Where do you get the air from to blow your tyres up?

The atmosphere. Which isn’t 100% CO2, which your canisters are. I definitely had more problems with sealant going off prematurely when i was inflating tyres with CO2 canisters and it actually gets fairly expensive – often >1 canister to get a tyre to seat so a few £ a time.

If you are using them best practice is to seat the tyre without sealant, let the tyre down and then add sealant and reinflate.

Airshot is well worth the money as an off the shelf solution – much more reliable than Co2 IME. Those fire extinguishers look the business though.

I’ve got one of these from Merlin, it’s excellent – first time every time.

https://www.merlincycles.com/beto-cja-001s-tubeless-air-tank-inflator-98943.html

It is not just the amount of fluid in your tyres, it is the quality. In Summer it evaporates, in Winter it doesn’t but it still forms bogeys which weaken the mixture (reduce the amount of latex in solution) though there will still be audible sloshing. So from time to time you need to replace not top up.

The ammonia in the fluid will take out the CO2 in the air you pump into the tyre. I don’t think atmospheric CO2 has much to do with how the stuff polymerises when you get a puncture. That is to do with evaporation and possibly shear stresses I think.

After years of swearing, I bought a specialised one that looks very similar to that ^^^^^^ but cost 40 quid. Worth every penny.

How do you know you have to replace the fluid? Do you do a weekly check?

Nah, not quite than anal 😉

I just find that the next puncture I get doesn’t seal well and even that the tyre starts to lose pressure overnight. I’d never really given it a lot of thought, but I suspect that this always happens a few days after I use CO2…

I’ve been using my IRN BRU bottle, untaped, for years with no problems.

This is what happens when an un-taped pop bottle goes pop:

[WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE]

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g237/Pee_Jay_1/DSC_0998_zpsnxyvzpaj.jpg

My understanding was that it’s the CO2 in the atmosphere that sets the sealant when you get a puncture, so if you use a CO2 canister you’re causing a whole load of sealant to solidify prematurely.

I use the CO2 to seat the tyre, deflate, fill with sealant, then inflate with a track pump. So the CO2 never comes into contact with the sealant.

This is what happens when an un-taped pop bottle goes pop

Ooh! What sliced the fingers?

I got fearful of the Coke bottle going pop with my kids around so for an old extinguisher from work.

I didn’t bother with drilling out the pressure release valve as mine looked a bit different to most I’d seen on here, so instead I used a three way tee and a simple tap valve so I can fill the extinguisher through the outlet with the handle held in the open position.

Definitely not as neat as most other solutions but it means the pressure release valve is still in place and all works perfectly fine. Had fun at the weekend with the kids using the extinguisher to fuel up Coke bottle rockets which was fun!

Ooh! What sliced the fingers?

It wasn’t me – I saw it on YACF. The shards of plastic severed the tendons in the guy’s finger.

I used the same 16pence ASDA Cola bottle with a couple of valves jammed through the lid and a length of screenwash hose for years until I gave in and bought an Airshot last year. The bottle had all the usual issues of hose popping off at bad moments etc but since it’s nearly free you just grin and bear it.

The Airshot is convenient and easy to store, and faster to use.

TBH, while I see the coolness of the fire extinguisher etc, unless you actually have a scrap pressure cylinder around the place o think of it was going to cost 30-40 in parts I’d buy the Airshot and have a little box to store rather than a big ass fire extinguisher. Following from that, I’d say if you’re going to make an inflation aid, do it as cheaply as you can if the aim is to save money over the Airshot. Just remember you want a fizzy pop bottle, not a water or cordial one as the caps aren’t pressure tested if they aren’t meant to have gaseous content. 🙂

I’m going to tape my 3-year-old pop bottle right now just in case that photo is real…

As for the “all you need is a track pump” brigade – try it on an XC tyre rather than a DH tyre and you’ll understand the problem!!

the airshot (or equivalent) are brilliant for tubeless. Yes you can make something for less, but I’ve definitely had the value of mine, both in the shed and on trips away. On 27.5/27.5+/29/29+ – never failed to bead and inflate a tyre.

