Originally Posted by
Rick
Tourist in MSN: I bought a Joe Blow in Early March 2014 when I picked up my bicycle. I primarily use it for the bikes with the schrader valves. I recently replaced the leather piston in my 1990s Silca Super Pista. I used there leather conditioner on it prior to instal per there directions. If you haven't conditioned the leather recently, I would try that to see if you don't need to stretch the leather any longer. I also bought the Hiro pump head from Silca and It is a big improvement. In the past I have destroyed a couple of presta valves removing the chuck from the presta valve. The Hiro negates that possibility.
Thanks. I usually use cooking oil on the leather. Years ago I had a can of Neatsfoot oil, but can't find it. And I am not going to buy a bottle for just a couple pump leathers. I have been using cooking oil on pump leathers for camping stoves for decades. I did buy a new pump leather, but right now I do not recall which Silca I put it in.
The Silca that I bought new had a screwy chuck, it was supposed to be useable on shraeder or presta by turning part of it around. It worked poorly on both. By pure luck, I got a used Silca presta-only chuck for cheap at a bike parts swap meet a year or two ago, that has improved the performance on one of my Silca pumps by replacing that shraeder thingy.
The presta-only chucks, my only bad luck was that the rubber fitting seemed to wear out really fast, I am hoping that the new ones use a better material that will extend the life on them.
Last night I used one of my Silcas to pump up a tire. I was working on one of my bikes just inside the front door on my condo, and one Silca pump is stored there for that sort of thing. It was faster than going out to the garage to get the Joe Blow.