My track pump is fairly knackered and while looking on line for a replacement I saw Lezyne do one that they claim will seat tubeless tyres. Is it worth spending the 40-50 quiddish or shall I stick to a cheap track pump and just go to a mate with a compressor come tyre change time?

I would have thought that the best way to seat a tubeless tyre is to have a pump that shifts a lot of air each compression. The Lezyne will only be better if it’s a greater volume than cheap not specifically designed to seat tubeless pumps. Someone else might have some greater wisdom…

I have a Lezyne one, and it’s a great pump. My experience of tubeless and track pumps is very hit and miss – sometimes they inflate and sometimes they don’t. Without looking up volumes of pumps (I just went for the one that loked shiney, and nice), it’s hard to make a specific recommendation

If you can remove the valve core from the valve then the pump should get air in quick enough to seal the bead on the rim.

Lezyne make numerous floor pumps, but they break down into 3 series:

“Floor Drive” pumps (6 models) are high pressure (160psi) and therefore low volume.

“Travel Floor Drive” pumps (2 models) are compact pumps meant to fit better in luggage for riders that travel.

“Dirt Drive” pumps (3 models) are a high volume/low pressure pump intended for mountain bikes. The gauge only goes to 70psi, and the pump barrel is noticeably larger in diameter than the floor drive models. Therefore they move a larger volume of air on each stroke, and would be more likely to seat tubeless tires.

I’ve run Stan’s tubeless for years, but I have a big air compressor…

Joe Blow Mountain is about £30 and it’s large volume makes it easy to inflate tubeless ready tyres on UST and converted rims. However, it’s not a high pressure pump and you will need another to inflate a road bike tyre.

Joe Blow Sport works fine for me on tubeless MTB tyres (Maxxis on UST) and road tyres.

Google shopping results

Note that occasionally with new folded UST tyres I’ll need to leave them overnight with a tube in to get them the right shape before they’ll mount up.

Toppeak do a mountain pump with high volume which is suppossed to be able to do tubeless, for £30:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/topeak-joe-blow-mountain-track-pump/

one review says

What a sensational piece of equipment…
(i’d give it 10 stars if your scale was big enough)
Spent 3 years struggling @ the local servo with their In-House Complimentary Tyre Inflation Equipment,
when fitting tubeless tyres to my collection of UST rims.
Joe will get this job done – with bells on…
first time ; every time

Edinburgh Bikes own brand and a Pedro’s one both pop tubeless up no problem… Lezyne is beautiful kit but its top end price..

You wont regret spending another £50 on a half decent compressor.

scruff – Member

You wont regret spending another £50 on a half decent compressor.
Posted 6 minutes ago # Report-Post

Agree with what you’re saying but sometimes space is a problem 🙁 i have small (garage) man syndrome.

Oddly enough I have a specialized track pump that will inflate specialized 2bliss storms like a dream, but fails with bonty mudx and xr3s, conti race kings, I could of bought a compressor with the amount of money I’ve spent at my LBS.

Hmm starting to think scruffs solution might be the way to go, I have spent many[un]happy hours trying to mount tubeless tyres with just the crap track pump. I’ll check on line for smallest compressor with enough puff.

Joe Blow Mountain works a treat for tubeless.

A Blackburn Air Tower 5 is the best track pump I’ve owned but not sure it’s vital for tubeless stuff although I’ve never had to use a compressor myself. The AT5 does have a switchable high volume setting which sounds ideal for starting off a tubeless tyre but I find it takes so much more effort to use that not only can I not do it one-handed easily but it’s actually slower to get air in so just use it on normal mode.

So just to clarify, this:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/topeak-joe-blow-mountain-track-pump/#more

Will be more help when inflating Tubeless tyres then just a standard track pump due to its oversized barrel?

Thanks

I have the joe blow mountain and it definately flows more volume than a standard size track pump per stroke. I also find it has more resistance per stroke doing this. On paper it should be better for seating UST tyres than a standard pump.

all the reviews on wiggle are good but one:

“Bought for inflating tubeless MTB tyres and not overly impressed. Stroke-volume is good as per description but takes some serious muscle to force the air in. OK product but I’ve now bought a cheap CO2 inflator pump which does the hard work cheaper (initially) and easier.”

so it is probably th ebest bet you will get with a track pump – if it fails then you might have to do other tricks like put an inner tube in overnight to reshape the tyre.

Well I think this can only be an advantage to me, I’ve had a Park Tool cheaper one for the last couple of years and only ever failed completely with one new tyre, all others have gone up instantly or eventually, so maybe this will irradicate all issues 🙂

I’ve never had a problem with a joe blow sport. You have to take manly strokes though! If the gauge on the mountain only goes up to 70, you might find it annoying if you’ve ever got to use it on a road bike. It helps to straighten the bead out by hand first and hang the wheel as you seat it.

Threaded CO2 carts are peanuts if you get them from air gun suppliers, so you might as well keep some if the pump fails.

Any old track pump and a coke bottle ghetto tubeless inflator, works a treat

Joe Blow is perfect for tubeless – I’ve had no problems inflating conti, schwalbe, specialised or No tubes tyres in 29er flavour. It’s so good that I take one abroad with me as I don’t want to be without it.

Guess it depends on what inflation technique you use but as I warned about the AT5 – be careful with HV pumps as they need more grunt to use and if, like me, you inflate with one hand whilst helping the tyre get started with the other then the added resistance of the pump means you actually get less air flow. Ofc if you can use the pump 2-handed then you’re probably better off with an HV pump

Or you can position your a4se cheeks on the handle of the pump whilst holding the tyre, then sit down sharply…

Any old track pump and a coke bottle ghetto tubeless inflator, works a treat

was wondering about this and this came up..

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ghetto-tubeless-inflator-total-cost-9p

might have to try it

Lezyne Dirt Drive pumps are fantastic. Noticeably bigger volume makes it much easier to get tubeless tyres inflated. The new bleed valve is a great little addition too.

Standard Joe Blow is pretty poor- very low volume. Still does the job but it makes it harder than it should be. The Mountain or the Lezyne Dirt Drive would be my call, but expensive…

So I’ve got a Blackburn Air Tower 2, which shifts almost exactly twice as much air per stroke as my old Joe Blow, but on the downside always feels like it’s about to snap in half. It’s a piece of junk but it does the job very well.