I like alliteration (that’s when words that are near one another start with the same letter). Things like ‘angry ancient alligators ate anchovies’ or ‘Sam sneezed several snotty sneezes’. That’s why I decided to write the ‘Get Fast’ tips on Friday, so I could call the series ‘Get Fast on Friday’. I’ve decided to start another series of posts on Tuesdays which I’m calling ‘Tuesday Tips’. Instead of dealing with technique and things to make you faster, these will deal with things like trailside repairs, travel tips and how-to-finish-a-ride-if-your-seat-falls-off. If you have an idea for one, leave it in the comments. I’d love to hear it.

I’ve heard that you should never fly with CO2. Something about it exploding on the plane. This is baloney. I’ve flown with CO2 tons of times and never had an issue. At least not since I figured out how to keep the TSA from taking them.

Nothing is more annoying than showing up at a race, unpacking your bike and realizing that while unnecessarily rearranging everything in your bike box, the TSA also confiscated your CO2s. Now, instead of relaxing before your race you have to find a bike shop that has CO2 cartridges, spend $15 to buy them, head back to your hotel, collapse on the bed in relief, jump back up cursing, head back to the bike shop and spend another $15 to replace the filler nozzle because you realized the TSA didn’t take it off before they took your CO2s. That’s if your lucky. If you’re unlucky, you’ll realize 15 minutes before your race and frantically run around the venue asking people if you can borrow their inflators for the race, blowing off your warm-up in the process. And if you’re really unlucky you won’t notice that your CO2s are gone until you flat during the race and have to walk the rest of the race.

So how do you avoid this? Ready? Drumroll please.

Put the CO2s in empty water bottles in your bike box.

For some reason, even if the bottles are clear, this tricks the TSA agents. Maybe they just ignore water bottles, even ones that make strange metallic clinking noises. I don’t know. But I do know that I flew six Genuine Innovations Big Airs to California this past weekend for Sea Otter.

So the next time you’re heading somewhere to ride, don’t forget to pack your CO2s. Just make sure to pack them in a water bottle!