Originally Posted by
cyccommute
The poor design part is that they take the simplicity of a Presta valve and makes in to a poor Schrader valve. They could be made so that they just slip on to the valve they’d work better.
But, honestly, I’ve been using Presta for over 40 years and in all that time I’ve never run across a bicycle pump that didn’t have the ability to pump both types of valves. Every floor pump and frame pump I’ve ever had had the conversion hardware in the pump head and could be easily converted when needed.
I have been using presta since my I put alloy rims on my Peugeot UO-8 circa 1974. Never ever had a problem. I carry 2 spare presta tubes always. In the old days of 25mm tires is was super easy, with 32s a bit larger, but still small. My first floor pump was a Silca Pista for tubulars, it was Presta only as are my Silca frame pumps. I do carry a brass presta to schraeder adapter as a just-in-case, but never needed it. None of the folks I ride with use Schraeder, and those that had them on hybrids went to Presta.