The removable valve cores are not the worst idea. They are good for people who need valve extenders. I agree that the screw on chucks could be annoying. I am going to the foot type mini pump because of some physical restrictions. the Stompump is also a larger volume pump. This should offer some time savings.

Are you talking about the Lezyne Road Drive? If so, I'm not sure what people are doing wrong to unscrew the core. I've been using one since 2013 and never removed a core with it. The only thing I can say is to make sure you take a pair of small pliers and make sure the core is snug, but I've never had to do that with any of my tubes I've used.

No, my pump is the Topeak RaceRocket Mini Pump. As I said, the core was loose when I took the tube out of the box. The bike shop owner said he's seen this a lot lately. I wonder why. As I said, I'll check my tubes before I put them in my tool bag and I will also bring the valve tightening tool.

Usually I hear complaints about the Lezyne, but I also have that RaceRocket and it too has never removed a core.

I have heard that for some reason those cores are coming out in newer tubes, but I didn't think much of it because my floor pump is a screw on chuck, and it didn't do anything to the cores either.

Needless to say, I'm baffled, maybe some tubes just come with the cores loose? Probably would be wise to tighten them.

The issue I often encounter with road pumps is the length.
Stowing a pump that's over seven inches long is a problem I don't want to resolve.
however, a short road pump tends to require a bunch more strokes to net 90 psi.

1973 I went from the hosed Zephal of my Peugeot UO-8 to the HP for my next bike. That press on with clamping lever was so good I have never wanted to go back. Of course, I had to learn to not put my pumping force into the valve stem but that's like learning to walk or tie your shoelaces only easier. And like them, you only have to learn once. Now there are so-called good pumps that feature hoses and screw on fittings. I just shake my head.

Minor observation - this thread was posted under Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets. The pumps of this thread are manual. No lighting or electronics. That leaves gadgets. My thought: minipumps, yes posted in the proper place.

[MENTION=392125]79pmooney[/MENTION], I've been thinking about it, and now that you said that, I'm definitely going to try to get my Zefal HPX pump working and mounted on at least one of my bikes. Why mess around, right? I've seen some people in The City carrying floor pumps. I've only done that once, but maybe they have their reasons.

The Silca Impero Frame Pump. The Silca Portable Floor Pump, Topeak Mega Morph These are a few suggestions for a larger volume air pump. I will be getting the Stompump. They claim that it puts out three times as much volume as allot of those small pumps.

Therein lies the problem, the longer pump will reach 90 psi, but a short one won't even get to 90! While the Lezyne Road Drive small is just at 7 inches, I'm not sure if it can reach 90, it's tough enough with the 11 inch one I have, but it's the easiest mini I have ever owned to get to 90,

Why do you have to stow the pump? why not use the bottle cage bracket and mount it there?

Where are you stowing the pump? in you jersey pocket? I knew a guy who did that, had a crash, and that pump destroyed a disk in his back when he landed on it.

There is a new mini pump that I hadn't seen before, Topeak makes it, it's called the ROADIE TT Mini, TT stands for twin turbo, obviously there are no turbos inside of it. But if used correctly you can pretty effortlessly get to 90 psi, but it will take a god awful amount of strokes. Made only for presta, it is a two stage pump and it has an end cap that you turn to get it from high volume to high pressure, so you start pumping in high volume mode, then when it gets tough switch to high pressure, when pumping this thing you have to remember not to put your palm covering the back end cap because that's where the air sucks into the pump from. It's 6 1/2 inches long weighs 90 grams. It is a direct connect pump so you have to be careful when using it that you don't "saw" the valve back and forth as you put air into the tire, but from a video I saw of a guy using just two fingers to get the pump to work you shouldn't even be close to straining that might cause a person to start sawing as their pumping. This pump has pique my interest, and I think I will get it. It cost $44. There are not a lot of videos on that pump yet, one lady hated it, but I think she didn't know how to use it, because another video the guy liked it and was using just 2 fingers to stroke to pump with so we could see how little effort it took, she said it was killing her to get to 60, so I think she didn't change over to high pressure mode.

rekmeyata: The Silca Tattico is rated for 100 psi. I believe you can get to 90 psi with it. If you want one specific for high pressure that wont suffer from the heat the Silca Impero and the Silca Pocket Impero will definitely work for this. The Tattico is all metal other than the hose and has a heat sink in it. The Impiro models are all metal other than the silicone grip and the frame bumpers.

