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.
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