Ghetto tubeless inflator – total cost 9p!

I’m sure i’m not the first person to have come up with this, but I was so surprised it actually worked I thought I’d share….

What you need

2L Pop bottle – I used a Morrisons 9p mineral water bottle
Two old presta innertubes – I used two old punctured ones
A drill
A 5.5mm drill bit
Hacksaw
A pump
Some plastic tubing – 5-6mm internal diameter?
Gaffa tape if you’re not feeling brave

Total cost – 9p

How you do it
1 – Cut the valves out of the inner tubes – you only need a small amount round the base
2 – Cut one of the valves about halfway down to remove the internal valve bits
3 – Drill two 5.5mm holes in your bottle lid – not too close to the edge or it won’t close
4 – Shove both valves through holes
5 – Use the presta lock rings to get a decent seal (use pliers if you have weak lady hands)
6 – Put tubing over the cut off valve
7 (optional) – Wrap gaffa tape round the bottle to strengthen it. If you’re super paranoid stick it in the cut off jeans leg. That said in my younger days we used to inflate them to 80psi and then shoot nails in them from a home made air gun (bang!)

How you use it

1 (optional depending on how stubborn the tyre is) – Remove valve core
2 – Attach other end of tubing to valve
3 – Put a good kink in the tube by folding over
4 – Attach pump to other valve
5 – Inflate to 40psi or so
6 – Remove kink (quickly)
7 – Tyre inflates very quickly!
8 – (optional) If you’ve removed the valve core do the inflation a couple of times, then put the core back in and inflate a final time
9 – Use a pump on the wheel valve to pump up to desired pressure

Seems to work a treat – had to remove the valve core on one of my new high rollers but not the other one.

Close up of the valve:
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photo(6).jpg[/url] by Ewan Panter[/url], on Flickr

Attached to wheel valve:
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photo(5).jpg[/url] by Ewan Panter[/url], on Flickr

In action:
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photo(4).jpg[/url] by Ewan Panter[/url], on Flickr

It works!
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photo(2).jpg[/url] by Ewan Panter[/url], on Flickr

Proper ghetto:
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photo.jpg[/url] by Ewan Panter[/url], on Flickr

Use said bottle as a dope rocket after, to celebrate….?

DrP

GEEEEnius 😀
Fortunately mine go up with a hand pump!!!

To be fair a 40psi bong would be er, interesting.

good that and, on account of the ghetto aspect there’s an extra

yeah BWWOYYYYYYY !!

(I’m doing that clicky fingers thing here too)

<just copy/pasted and emailed to mbuk for my £100>

looks good bud…proper brainbox like

EDIT: 40psi bong…!!!!!!! would beat buckets anyday of the week!!!

Top bodging.

Good idea that, bit like a diy version of this

Thoght about something similar in the past for seating loose tyres on stans, put a wrap of tape round instead though

I thought about this a while ago when I converted mine, but they went up with a track pump.

Could use a 5l water bottle for more volume. Would probably need to tape that up as they’re square edged.

Dunno if these would have gone up with a track pump – proabably with a bit of faff (stans rims after all). Decided i’d apply a bit of bodging rather than do the normal pump like a mental for 5 minutes whilst swearing.

I’ve never ever had to resort to compressor help ……up till i helped a mate out to do his as “they are a piece of pith” furiously trying to pump with my track pump whilst he looked at me like “you said it was easy you fooktard” I concede defeat and 2 secs hooked up to my old mans compressor and they’re rock solid….
when i move back into my house its going to be the 1st thing that gets purchased for my workshop, actually probably 2nd after obligatory soft/hard porn calender…

Nice one!
Will the pressure open the schrader valve to inflate the tubeless setup?

Trackpump worked easily for me, but not on my mates. must be the rims – I’m dtswiss, he was mavic I think

Pressure should open the valve – if you’ve got 40psi in there. No idea whether it’d inflate quick enough – I only run tubless. You’d find it harder to bodge with schreder valves for the resivior.

Looks like a fancy shake n bake setup

I made one of these a while ago for a few pounds (only differences: ball valve, pump adaptor, 3l bottle). It works so well I can’t believe no-one sells them (health and safety?).

A few key points:
1) make sure the bottle is for fizzy drinks (ie. designed to withstand pressure)
2) make sure the bottle has no damage (scratches etc)
3) fill the bottle with water first and pressure test well above what you plan to use it at (I pumped it up to 100psi but understand they normally fail above 150psi). Since water is incompressible it doesn’t store energy and so a failure won’t do any damage.
4) I’ve tied the valve assembly to the bottle in case the threads fail (to avoid high speed projectiles) and wrap it in a blanket in use.

Just seen this… Genius! Off to have a go at making one myself, have all the ready components already…

Only just spotted this thread – made mine almost 10 years ago, and have posted on here a few times, so hopefully I might have inspired some of the others on this thread. Though compared to the OP I inserted one valve in the bottom of the bottle – more hassle to get it in there, though maybe easier than two in the cap – and used a proper plumbing valve and pump adapter like totoro’s version:

Works really really well.

Best bike thing I’ve bodged in years! And they call me the bike pikey

Spotted this thread last night after having trouble inflating my ghetto 29er wheels (for the first time ever, a track pump used to suffice, I guess the tyres have stretched?), I went for Ewan’s method. Works an absolute treat, thanks.

