They small size would be nice but they seem a little wasteful when a small hand/frame pump would work just as well.
Not really too wasteful. Cartridges are steel and completely recyclable. Genuine Innovations gets their CO2 from some natural source too.
I used to carry both, now I only carry the CO2 with one cartridge. I only carry one tube, so having more than one cartridge is pointless. I should get a patch kit as well actually. If you only flat once every other month, and half of those times you’ll probably be with other people that have pumps, then it isn’t expensive at all. I remember carrying one cartridge in my bag for over 6 months without ever using it. When I did use it, it was to help a person who I saw walking their bike down the road in road shoes. They had flatted 10 miles from home with no tube or pump.
BikeTiresDirect had a 15% discount on Vittorias so I added an inflator to the order. They also have threaded cartridges for $1.74 with quantity discount, it’ll hopefully take the whole season to use them all so that’s not too bad at all.
i’m going to continue to say that i don’t like co2 inflators.
but then again, i also race with a frame pump.
I carry CO2 with two cartridges all the time.