Mate has a Bonty Flash and that’s been excellent as well – failing only on a 29+ dirt wizard.

£40 is quite a lot for what it is but it does the job. However 90 quid bought me a compressor and after that any remaining tubeless worries were over 🙂

Maxxis Tubeless Ready (TR) tyres go up with a track pump. Bought an Airshot to go tubeless but found the TR tyres went up fine with a pump. Sold the Airshot on.

I did try and fail to fit a Maxxis with DH casing and perhaps that needed an Airshot, but it was really slack. The tyre is so heavy though that having a tube in makes little difference!

Just buy an Airshot. Works every time, same price as one tyre. What’s not to like? Used mine for road and off road. A clip to fix it to my rennkompressor would be a nice touch for an updated neoprene cover, but otherwise, it’s perfect. And of course, when I take the track pump on it’s own there is less bulk.

What pump are people using to inflate their canisters up to >100psi type pressures?

I’ve got a Joe Blow something or other track pump (might be a Joeblow Max) and getting 100psi in my road tyres takes a lot of heaving on the pump.
I suspect 160psi or so would kill the pump (or me) pretty quickly.

If I end up having to buy a new pump as well as a canister, I might as well go for one of the all in one options like the Airwave Airblast which is <£55 on CRC.

stumpy01 – I use my Joe Blow to fill my Airshot. It’s on the limit, but it’s about 18 strokes.

Had I seen the Airwave Airblast, I’d probably have one of them rather than my Airshot strapped to my track pump

This is what happens when an un-taped pop bottle goes pop

Last time I dared to suggest that old coke bottles don’t make the safest pressure vessels on here I got shouted down by the STW league of experts…

I am tempted to find an extinguisher to mod though, as good as my compressor is it is a bit noisy for my late night tyre seating sessions and the output flow seems a little restricted.

If I could safely charge an extinguisher with a short hose I might be better able to seat some trickier tyres…

I don’t ever bother with 160PSI. 120PSI has been more than enough. Using Spesh Airwave.

That airblast looks good value.

m0rk – Member

stumpy01 – I use my Joe Blow to fill my Airshot. It’s on the limit, but it’s about 18 strokes.

Had I seen the Airwave Airblast, I’d probably have one of them rather than my Airshot strapped to my track pump

Cheers m0rk. Yeah, it seems like the Airwave would be the best solution for me if I did decide to get one….

Alex – Member

I don’t ever bother with 160PSI. 120PSI has been more than enough.

Ah, OK. Interesting to know. I assumed it would be better to whack it up to full pressure.
I’ve tried tubeless in the past with mixed success using a tape-wrapped pop bottle.
The rims on my full sus are tubeless ready, but not ‘proper’ tubeless and I’ve only tried Spesh 2Bliss tyres on them. First time I did them, they went up almost straight away & I was very impressed. 2nd time, I could not get them to pop on to the rim & ended up giving up, never to try again.

Never got a tyre up with just a track pump – always need soapy water and a home made airshot thing.
But the tyres (Maxxis TR) are VERY tight on my SRAM rims so I suspect it’s down to rim / tyre combo.

My solution uses an old CO2 MIG welding gas bottle, plug in to compressor with the left connector, charge to 70ish PSI, turn off tap & plug tyre inflator into the top – works every time.

I’ve not had any that won’t seat at 50PSI, I’d not take them much higher as you can stretch the bead.

Camping/airbed pump, remove valve core and insert long valve adapter in the hole. One, maybe 2 pumps and you’re good to go. Hold it in for a bit to seat, then put valve core back in and use track pump. Done all of mine like that, all up first time.

I use my Joe Blow to fill my Airshot

Be careful. I pumped to 120 psi indicated and it blew the valve in the pump, despite this being well below the max recommended. My rennkompressor replacement is good for 200+ PSI and feels much more solid. The gauge is a lot more accurate too!