Thread: Inflator
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Old 06-12-25 | 08:56 AM
  #35  
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Smaug1
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From: SE Wisconsin, USA

Bikes: Trek: Domane AL3, Checkpoint SL7; Priority Apollo 11, ZiZZO Forte + eBikes

I don't really see the point of the pocket inflators. By the time they get pocket-sized, it means the battery is only good for an inflation or two, which makes it the same as a CO2 inflator, only slower and more complicated and reliant on a cheap Li-Ion battery.

I do carry a battery-powered inflator, one of the cheaper ones from Amazon, but it was designed more for car and motorcycle use, as it's kind of big and only has a Schrader chuck. I carry it in the trunk bag of my eFatty, so I can ride to the trails electrified @ 15 psi, then deflate to 5 psi and ride manually, then inflate back to 15 psi for the ride home. I did that a couple times with a hand pump, and it is at least 15 minutes of pumping of each tire, and not just in emergencies. That was for the birds.

I decided at some point to shop for a CO2 inflator for my road bike, and in the shop, I couldn't help but notice that a compact hand pump weighed less than a CO2 inflator, and if one carries an extra cartridge, then the CO2 inflator is bulkier AND heavier. So I got a Lezyne Pocket Drive, as someone pictured above. Not only that, but it came with a bracket to install under my bottle cage so that the pump just rides next to a water bottle; not even taking up space in my seat pack.

When it was time to outfit another bike, I tried another one, Park Tool's most compact pump. That one's great too, and is the one I pumped up the eFatty's tires on. It's not as small as the Lezyne.
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