Best on-the-road inflator (Co2 and even mechanical) for DISC wheel

Triathlon Forum
1

Just got my disc wheel, hoping it’ll be fast!

Installed latex tubes and can pump it up at home with a floor standing Lezyne pump with the convenient speed chuck, that works great.

Unfortunately though, I don’t have a working solution to inflate it on the road as part of a flat kit. My trusted CO2 workhorse the Portland Shiny Object, does not fit into the small inflator cutout space on the wheel, so I need a smaller alternative.

I tried a Lezyne hand portable pump I have which has the typical Lezyne flexi-tube and the head that screws onto the presta, but I HATE that thing. Seriously, I tried this thing today not just on my disc wheel, but on my regular road bike wheels for like 45 minutes, and it was constantly pulling the valve core out at the very end of inflation, with loss of ALL the air, AND the valve stuck hard in the pump head. And I took the time before inflating to tighten down the valve cores to the max using pliers and the valve core tool, and as well, made all efforts to only screw the head on minimally to prevent overengaging. Still, literally have my inflation efforts ended up pulling the core, totally sucked - and that wasn’t even on the disc wheel.

I also tried the Genuine Innovations Microflate, which worked once, and then failed to work ever again. Not sure why it failed, as the O-ring is still in there, but all the CO2 just comes out the back instead of into the tube. Not reliable enough.

So if anyone has recommendations for a RELIABLE CO2 or hand pump that can work with disc wheel, would be great - I literally searched all the Slowtwitch threads and found a few ideas, but I’d rather hear from the most up-to-date ‘what works’.

I didn’t see anyone using a ‘crack pipe’ with a manual hand pump, but I’d even be up for that if anyone has a setup that works for them in this way. Can you even use CO2 with a crack pipe for the disc wheel?

2

Probably just some bad luck, I have an old sram chuck, that looks IDENTICAL to the genuine innovations micro-flate, likely just rebranded, and I’ve used the thing for several years, and it’s still going strong, and fits in my disc.

I grabbed the silca co2 chuck to give it a try, but I have to thread that one on so it’s a non starter, so just sticking with the good old stand by.

3

Xlab nanoflator does the trick for me.

4

Had luck in the past with the Genuine Innovations Microflate Nano but I really like the Silca EOLO III. I’ve used the Microflate with both a disc cover and a Renn 555, Silca just with the Renn.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0309/9521/products/Eolo_1.jpg

5

Now that I’ve dealt with it a little more, I’m suspecting that the CO2 is freezing my presta valve shut, including freezing the inflator head to the valve making it super difficult to remove after I’ve inflated. Apparently others have this problem regularly, as I found on some other forum threads. Wonder if there’s a way around this.

6

Silca for the CO2. Blackburn Airstik SL for a micropump that will fit in a flat kit (probably takes 3-5 min to pump a 25c tire, but fits a disc and handles multiple flats…… it’s “get to t2” insurance).

FWIW, I’m running a Renn 575.

7

How quickly are you inflating your tire?

I’ve always sort of eased off, and seen some frost form on the canister and felt it get cold, but I’ve never emptied it SUPER fast, since I didn’t want to rupture a tube by going too fast ( no idea if that’s a thing ) but I’ve also never frozen my chuck on.

Still pretty quick, i might just lose a few seconds :stuck_out_tongue:

8

Silca for the CO2. Blackburn Airstik SL for a micropump that will fit in a flat kit (probably takes 3-5 min to pump a 25c tire, but fits a disc and handles multiple flats…… it’s “get to t2” insurance).

FWIW, I’m running a Renn 575.

Thanks for the tip - I just bought that Airstik to try it out.

I did find that for my top-tube bento box by DarkSpeedworks, a Lezyne tube-style mechanical pump with the flexible hose does fit into the bento box, and after another 40 minutes of repeated practice, I found that I actually can get this pump to work with the wheel. The tricks were to first re-tighten the presta valve to the max before inflating (yes, every time!), close the valve all the way and THEN reopen it 3-5 turns, and then to carefully mount the pump and keep the tubing as straight as possible. It was a lot trickier than I expected, but I have gotten it to finally work reliably - I do feel with these hose-style portable pumps, it’s REALLY important to practice at home, as it’s super easy to pull the valve entirely and have it stuck in the pump with loss of all your air, as well as getting the pump head on at an angle which prevents all inflation (still takes me multiple tries to get it right each time.)

For now I’ll carry the mech pump but will hopefully get back to CO2 sooner rather than later.

I also bought and tried out the very expensive Silca Imperio ($100) hand pump. It’s a high quality pump but the head is too big for most disc wheels, including mine, so I’m going to return it. I also found that such a pricey pump was no guarantee for seating on the presta valve as well - it was still as not-easy to seat as all my other pumps (meaning takes like 4-6 tries until it’s right on.)

9

How quickly are you inflating your tire?

I’ve always sort of eased off, and seen some frost form on the canister and felt it get cold, but I’ve never emptied it SUPER fast, since I didn’t want to rupture a tube by going too fast ( no idea if that’s a thing ) but I’ve also never frozen my chuck on.

Still pretty quick, i might just lose a few seconds :stuck_out_tongue:

seriously, as slow as possible. I hate fast inflation. But even at slower speeds, the thing literally freezes over - the whole valve turns white. Doesn’t always get stuck, but in practice, did get stuck about half the time. Even if it’s not just freezing that’s causing the problem, it’s no better as it means that there’s a super high probability that the valve core will get pulled entirely at the end with loss of all the CO2/air in the tire. Yep, happened multiple times in practice for me. (I bought a 20-set CO2 and almost used them all in practice.)

10

All I can assume is that there is some sort of fault with the one you got.

I couldn’t imagine having it rip the valve core out, there’s something internal that sounds screwed 100%

11

All I can assume is that there is some sort of fault with the one you got.

I couldn’t imagine having it rip the valve core out, there’s something internal that sounds screwed 100%

It doesn’t rip out, it untwists as I unscrew the valve core. Even the press-on ones,when they get stuck and need twisting, they pop out if you finally loosen them.