THEY LOOK LIKE NANGS...

Since I stared riding religiously for the last 12 months, its always been hit and miss with carrying the tools and tubes necessary for random emergencies. You know you should always have the spares in your bag, but sometimes you don't carry a bag. Murphy's law also reminds us that you always get a puncture when you are least prepared for it. 

In a desperate bid over the last year to lessen my carry loads, I invested in some c02 canisters, a mini inflator valve, and ditched the trusty ol pump. I have been lucky since then to only have punctures in close proximity to bike shops. In other words, I have not actually used them before. Many people have told me about the pros and cons of the technique, and from there I have had a confident view of them filled with doubt...

Today's adventure with Sime saw him with a flat tire just out of the city.  We pulled over and I whipped out my tube and co2 canister. Two blinks of an eye later the new tube was on and we had the canister loaded and ready to go. One deep breath and 'ppsssssssssssssssstttttttt'. 

Done! All in record time!

I have to admit we tried it twice as the first time we inflated the tire too quickly and we ended up with a bulge which looked like a snake swallowed a rat. But I reckon we would have still been pumping the tire by the time we got going if we had a regular hand pump. And there was more pressure in the tire than I reckon I could have got with a hand pump.

There are no pictures to this story, all I really wanted to do was to say that I absolutely believe in this thing. You might say that it's just a waste of $3 or there is no need for another thing to end up in landfill....but not having to sit on the side of the road with a hand pump trying to get your tire up to 100psi is worth more than $3 to me!