem to lose pressure faster when they start from a low pressure (not sure why, but it seems to happen).

I love my CO2 pump .

[batsheva]

CO2 is smaller molecule than N2 - (the main component of air) so the CO2 seeps through the rubber of the tube/tire faster than nitrogen, and so the tire loses pressure faster-- they don't have air in the little cartridges because nitrogen molecules are much less compressible than CO2 so you would need a much bigger cannister if they were filled with regular air..

[Eden]

I'm pretty sure this is true. If I fix a flat with co2 I always have to pump the tire up the next day. I wouldn't say they get totally flat, but pretty squishy. Still I love having cartridges over a hand pump on the road. I still carry a really small pump for emergencies, but there's nothing like changing a flat in 40 degree rain and having to pump and pump and pump with a little hand pump just to get 70 lbs of pressure. Blech - co2 is so much quicker.

Even plain old air leaks out slowly, if I let my tires go a week without pumping them up they'll go from 100 lbs to 80.. its just not as much or as noticeable as the loss with co2.

[OakLeaf]

Well I was skeptical when I first read this, but after I thought about it...

Race cars fill their tires with nitrogen... NOT because it doesn't heat up the same as room air as a lot of people believe... but because it doesn't escape the tires as quickly as room air.

According to a trade organization (fwiw), oxygen escapes through tires 3-4 times as fast as nitrogen. It doesn't give statistics for CO2 (which would have to be somewhat slower than oxygen), but it does say that nitrogen is the largest molecule in room air.

Bottom line is, it's a bigger deal for a car, since you air your bicycle and motorcycle tires before every ride anyhow, but you probably don't check your car tires daily. But yeah, I suppose now that I've read this, if I have a flat early on a long ride, I'd probably borrow someone's air pump within a few hours.

[SouthernBelle]

The drastic temperature changes the co2 goes through may affect all this too.

Just a thought,

[Fujichants]

I have to agree that this is true as well, and BF agrees. Whenever we had flats, we would fill up with CO2 and the next day the tire would be soft and have less air in it. CO2 is perfect to get you home.

Anyways, I always always always pump my tires before a ride. Personally I just feel as if i'm missing something if I don't.