The Birzman Roar 25g Set is a very nicely made CO2 inflator that sets itself apart with one small but handy difference. It’s well priced and easy to use, too, though its tiny size means leverage is low for piercing canisters, and the action can get a little stiff if things do go wrong.
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This set comprises the lovely looking, CNC-machined inflator, three 25g CO2 canisters to get you going, and a neoprene sleeve to stop you cold-welding your hand to them as the gas rushes out.
And yes, that's hand, singular. The neat trick of the Roar is that it operates one handed – useful when any extra controls can only be tiny.
Once a canister is properly engaged it’s primed and no gas is lost – press it onto the valve and the the head opens automatically. The harder you push, the greater the flow.
That means there's no fiddling for a tiny lever, and it's one less step to slow you down during a race.
The downside is the Roar can be a little tough to operate. Sometimes (often after a failed attempt) it requires a lot more force than expected to release the gas properly. Also, a drawback of the inflator's otherwise useful tiny size is there's not an awful lot of leverage when twisting it to pierce a canister.
The Birzman Roar 25g Set sorts you out from the get-go. It comes with plenty of gas, it's small and light in a pack or pocket, and the inflator head works really well – so long as you get it right the first go, anyway.