I had a slow puncture in a slime tube on Monday went from 40psi to flat every 30 mins, the inflatatior meant finishing the ride without needing to change the to my spare tube. I had a power pack to keep it fully charged.
Would a normal lump not work?
Pump not lump
Miles easier with the inflator. I'd put my spare tube in if I had to pump it up manually as I had to do it about 5 times with the inflator it was no hassle to keep the slime tube going an keep the spare spare
Don't actually understand how it's easier to use a pump.or a pump?
you can't have a coffee and snack whilst using a pump. 30 seconds rather than several minutes. no snapping off the valve you don't have to believe me it was just miles easier./
My nano fumpa is great. Tiny and works to inflate 35 psi per push and you get about six goes. I like CO2 but was worried about the sealant in my tubeless road tyres. I’ve also never had an issue with ANY Topeak mini pump and have one behind the water bottle on my best bikes. But I’ve barely used them as CO2 never fails with tubes and fumpa is great for top ups.
Only one inflator will go to the 160-200 psi for track tubs. It’s on my list but out of stock.
reduce reuse recycle
all these things are is another piece of capitalist tat to make you consume more and create more profits
ever thought you've been had?
At £150 like the first ones were I could perhaps agree with you. But at less than £50 to help get me out of a fix on a freezing cold moor then at my age I will use one. I’ll ditch the CO2 so that’s an environmental win.
I don’t have an electric bike though as I see that as unnecessary and haven’t flown since 2010, choosing to see the world through my wide screen capitalist television and my subversive left wing books!
TRUFLO for the win, supports a UK distributor and can be purchased in your local bike shop.
I think people should read the thread before adding comments, they're missing @thols2 's thread resurrecting contribution 😂
I still stand by my previous post though, they serve a useful purpose as one of those things that's great if one person in the group has, but a pointless extravagance for the other 90%. Likewise CO2. A small pump and a tube (check it's not perished) is always going to be the last resort, so you may as well take it. I can't actually remember the last time I had a MTB tubeless failure that required it.
Although I have since bought a 'big' one from Lidl that's largely replaced the track pump. The workshop compressor does tubeless, the Crivit one does cars, motorbike, checking pressures etc. I even hacked and bodged the head off the old track pump onto it so there was no faffing with presta addapters.
you can't have a coffee and snack whilst using a pump.
How slow is your electric pump?
Even with my least practical roadie pump the size of a sharpie and modern 32c tyres I can get the wheel out, find the thorn, swap or patch the tube, and be on the road again in about 4 minutes.
reduce reuse recycle
all these things are is another piece of capitalist tat to make you consume more and create more profits
ever thought you've been had?
Not really, the mini compressors work well, can replace a track pump and C02.
I even used mine to pop the pistons out of a set of Shimano brakes, to rebuild the calliper the other day.
Can they seat tubeless mountain bike tyres?
They are handy even for home based tasks. I had noticed today while in the garage that the good road bike tyres were quite soft, being tubeless and not having moved for a month or so. That bike sits behind some others and it would have been a 5 plus minute faff to move stuff to attach the track pump and blow up. It took less than 2 minutes all in to pop them both up from 15 to 65 psi with the wee Cycleplus AS2Pro, which lives on top of the drawers out there.
The pump had topped up some gravel tyres the other day, and today’s efforts took it down to 1 of 3 bars.
reduce reuse recycle
Fumpa supply user replaceable batteries and service kits. Which is why I bought from them. I’ve never reused a CO2 cartridge. And a mini pump would struggle to seat a bead on a tubeless road tyre.
Ah that's really good actually, big plus mark for Fumpa
Serial mini pump killer does a video on pump lifespan.
@Brainflex thank you for that videolink, it was very informative
Feels like its an advertorial disguised as a review. Decent "normal" mini pumps do exist (although I'll caveat it with the fact I've had some dire ones - Topeak I'm looking at you). My little Leyzne (sp?) is excellent, didn't cost much, is tiny and lightweight and fits in my Dakine hot laps fanny pack (which I used for a lot of my riding) with ease whereas one of the leccy ones wouldn't do.
Comments about pumps "dying" at the bottom of a camelback etc - lol. What is your little electric Chinese box of magic going to do at the bottom of a camelback for a similar period of time assuming it still has charge left in it?
Feels like another way to make riding a bike that little bit more complicated.
Would anyone with one of the Truflo pumps be kind enough to measure the dimensions?
I was planing to buy the AS2 Ultra with some Amazon vouchers but the Truflo is half the price.
I think this tech is positive. I’ll use it for a quick pressure check/top-up pre ride as it saves faffing with separate track pump and pressure gauge. Plus obviously using if I get a puncture; maybe I’m weedy but I find using a mini pump to get to 65psi is really hard work, and CO2 carts can easily freeze-crack a TPU tube
Serial mini pump killer does a video on pump lifespan
Christ he is dull, I got two minutes in, and thats enough. What was the outcome?
@RicB I’ve just been down to the workshop in my jamas and measured mine, 70mm x 32 x 44. Add another 14mm to the 44 if you leave the adapter screwed in as I do. I carry the flexible tube also as that would enable me to help out any Schraeder users.
I’m not a great user of electronic aids but the TRUFLO pump with my limited fatbike testing is superb! It has the advantage that you can buy from a physical shop too.
@alanl the outcome of the in depth testing was more nuanced than some reviews that state “this is good, this is $hit”.
I enjoyed it as it tested a lot of pumps and tried to solve the problem that some of us have with limited life, disposable electronics.
You’ll just have to watch it or see whether AI will read it for you!
