Jim’s Tech Talk
By Jim Langley
Before I get to this week’s OTB quick tip, I’d like to thank everyone who joined the chain chatter the past two weeks. As I sit down to write this, great comments are still being dropped on last week’s Tech Talk, Part 2 about cleaning and lubing chains. There were already a bunch with cool tips and tricks on Part 1, too.
All together, it comprises a graduate level course on chain care for anyone looking to improve their technique, hunting for solutions or for those just getting into cycling.
To go back and catch up, read any new comments or add yours:
Part 1: https://www.roadbikerider.com/basic-obsessive-chain-care/
Part 2: https://www.roadbikerider.com/bicycle-chain-lube-reader-tips/
Outside the Box Tip
Switching topics, the OTB tip is about tire inflation. It’s courtesy of Tom Petrie, who owns and runs Cantitoe Road. There you’ll find Wipperman chains, Donnelly and Clement tires, Effetto Mariposa torque wrenches and tubeless solutions, a fine selection of cycling accessories, tools, and more.
Tom, who has been in the bike biz as long as I have – possibly longer – was one of the first people to reach out to me when I opened the west coast office of Bicycling Magazine in 1989.
One of my first assignments was writing a huge buyer’s guide to the newfangled-at-the-time rechargeable bicycle lighting systems. I had called every company I could find that made lights in this category to request product samples for testing and review. Tom was the first to return my call and send in a light.
I can’t remember what the brand and model of light was he sent, but I do recall how helpful Tom was. He didn’t only care about promoting his light, he was just as interested in making sure my buyer’s guide would be as informative and helpful as possible. We’ve been friends ever since and over the years he’s introduced me to many clever products.
Tom’s Tip
His Outside the Box tip is another one. Here’s what he wrote, with a note by me to explain.
“Hi Jim,
YouTube served up your How to Build Bicycle Wheels the Easy Way video today. Very well done. Beyond the Campagnolo Tipo hub in one of your bikes, I couldn’t help but notice the floor pumps.”
To explain; and you don’t have to watch the video: I thought it would be funny to put 5 pumps in one of the shots in the video. Tom picked up on that. It’s at this timestamp:
Tom continues..
“I haven’t used my floor pumps since the day I bought a Ryobi Power Inflator (photo). I adapted it with a presta chuck (Silca’s Hiro) and extended the hose. I use it all the time. If you don’t have it, or something similar, I encourage you to try it.
My collection of Silca Super Pista, Specialized, and Topeak floor pumps now collect dust. The Ryobi is the go-to inflator.”
My Thoughts
Sounds great to me, Tom. I hadn’t realized that these portable tools run off rechargeable batteries had got to the level that they could handle high pressure inflation. It’s about a $150 tool as a complete kit with battery and charger: https://amzn.to/3pvGWKN. Silca’s Hiro chuck is an additional $65 https://amzn.to/2P66e0c So it’s not cheap.
However, if you already have the charger and battery, it’s much less at about $40. And, though I haven’t tried one, I can see how convenient and effortless it would be to use. It will also take up less space in a car, gear bag or toolbox. It even has a built-in gauge. Plus with the Hiro chuck, you’d have an airtight easy on/off connection to Presta valves every time. Here’s a link to my Hiro review: https://www.roadbikerider.com/silca-hiro-side-lever-locking-presta-chuck-review/.
Since I have the charger and batteries, I searched and saw that Makita makes one that’s a little different but that works similarly: https://amzn.to/3pdHmoN. So, since Ryobi and Makita make them, if you already have another brand’s portable tools that take a certain battery and charger that you own, it’s possible the company that made those makes an inflator, too that you could pick up at a reasonable price.
Great tip, Tom. Thank you!
Ride total: 9,892
Jim Langley is RBR’s Technical Editor. He has been a pro mechanic and cycling writer for more than 40 years. He’s the author of Your Home Bicycle Workshop in the RBR eBookstore. Check out his “cycling aficionado” website at http://www.jimlangley.net, his Q&A blog and updates at Twitter. Jim’s cycling streak ended in February 2022 with a total of 10,269 consecutive daily rides (28 years, 1 month and 11 days of never missing a ride). Click to read Jim’s full bio.
