i’m new to tubeless, using it on cross bikes. i’m also bad at wrenching.
i want to buy a silca anyways because i need a new track pump, and was thinking i could use it with the airshot.
but i wonder if a portable inflator of some kind might be better, especially given the fact i am clumsy and impatient with this stuff.
curious what st thinks.
If you are serious about tubeless long term, just buy an air compressor. I seat every tire immediately with no fuss.
I’d say do a Silca floor pump and a small compressor. The airshot is well designed, but a portable compressor is more versatile.
If you plan on swapping tubeless tires while traveling, an airshot might be a good option since it’s a whole lot easier to pack in your car. You can seat tires anywhere.
You can also use CO2 to seat a tire. I’ve read that it could be bad for sealant, but not sure that’s true. You can buy a lot of CO2 cartridges for the price of an airshot.
Compressor hands down. I have an Airshot and many times it requires multiple re-fills before seating a tire which means lots of pumping. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone over a compressor. In fact, I can’t think of many situations in which I would recommend one at all.
Forget what I just said, I have a like new Airshot I can sell you for $10 under retail! 
3 gallon air compressor from harbor freight. Don’t forget the standard 20% off coupon.
If you are serious about tubeless long term, just buy an air compressor. I seat every tire immediately with no fuss.
This is the same cost as the airshot: https://www.harborfreight.com/3-gal-13-hp-100-psi-oil-free-pancake-air-compressor-61615.html
Clearly, it is cheap. But is it good enough for seating tubeless?
Compressor for home; CO2 for travel (though that’s going to be a rare case when you need to seat a tire on the road).
For long, self supported rides I think this makes a lot of sense -
https://milkit.bike/en/product/milkit-booster
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Compressor for home; CO2 for travel (though that’s going to be a rare case when you need to seat a tire on the road).
FWIW, In the past I’ve had CO2 make sealant all janky. I’d say this is a last-resort tactic.
FWIW, In the past I’ve had CO2 make sealant all janky. I’d say this is a last-resort tactic.
You’d need to:
pop off tireclean out sealantput tire back onuse CO2 to reseat it(maybe pump and deflate a couple times to flush out the CO2?)add new sealant through the valve
This is very timely as I just picked up some tubeless tires and was actually looking at Harbor freights website yesterday, I would also like to know if that compressor would do the job?