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Old 09-24-18, 01:12 AM
  #14  
01 CAt Man Do
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Columbia, Maryland
Posts: 1,141

Bikes: Mountain bike & Hybrid tour bike

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Lots of good options on Amazon for manual foot pumps. I too have a regular manual bicycle standing hand pump. It works well but I have to admit I hate having to pump up the tires on my bikes. Not only is it tiring but also causes pain to my lower back.

I do own one of those portable electric mini pumps that operate on 12 volts DC. I keep it in my car for emergencies. It will pump up a car tire but it takes about 5-10 minutes. Thing gets real hot while doing this and makes a lot of noise. PITA to use. Since you're not trying to pump up something with 3000 lbs of car sitting on it I would think it would pump up a bike tire much faster. Mine is rated for up to 120 PSI. Never tried it on my bike tires before. I'd consider buying one designed to work off of AC voltage but I'm pretty sure that even it worked really well it would still get real hot and still make a lot of noise. I see some really nice options for a foot pump on Amazon. I might give one of those a try and then hope like hell that it isn't more a PITA that the standard air pumps.

Of course there is always "Option #3 ", Fill the tire half way with a regular pump and then top it off using a CO'2 inflator. This is what I do when biking so why not do it at home? You can buy CO'2 cartridges bulk / cheap at many Walmart's. The down side is that if you do it this way you need a separate tire pressure gauge. Of course if you use the CO2 first and then top off with the pump you can use the gauge on the pump ( although this way is harder ). On the road or trail I use the pump first and then the inflator. On the road I just want inflating up the tire to be easy so I manual pump half way and then top off with CO2.
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