Huh, I just saw a lady on our saturday ride use one one of these while others were using various floor pumps. I thought it was smart and quick. Does that Silca presta head have a pressure gauge? Floor pumps have gauges so you can stop when you hit your desired pressure?
Kenneth ~ these have a built in gauge (on the ryobi above, it’s the black thing on the top right of the pump, you cannot see the face of it from the side).
I have one of these from Harbor Frieght that I picked up and they have a small presta adapter attached that’s not as handy as the hiro chuck above, but I carry this in my car when I travel so I don’t want to permanently remove the schrader valve capability. It takes only seconds to screw on the presta adapter to the valve to use the pump.
Oh yea, also the gauge is about 5psi off on mine, but I take that into account when using it on the bikes.
All in all, they work wonderfully. I noticed pro race mechanics using these years ago, they are so handy and fast.
Thanks for this tip—and so many others! I’ve recently switched to tubeless tires on my road bike and am now looking for a pump that will making seating them easier. I’d rather not spend the money on an air compressor, so I was looking at a floor pump like the Bontrager TLR. Would this cordless inflator work for that purpose? And, btw, the orange home store sells the same Ryobi (with charger and 2.0 Ah battery) for <$100!
Michael ~ these do not pump enough speed/volume to seat the beads of a tubeless tire.
I had to use my big garage air compressor to ‘blow’ the beads into place with a blast of high pressure air, then this pump can be used to fill it.
I have been using my Ryobi in this way for several years. I attached a presta head to the hose also. I have been very happy with this system. Two negatives, however. 1. I agree with the previous comment that the gauge is not super accurate. I usually purposefully slightly inflate and then use a topeak gauge to double check…. 2. It has a limit of around 110 psi. After that it struggles. For most of my riding that is not a problem but when I know I am going to be using my high tpi Vittoria tubulars on clean, smooth roads, I will often want more pressure than that.
OK so I’m old school. This seems like a solution in search of a problem. I’ve got a well used generic floor pump with a pressure gauge that was $30 I think. Works for me. Plus I’m not going tubeless any time soon. After seeing a group ride persons rear tire spewing sealant all over them, the bike etc. it was real entertaining though!!!
Actually, it’s more a better mousetrap, plus it’s handy for automotive use as well. And it’s smaller and easier to carry with the bike gear … and as a bonus the rechargeable batteries fit a cordless drill and a hedge trimmer, so for me at least it’s a win-win.
And … I don’t use tubeless on my road bikes, just my gravel ride. 🙂
I have used Tom’s setup for two years on tubed tires and for me it has worked great. Have not touched a floor pump since. Some comments for what they are worth.
The Hiro head out of the box has a ribbed nipple that seals well with the standard Ryobi head, meant for Schrader’s. The Hirame head (of which I do not own one) appears to have a smooth nipple that may not seal as well, if at all.
Bonus, the Ryobi works great for auto tires (with patience), lawn mower tires, fat bike tires without the Hiro head, etc.. I carry mine on long auto trips for emergency car use. Battery life in between recharges seems OK to me.
DO NOT buy a factory re-conditioned Ryobi. They are OK for 35-55 psi car tires. Filling a 95 psi bike tire, mine started to smoke. I have had no problems up to 125 psi with a new Ryobi.
I have checked my built-in Ryobi pressure gauge against a variety of accurate (and consistent with each other) electronic pressure gauges. Mine is spot on. So it may depend on your individual unit.
Forgive this comment if you are an experienced cyclist/mechanic/tire inflator, but newbies like I was may benefit from it. For some pumpheads (like the Hiro) if you push it too far down on a presta valve with the screw nipple open for inflating, it will depress that nipple and you can lose a lot of air when attaching or detaching the pumphead, even though it is sealed (mostly) while filling. In my hands, I need to insert the Hiro so it is not depressing the presta plunger (small metal part sticking up on a presta). The Ryobi gauge will show zero pressure reading. When you start pumping, the air pressure from the pump will depress the plunger, you will see a realistic pressure reading, and the tire will fill. When you remove the pumphead, there will just be a small quick pfft sound of air from the Ryobi hose. If you are too far onto the presta, there will be (considerable) hissing. If you did not attach the Hiro far enough, when you start the Ryobi with its trigger, the air pressure will shoot up rapidly because you are just filling the short Ryobi hose. Sometimes, when I am not at the perfect sweet spot and pull the Ryobi trigger, the gauge jumps up, I release the trigger for a second or so, then the valve opens and the gauge jumps to a realistic reading for how much air is in the tire now (plus the Ryobi hose). It took me some practice to get the hang of this, but now it is second nature. I have an old Park floor pump that has the same issue.
