Gonfleur is French for "inflator". It's used to describe foot pumps, floor pumps, small compressors etc.

In old bike photos (in the era of steel bottles with corks, sew ups over the shoulders, and handlebar bottle cages) you can see riders carrying a gonfleur on their frame, usually below the downtube like here:



So I think the way these things work is they store compressed air, not CO2. I think they're bigger than CO2 inflators because since it's compressed air it's not liquid in the canister. But I've never seen one in real life.

Please tell me anything else you know about these gonfleurs.
Red X? Click HERE

Thanks Diabloscott, I have seen one painted red. It was longer than a CO2 inflator. From memory it was about 7 inches long.

I was really hoping you had one there Gary.

I have one on one of my bikes from the 50's. Made by a company called Nanni in Turin Italy. I have not been able to figure out how to fill it up. It is heavier than any pump I have ever used.

Thankyou for the description.

https://www.cyclingforums.com/showthread.php?t=273585

Check the above forum - you seem to have already been involved in this discussion.

They seem to know what it is all about, and I am not sure what else there is to know about them!

Sounds like it is just a nitrogen cylinder with a presta valve attachment.

Yes, for some reason I'm intrigued by gonfleurs and have participated in other threads about them.
Questions I have about these things:
1. Is it liquid nitrogen, or compressed air?
2. Is it refillable in some way (how?) or is it a one-time use thing?
3. Does it use a cartridge similar to the modern CO2 carts or is the whole thing the cartridge?
4. Why are they bigger and heavier than CO2 inflators?
5. In what period were they popular and why did they disappear? (certainly they disappeared from racing photos at the same time as shoulder sewups because support cars became available).

I don't know a thing about Gonfleurs's but know a little about gases.........

It would not be LN2 but might be compressed Nitrogen (LN2 has very different properties than CO2).

If they were a compressed gas, air or Nitrogen, that would make the cylinder bigger with a heavier wall to hold a presure necessary to get adequate volume to fill a tire(s).

For example, a full size CO2 cylinder holds 50lbs of CO2 which yields 8cf of gas per pound or 400cf/cylinder. The same size cylinder of compressed Nitrogen will hold just over 200cf at 2400 psi.

Okay, totally unrelated question, but does any place sell those old-style cycling jerseys like the ones in that picture?

I'm sure they're not as practical as the new ones, but I think they look cool.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...cycling+jersey

Lots of places selling old style wool jerseys - some are replicas of old team kits, others are kind of plain and lots of folks like them. What I haven't seen is jerseys with the two chest pockets and buttons - probably because they get stretched out of shape so fast.

I'll try and post a photo of mine taken apart. The wall thickness is quite extreme. I would guess at least 4 times the thickness of bicycle frame tubing. It is definitely refillable but I don't know how. The whole thing is a single cartridge from what I can tell. The main period of poularity was in the 50's.