@RicB I’ve just been down to the workshop in my jamas and measured mine, 70mm x 32 x 44. Add another 14mm to the 44 if you leave the adapter screwed in as I do. I carry the flexible tube also as that would enable me to help out any Schraeder users.
I’m not a great user of electronic aids but the TRUFLO pump with my limited fatbike testing is superb! It has the advantage that you can buy from a physical shop too.
Legend- thank you!
Yeah Click bait, but they kind of cover a more interesting topic in the first line for me:
Back when bikes all shared a double-diamond frame with a horizontal top tube, the frame-fit pump ruled.
Full-sized, Frame Pumps FTW (IMO), I use one on my Road/Gravel bike(s), everything else falls short on either the volume of air it moves or the probability of failure on demand. Looking like a dork is a secondary concern, I'm a tubby, middle-aged man in Lycra riding a childs toy (by most people's estimation), Bike aesthetics be damned...
I can also foresee, in the age of ever increasing "integration" and downtube storage hatches, more built-in solutions to air squirting. Either a full sized pump that sits up inside a profiled top tube out of view, but available when needed without ruining the looks of your Dandyhorse. I'm also sure I saw a frame once (prototype?) with an integrated air tank and air line, what could go wrong?
Perhaps full-sized manual pumps are one thing that the industry should be trying harder to accommodate on modern bikes. mini-motorised inflators have a place more as replacement to CO2, but they're still the less reliable timesaving supplemental option, where a manual pump will always have a higher probability of function on demand.
Mini leccy pumps are great, but they will always be constrained by Battery technology, even if I get one, you'll never convince me to bin the manual version.
Full-sized, Frame Pumps FTW (IMO), I use one on my Road/Gravel bike(s), everything else falls short on either the volume of air it moves or the probability of failure on demand. Looking like a dork is a secondary concern, I'm a tubby, middle-aged man in Lycra riding a childs toy (by most people's estimation), Bike aesthetics be damned...
I agree, mostly. I used to carry a full size frame pump, and it still lives on my commuter. But these days modern tyres are so much more puncture proof (as long as you don't insist on being at the top of the BRR leader board) that it doesn't seem worthwhile. My little topeak mini pump works well enough once every 1000miles or so.
The commuter does do the occasional winter ride though, and like an electric pump the frame pump is a great luxury to have within the group on a cold night, but overkill to expect everyone to carry one.
To be honest, even pretty fast lightweight tires these days are quite good. I think I had one puncture in a couple of thousand miles on tubed GP5000s. Similar since switching to the tubeless S version, but that sealed when I pulled the hawthorn out. I swear I got more punctures with gatorskins!
And my mum who is in her late 70s has an electric pump as she struggled with the hand strength for mini pumps (and apparently frame pumps would ruin the look of her bike!). She loves it. The noise really puts me off, but she is half deaf so doesn't notice!
So certainly great as an aid for the elderly and infirm. A bit like electric bikes then? 😛 (though she insists she doesn't need one of those as she hasn't given up on life yet!)
So Stainypants carries a power bank for the inflator...wow. That's proper commitment to pointless electrical evangelism, and using a proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut. Spaffing natural resources for reasons of laziness. Mine some lithium to save a few of your precious minutes. Congratulations.
Every benefit rolled out in this thread seems to revolve around time and faff, proving it's just trying to justify convenience over anything else. The price of your convenience isn't truly measured in time though, is it? Electric pumps are just a sidestep from the wastefulness of CO2 inflators.
So Stainypants carries a power bank for the inflator...wow. That's proper commitment to pointless electrical evangelism, and using a proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut. Spaffing natural resources for reasons of laziness. Mine some lithium to save a few of your precious minutes. Congratulations.
Every benefit rolled out in this thread seems to revolve around time and faff, proving it's just trying to justify convenience over anything else. The price of your convenience isn't truly measured in time though, is it? Electric pumps are just a sidestep from the wastefulness of CO2 inflators.
Haven't you got some yoghurt to knit?
Good substance free response. Touched a truth nerve clearly. Off to put some air in a tyre with the magic of bodily power alone.
Nah, unless you live in a mud hut, I can't be arsed with the sanctimonious waffle when someone uses a device that you choose not to but feel the need to chastise them about under the veil of saving the planet
Neither live in a mud hut nor veiled under anything, just plain uncomfortable truths.
…But these days modern tyres are so much more puncture proof (as long as you don't insist on being at the top of the BRR leader board) that it doesn't seem worthwhile…
I would agree, but then last summer I fitted some Gravelkings, the frame fit pump saw more use than any of my MTB mini-pumps have for some time.
I guess what I’m suggesting is that the solutions maybe need to suit the application(s) better, the actual (longer term) use cases for leccy air puffers are a bit narrower than an “old fashioned” equivalent.
..just plain uncomfortable truths…
Meh, while I agree your point it’s the beginning of a whole pile of whataboutery based nonsense, i.e. I assume you’re viewing this here interwebs page on some form of future E-waste type device? Let’s not start down that road.
We’re all in the same glass house, some of us are flicking pebbles about others juggling rocks. It’s fine to point out the foolishness of others choices, but you’ll get nowhere if trying to convince everyone else to agree with you simply by belittling them…
After being let down by a mini pump on the top of a French mountain (just 100m into the descent I’d suffered all the way up to earn) I decided to never again be without a backup inflation device. For now, I carry a CO2. As a standby I think the electric pump seems like a great idea. I don’t like the idea of the noise. But on the few occasions I’ve had to use a CO2 canister, I confess I did enjoy the lack of effort.
Fighting capitalism 🤣