That soft “pfft” costs me 5 psi of pressure inside the tire. Godeson Presta valve tire gauges ($14, Amazon) are special because they have minimal fill volume, the amount of gas that leaks out of the tire when you attach any tire gauge or pump. When I measure my tire pressure with the Godeson after a Ryobi/Hiro fill to 100 psi, I read 95 psi. Side bar, both gauges have been calibrated. The beauty of the Godeson is I can sit there and re-attach for a half dozen times without pressure loss.
Thanks for sharing all your tips, Russ!!
Jim
Since it hasn’t got the oomph to seat tubeless tyres I can see only cons for this product. I don’t believe it would do the job more quickly than a track pump, you need to keep it charged, and it does you out of a tiny amount of exercise. And it’s anti-cycling, which is self-propelled exercised.
All I can say to this is, “not true for me.”
Regarding the wheel building video: Very well done. A bit different from the method I learned at UBI back in the 19980s, where we completely filled the hub with spokes, making sure orientation was correct so we’d have parallel spokes at the valve hole.
I notice in the video he’s built this well asymmetrical, with the pulling spokes on the outside of the hub flange on one side and on the inside of the flange on the other side. I’ve always been told symmetrically built wheels are stronger, and generally build rear wheels with the pulling spokes on the inside of the hub flange. Would appreciate other opinions on this.
When re-lacing a used hub, I also always orient the new spokes the same as the old, so the spoke dent in the flange holes have the new spoke the same. Does it matter?
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your comment on my Bicycle Wheel Building video – and thanks for watching it! To explain more about the video, it’s aimed at beginners to help those who always wanted to try wheel building to successfully build wheels. So far almost 150,000 people have watched the video and hundreds have commented that because of it they learned to build wheels. That makes me happy because that’s the goal of the video.
I know there are plenty of ways to lace wheels, like putting all the spokes in the hubs first. The way I teach in the video is a way that makes it easy for beginners. I learned this while teaching wheel building and seeing what beginners can understand and manage with zero knowledge of wheels.
And regarding what spoke orientation is correct, in the video I don’t recommend any specific spoke orientation because it’s not very important compared to getting the wheel round, true and tensioned. It also confuses beginners unnecessarily.
Also, sometime at a major bike race or event, go around and look at the wheels. You’ll see no consistency, yet all those wheels will perform fine in the race.
But, I definitely understand that pro builders have preferences (I sure do) and even some companies say to do it a certain way. In fact, I have a video showing how Shimano says to lace disc wheels here – and I do lace disc wheels per their instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfWd7_avr1s&t=2s
Thanks again for the comment!
Jim Langley
I agree with Don Macrae. Cycling is about human power. We cyclists need all the upper body workout we can get.
I’ll take your best floor pump if your done with it. 😉
Well, I don’t agree. YMMV.
I am about as much a carpenter as I am a cyclist, so I have quite the variety of Ryobi stuff, great for the amateur. I’ve had the pump for a couple of years and either the gauge is off by quite a bit or all my other instruments are (pump and hand gauges). I use the Ryobi pump on everything BUT the bike. Though I’ve never checked the gauge on my Topeak, for some reason I choose to believe it to be accurate and never doubt it. The Ryobi…well, when I air up anything else, I use a hand gauge and its not close.
I have adapted two of these Ryobi digital inflators. I already had Ryobi power tools so i had batteries and chargers. For my conversion, I bought a replacement universal hose/chuck from Amazon. I removed the cover of the inflator and cut off the original hose and installed the replacement. They work really well and I no longer use a manual pump.