Could you acheive the same thing from a spare car wheel/tyre inflated to 40psi at the garage/by footpump – that would be a huge reservoir?

wwaswas – Member

Could you acheive the same thing from a spare car wheel/tyre inflated to 40psi at the garage/by footpump – that would be a huge reservoir?

Yup. All you’d need for that is a double-ended inflator hose.

For tricky rims/tyres, this sounds great. Will try it.

Looks cool, although I’ve always just used a track pump and had no problems.

However, how much air could you fit in a normal 750ml water bottle? Do they leak? I’m thinking of a cheap, reusable, co2 cannister, that fits in a bottle cage on a road bike, and doesn’t look out of place.

Would be weird if someone tried to drink out of it though. What’s the volume of a 700x23c tyre?

wouldn;t it be easier just to carry a pump – you can use all the uncompressed air that’s freely available where you happen to have a puncture?

2.1m x (23mm^2)/4 ~ 1.1l (or a 2l pop bottle at about 150psi)

how much air could you fit in a normal 750ml water bottle?

I reckon about 0.75l. Just a guess.

^^
Fail!

DrP

This is absolute genius! I’ve faffed around with tubeless for a couple of years using a track pump, often giving up in frustration and sticking a tube back in. Knocked up one of these and have just converted two wheels in under half an hour (stan’s flow and maxxis tyres.) Brilliant. Didn’t even bother with the soapy stuff.

Big thanks to Ewan for posting this.

where are you lots getting this tubing from? I’m tempted to try this, never had a problem with Crests and just a track pump but just switched to Arches and can’t get the same tyres to catch the air at all.

SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS-LOCK!

BUT THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT!

DON’T PRESSURISE BOTTLES THAT AREN’T DESIGNED TO HOLD PRESSURE!

FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE*, A FIZZY DRINKS BOTTLE CAN HANDLE ABOUT 150PSI**, BUT A ‘SQUASH’ BOTTLE CAN’T HANDLE VERY MUCH AT ALL.

DON’T PRESSURISE ‘SQUASH’ BOTTLES, THEY CAN AND DO GO BANG.

IN A LOUD AND SCARY WAY.

careful now.

X

(you can get 3litre fizzy drinks bottles if you want/need more volume)

(*water rockets, with a little testing, and some stabilizing fins, and some maths, you can send them about 200m…)

(**please don’t go this high, it’s loads, it probably won’t go bang, but it’ll take your face clean off if it does)

Used an old coke bottle wrapped in gaffer tape, I may wrap it in a blanket next time just in case! Found that pumping to around 40psi was enough to do the job.

Bigjim, the tube I used to connect the valves was cut off the end of an injector thing that I had lying about that originally came with an expanding foam canisters from B&Q.

ahwiles – Member
SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS-LOCK!

BUT THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT!

DON’T PRESSURISE BOTTLES THAT AREN’T DESIGNED TO HOLD PRESSURE!

FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE*, A FIZZY DRINKS BOTTLE CAN HANDLE ABOUT 150PSI**, BUT A ‘SQUASH’ BOTTLE CAN’T HANDLE VERY MUCH AT ALL.

DON’T PRESSURISE ‘SQUASH’ BOTTLES, THEY CAN AND DO GO BANG.

IN A LOUD AND SCARY WAY.

ARE YOU SHOUTING BECAUSE YOU HAVE FOUND THIS OUT THE HARD WAY, & ARE NOW A BIT DEAF ??????

He, he….

😉

Seriously, I may try this method as for me its usually use a track pump, strike lucky & the tyre seats & inflates immediately, or it doesn’t & I end up going into work to use the compressor which is a no-no at the weekend & then i’ve to wait ’till Monday. So, yes, think i’ll give it a go.

Where can I buy the tubing and a stop valve from?

Unless you want to build a deluxe model then any old bit of tubing will do as long as it fits on the valve and that you can bend it to pinch it off. If you want one like aracer or totoro I’d search down my local DIY store’s plumbing aisle.

This was my effort…

Gary_C – Member

ARE YOU SHOUTING BECAUSE YOU HAVE FOUND THIS OUT THE HARD WAY, & ARE NOW A BIT DEAF ??????

yes.

🙂

(pardon? – speak up! – can anyone else hear a loud ringing noise? – etc.)

I finaly got mine inflated (alex rims, maxxis tyres) by wraping electrical tape round and round and round the rim untill the tyre bead was actualy tight.

Went up with a track pump (and not even a particularly big volume one) and added about 30g to the setup.

Haha, I had a road tyre explode in the kitchen the other day, took me 30 seconds to realise that the radio hadn’t actualy turned off!

excellent little trick. its certainly made them inflate fast enough, but i think the bottle top leaks a little bit and the tyres going down slowly afterwards. i might need to wait for it to be fully down, then get some pliers on the locknut for a better seal.

didnt go up at all leaving the inner core in, so im a bit worried im never gonna get it blown up and stay up :-/

great fiddle tho for getting the tyres up quick. well done 🙂

I’d thought about doing this but this has solved a few issues I wasn’t sure about….

I’ve found an even better way to get your tyres to stay inflated, and with far less faffage!

Et voila:

I know, I know. It’ll be all the rage next year….