Forum menu
I’ve managed to kill my ~10 year old £20 track pump finally. Need a new one. Can’t decide if I should spend loads and get one with tubeless inflator, or just another cheap one, promise myself to get an airshot and then just continue swearing at every tubeless tyre for 30 mins instead. What do people get these days?
This and an Airshot had served me well last few years 🙌🏻
Get a SKS Renncompressor and Airshot. Pro tip is to swap the pump head for a Silca. Better still get the £500 Silca currently on offer at Wiggle for a bargain £350. I used one at the track recently, and it was lovely. That’s for 160psi tubulars.
I like the Joe Blow Mountain, but there's other high volume pumps that are similar. No point using a high pressure pump for mountain bikes, high volume inflates faster and is miles better for tubeless.
(I do have a compressor which I occasionally resort to when a tyre's fighting me but I almost always just use the pump, just cos the compressor's up the back of the shed and really noisy. Airshots and chamber pumps are really clever, but I can't remember the last time I didn't get a tyre up easily with the Joe Blow. Probably something stupid, fatbike tyre on my non-tubeless-ready rims, or maybe a dh wire bead.)
NOT a Park Tools one... it's very very disappointing.
When you say killed it, is the valve head?
My on one pharrt valve head died after 10 years and was replaced with a topeak head about 5 years ago. It took 5 min to swap.
If your current one has lasted this long, is it worth fixing?
It goes to something like 200psi which makes it quite annoying to use with mtb tyres when I only want 20psi.
See if you can swap the gauge, i've done that on my rennkompressors. Now have a 0-8 bar on one and 0-4 (i think?) on the other. (Don't ask why i have two!)
I recommend Topeak pumps - reasonably priced and very repairable, with spare parts available for years. I bought a Joe Blow in 2008 and was able to replace some worn-out parts just last month.
I would get a separate pump and Airshot, there's less to go wrong that way. I've had good experiences with Topeak pumps, I've had a Joe Blow for years with zero issues.
Left field but I use an Ryobi inflator as goes to 150 psi. Does need a battery but takes the strain out of seating tubeless and pumping tyres.
I spent more and got myself one with a tubless res. The lezyne one. It's a lovely piece of kit, no question, but a bit of a pain when I want to do a quick top up. To put air in the tyres, the reservoir has to be filled first, which is annoying when I would normally only need a couple of pumps to top them off.
Currently watching this thread to see what 'normal' track pumps are recommended. Ideally with a gauge that tops out at 60psi!
Cheap track pump and a separate air compressor works for me.
The Joe Blow pump with a tubeless reservoir is just a normal pump with a tubeless reservoir attached. It works really quite well and doesn't need 'charging' to use the normal pump, although I don't really use the tubeless but now as I have a proper compressor. I still find it easier to do top ups with the track pump though
Another Joe Blow user here, I've had it for years (20+?). It's needed 1 new valve head and I think I took it apart and regreased it once or twice.
edit: I've also go a separate airshot for tubeless
Joe Blow Mountain.
0-60 psi. All you need for MTB and gravel. And because its low pressure/high volume, it seats tubeless no problem.
All you need.
Sounds like the Joe blow mountain ex (or II? or X?) is the winner. I do like the look of the SKS renncompressor too so maybe I need that too in a few months when I get the road bike out again (though I tend to run that around 60PSI so the Joe blow will probably be fine).
The current dead pump is definitely not worth fixing, I've been waiting for this day for a long time and it will be nice to have something a bit less cheap.