I've heard this. Let me check...

J&B Imports, Nov/Dec wholesale catalog, page 137: Part number 43067, non-threaded Co2 refill, pack of 3- 2.99 or 2.89 in 10's.

I would charge $5.99 for this. Hmmm.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Tom, thanks for checking and letting us in on sensitive information. I know some people freak when they know what a companies cost is, and what the markup is to the consumer. Yeah, duh, it's marked up, that's how you guys stay in business. Anyway, when you say "HMMMM...." is that like a "Hmmm...I definitely need to check into this...maybe I could make the same profit margin and only be charging customers 98 cents a pop..." or a "Hmmm...no way that's right..." or a different Hmmmm altogether? I'm thinking of ordering a lot of 100 for myself, as I go through flats at the rate of 2-3 a week. Only problem is that i'm not sure if they are incompatible, and only made for guns.

I get my C02 12 gram, non-threaded, at the local sporting-goods store (sportmart, etc.) for 50 cents each. They're usually in the hunting/airgun department. Yes, the bike shops mark them up that much. When I was playing paintball seriously many many years ago I was getting them for 25 cents each.

You know the lace-locks/cord locks you can use on your running shoe laces for transitions? Most running or tri shops sell them for a buck each. I just bought a bunch in bulk online for 12 cents each. As soon as something becomes "cycling (or running) specific" the price gets jacked on it. Shop around, its worth it.

J

Well, I think I'm kind of getting ripped. It's funny, a kid told me about this in our store quite some time ago and I was like- "No way dude".

Interesting. Thanks for the heads up.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I sell CO2 cartridges for $2 each. I get them in packs of 50 or 100, but with the cost of the cartridges and the cost of shipping the markup is less than clothing, more than electronics. I don't buy the "packs of 3" or whatever because a)usually people only want one or two, and b)they'd be too expensive.

Lee Silverman
JackRabbit Sports
Park Slope, Brooklyn

We have been previously buying a plastic jar of 50 (I think). I just quoted the price out of the J&B catalog since it was handy.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

the problem arises though when you try and find bulk threaded 16g cartridges...



then you get into the expensive realm.
(or non-existant)

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"Anyone can work hard when they want to; Champions do it when they don't."

I always figured that people buy these as a critical need item. It can't get shipped via 2-day air, so you pay what you have to at the store if you really need them.

I just buy them at Walmart's sporting goods section. My wife is into airgun hunting( dag-nab it you varmints!) so I buy the Crosman super deluxe cartridges for something like $12.00 for a 25 pack.

What really blows my mind is how much more expensive the threaded cartridges are compare to the non-threaded ones.

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Whatever happened to using a (hand) frame pump? Unless you get a flat on every race you do, how in heck do you go through these things??

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Where would you want to swim ?

Well, I know I could get a pump to put on my frame, but my bike is damn sexy and a fat pump has no business being on a top tube that has internally routed cables. I have a small hand pump that I do take with me, but I can only get a tire to about 60 psi with it, and I don't feel comfortable descending mountains with them that low, so I use the C02 to bring it up to at least 100 psi. I generally get about 2 flats on an average week, so that about 1 C02 I'm using per week. Can they be recycled somewhere specifically to be used again?

Sexy? Oi! Sexy is for strip clubs. Fast is for racing bikes. Duct tape is for training bikes.

2 flats a week?! How do you manage that? Right through fields of thorns? Maybe you should examine getting better and different training tires?

For me, using the CO2 things for training rides seems expensive (and wasteful), but that's me.

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Where would you want to swim ?

I think that it's like hearing aid batteries, depending on what they are called(eg hearing aid vs camera, vs other) the cost varies all over the place. One shporing goods shop here that has a pretty decent MTB shop sells them 12 gm) from the cycling manufacturers for several times what you would pay in the same store for the airgun/paintball department's CO2's.

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_________________
Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.

Copperhead 12-Gram Powerlet CO2 cylinders (25-Pack)

$11.97

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3139301

Whoever it was that mentioned 16g and/or threaded cartridges being expensive is dead on right - but the 12g non threaded's are less than 50c each RETAIL.

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<If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough>
Get Fitter!
Proud member of the Smartasscrew, MONSTER CLUB
Get your FIX today?

I bought a 25 pack of 12 gram cartridges from Academy from the paintball section for less than $10 (don't remember the exact price).

See that's another reason to do the group rides with the roadies.. you learn all the creative money saving tips since not all of them have $$$ to blow on gear.

Ouch! Two flats a week- I rode over 2500 miles (I know, not that impressive) and had zero road flats and 2 mtn bike flats. Your roads must suck or you need to get some Armadillos or Gator Skins. I use a mini pump on my road/mtn bikes and 12 gram Walmart cartridges on my tri bike.

2500 miles is damn impressive. I rode Armadillos for a couple years and swore by them too. Once when I needed a replacement, and was in Lake Tahoe, I tried the Gator Skins and the front sidewall blew out within the first 100 miles. I bought another Armadillo to replace it. I didn't get many flats on Armadillos, very rare indeed, great tire. However, the next set of tires I bought was the Vreddstein Tri-Comp, which came highly recommended from a riding buddy. They absolutely blew me away. There is no way I'm going to ride Armadillos in the mountains anymore. They have no feel to them. I can descend with much more confidence on the tri-comp's, and feel like I'm floating uphill, so I live with the flats. Lately I had been getting a couple flats a week but that was because they were very worn down, and now they've been replaced.