But - the Zephals outlast the Silcas and handle abuse far better. In my racing days my HPs got lent to quite a few Silca users who wanted to ride home.

79pmooney: By 2013, SILCA was the oldest company in the bicycle industry to have been continually owned by the same family. In August of 2013, Claudio Sacchi, grandson of Felice, sold the company to Joshua Poertner an American. I had one of those old Silca pumps and put the Campi pump head on it. I believe the pump body was plastic. I later replaced it with a Zephal. The company sold in name only. The current pumps are of American design and are higher quality than the old Zephal pumps. Silca does sell replacement parts for the older floor pumps and makes a few models of their own along with some cutting edge racing bicycle tools and accessories.

Back when the best regarded pumps were Zefal and Silca, I tried them both many times. The Zefal won handily. [MENTION=392125]79pmooney[/MENTION] is right about handling abuse. Plastic is not as durable as aluminum.

And folks, it's Zefal with an 'f' not a 'ph'. Z-E-F-A-L

Silca may be an admirable company, but it doesn't raise the Impero pump in my eyes. I'm comparing pumps, not companies.

Stowage is in a seat bag. Exposed pump stowage is not an option for my use.

I think some users value Italian brands more the French.

When I bought my road bike that has a Campy drive train, I decided that some vintage Reg brand water bottle cages that were made in Italy decades ago were the right cages for it. It just occured to me, I have a Zefal on that bike, but a Silca pump in storage. I might need to swap pumps.

I am comparing metal over plastic and not a name. I believe the current pumps by Silca are higher quality and will hold up better than most of the current offerings.

I am more of the, does it work and not leave me stranded connoisseur. French, Italian or Chinese I don't care. The Stompump that I am purchasing next week is made in California. It has evidently ben the subject of jokes on its appearance. It is made of high quality aluminum and has a filter to keep out dirt.

Great advice, I'll have to try it:cheers:

Informative, thanks for the information

Silca Tattico pump takes 300 strokes to get to 85, and anything past 85 took a huge strength effort, whereas the Lezyne Road Drive large took 200 strokes to get to 100 with less effort. The Lezyne Road Drive large weighs 120 grams whereas the Silca Tattico weighs 165.

But there is a newer pump that escaped my radar, that one is made by Topeak called the Roadie 2stage, I saw a video of a guy who pumped the Roadie 2stage to 100 psi never had more than 2 fingers on the pump to show how easy it was to pump, but it took about 350 strokes, This pump has me so intrigued I'm going to have to order it! This video is for the smaller mini version, the longer version won't take near as many strokes, but you can see how easy it is to use, he's just using 2 fingers when he switches to high pressure mode:

Topeak confused me a bit, they make a Roadie 2 stage, and a Roadie TT, and thought the TT had the 2 stage design, it does not evidently, only the 2stage one does, the 2stage one is the easy one to use at high pressure

Last season, or maybe two seasons ago, my riding partner unscrewed his valve core like that. It was cold, getting dark, and we a ways from the finish of a 400k brevet. Fortunately I had a valve tool and my Road Morph with clamp on head.

I have enough to do while prepping for rides; I don't need to add checking valve core tightness to my checklist.

Every time I see one of these threads I think maybe there's an upgrade from my ancient Road Morph. Other than adding a gauge with a G, I'm not seeing it. Must-haves to me are a hose, clamp-on head, and base that allows pumping against the ground. Frame mount means it's always there; again I don't need another checklist item.

