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POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Flat Tires


Since flat tires are a common occurrence in the sport of cycling, we expect you as a cyclist to have the parts, equipment, and ability to fix flat tires yourself directly on the road. We do not consider simply having a flat tire an emergency situation and generally will not dispatch a SAG vehicle to your location simply to fix one for you except in extreme circumstances such as running out of tubes or CO2 cartridges or having a frame pump break.

If a professional bicycle mechanic is travelling with us, he can come out to to your location on the road and fix your flat tire for you. You will be charged for this service unless you pre-registered for the Mechanical Support Plan.

  • Click Here for more information about our mechanic's Mechanical Support Plan.

Frame Pumps vs. CO2 Quick Tire Inflators
We strongly recommend relying on carrying a hand operated frame pump with you while riding to fix flat tires on the road rather than a CO2 quick tire inflator. Other than being able to inflate your tires a little more quickly and easily, there aren't any other benefits to CO2 quick tire inflators while there are a lot of drawbacks.

Most importantly, it is impossible to run out of air using a frame pump on the road as opposed to running out of CO2 cartridges, particularly if you're having a bad flat day (we've all had them). If you run out of CO2 cartridges you must either wait for another cyclist to assist you or call SAG support. In addition, on a multi-day event you will have to see our mechanic or a bike shop to buy more CO2 cartridges.

  • Click Here for more information about the consequences of using SAG support.

Because it is free to use a frame pump as opposed to having to buy a new CO2 cartridge (roughly $5.00 each) every time you fill up a flat tire, a frame pump is also significantly less expensive than a CO2 quick tire inflator over the course of their lifetime.

In addition, there is no time related benefit to a using CO2 quick tire inflator on our events since all our events are recreational in nature and not competitive or timed.

Many newer frame pumps have a built in pressure gauge and can get your tires at or at least very close to a high pressure for riding, particularly for road tires. And if you can't pump up your tires to full pressure on the road, we will have floor pumps available at every rest stop for tire pressure top offs.

  • Click Here for more information about floor pumps.

If you will be flying to and/or from our events, CO2 CARTRIDGES CANNOT BE TRANSPORTED IN ANY AIRCRAFT.

  • Click Here for more information about flying to and from our events.

If you must rely on CO2 cartridges to reinflate your flat tires we will have a supply of both threaded and unthreaded 16g CO2 cartridges for sale on an emergency basis only.

  • Click Here for more information about our parts and accessories.

P.O. Box 8454 • Chicago, IL 60680 • (877) TOUR-ILL [868-7455]
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