I did a rainy 600k around the Olympic Peninsula a few years ago, and afterwards found the pump was full of water. By rainy I mean pretty much 600km of rain. What a slog. Since then I've kept a piece of tape over the head.

I use a Topeak Road Morph pump. I got this to replace my previous Topeak mini pump, which served me well for a dozen years until I wore it out. The Road Morph has a gauge, a hose which can be extended, and a tab which can be used to hold the pump in place with your foot. You can unscrew and reverse the collar on the pump head to switch between presta and Schrader. I have found this pump to be good enough to do the job of a floor pump, it works on road and MTB tires, and can easily pump over 120 psi.

My perspective also, but most of my riding is commuting, and the rest is day rides, no brevets. I tossed the valve tool in my tool bag, and I may never use it.

I'll keep this pump, but I won't buy another screw-on pump for presta valves, and I'll recommend against them.

Threaded chucks have pros and cons, just like press-on chucks. Generally I prefer threaded chucks on mini pumps because they're more compact and put less stress on latex tubes.

I have had a valve core come loose on me once, causing a slow leak that baffled me until I figured out the problem. So now I'm in the habit of checking valve cores often. And I usually carry a valve core wrench, replacement valve core and extension hollow tube (although I have only one set of high profile aero rims and don't really need the valve extensions).

The only problem I've had with latex tubes over the past several years is the valve is attached to a latex patch that is glued to the main body of the tube. The force of press-on chuck in a partially inflated latex tube tends to cause the valve to separate from the tube over time. That's always been the failure point for my Vittoria (and Vittoria-made SIlca) latex tubes. A threaded chuck puts less pressure on that spot with a partially inflated tube.

My floor pump (Nashbar Earl Grey, good and cheap when it was available) has a press-on/clamp-on chuck. When I need to inflate an under-inflated latex tube I'll deflate the tube completely to reduce some of that pressure on the vulnerable glued patch holding the valve in place.

And I need to partially disassemble the floor pump chuck once in awhile to clean it out, otherwise it won't clamp securely on valves. Especially the Vittoria and Silca latex tubes with valves that have smooth aluminum tubes, no threads or knurling to give the clamp-on chuck something to grab securely. The slightest bit of oil, even from my hands, or water can cause the clamp-on chuck to pop loose during inflating, or to leak almost as fast as I can pump. Usually a quick wipe of the valve and chuck cleans it up well enough, but occasionally I need to unscrew the collar that holds the rubber O-rings in place, and clean the O-rings with isopropyl alcohol.

Not long ago I was baffled temperrairelly by a loose presta valve core. I also found that it doesn't take much to separate the presta valves from the tube on those new very thin tubes. I solved this on my floor pump with the Silca Hiro chuck. Jaco makes a presta chuck that you push over the valve and push the top in to release it. I want to adapt this to a mini pump.

I tried this and similar chucks for the hand and floor pumps, and they were useless. Presumably, they are meant exclusively for hoses constantly under pressure, i.e., fed by a compressor.

There is open and closed flow air chucks. The lightning air chucks for bicycles made by Jaco are open flow. Jaco describes there open flow chucks and says you need an additional control device to keep the compressor from constantly sending air through it. They also state that you can have an inline air gauge with openflow. I believe it will work. If not I can send it back.

When the latex valve failed were you applying pressure on the tire under the valve stem to push it up so you could press on the chuck?

This is interesting to know, because a lot of pumps are press on chucks, and this is the first I've heard of this issue with latex tubes.

Thanks

For a decade and a half or so I carried* the two-stage Swedish Quicker Pro, praised by Compass Bikes and Velo Orange back in the day. I'm not sure if it's available anymore; a 'net search indicated 'no'.


*Shrug. I maybe pumped two on-the-road flats with this. I don't get a lot of flats. I dunno. Seemed okay, but I didn't name a child after it or anything.