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There seems to be tons of these all-in-one battery powered tyre inflators with digital pressure gauge like this in Amazon (and I presume AliExpress and eBay) but can anyone recommend one which actually has sufficient throughput to seat tubeless tyres?
I very much doubt it - they are very slow.
I've got an amazon one. Works really well. I can set the PSI then go something else, but is not really any slower than farting about with a track pump. Tested the pressure gauge against a couple of other pumps I have and it seems as accurate.
It won't give you that sudden surge to seat recalcitrant tyres, but I'd argue you shouldn't set tyres like that anyway, because if you have a problem on a ride you won't be able to re-inflate.
but I’d argue you shouldn’t set tyres like that anyway, because if you have a problem on a ride you won’t be able to re-inflate
I'm curious!
What other method is there for seating recalcitrant tyres? I've tried seating them with CO2, a track pump and my existing (crappy) car tyre inflators but none of these methods works and I inevitably end up wandering over to my LBS (thankfully only a 400m walk for me) to use their shop compressor....
I find seating a bead the first time on a tyre is way way harder than subsiquent times, I haven't had a problem with fixing a tubeless setup I've had to bead with megapressure when out on a ride
What other method is there for seating recalcitrant tyres?
A track pump with a tank that you can pressurise and then release the pressure all at once.
Or a tank that you pump up with a track pump and then put on your tyre to release all the pressure at once.
Or a home compressor
Or just a CO2 canister as has been said
We havea couple of the Aldi portable ones. Bought when they were in the sale at £25 each.
One mounted on a couple of hooks on the garage wall and one under the bed in the camper.
Will pop tyres on with ease but needs to be plugged in to mains.
The one in the camper has helped quite a few racers at Enduro events when they have had tyre problems.
In this modern day of tubeless ready tyres do you really need anything other than a track pump?
I put on a schwalbe TLE tyre last week, just went straight up. I could have used a hand pump (but the track pump has a nicer handle).
In this modern day of tubeless ready tyres do you really need anything other than a track pump?
Lol, I wish!! Maybe I've been unlucky but a combination of Raceface ARC rims and Maxxis Minion on my mountain bike or ANY TYRE I've tried (Cadex, Conti GP5000 TL or S-works Turbo 2Bliss) on my Giant SLR-1 road wheels are just about impossible to seat and ha e had the shop mechanics swearing when trying to fit the buggers....
If they don't go up with a track pump then you need something to give you that burst. Things like the airshot or the track pumps with a chamber built in. On of those electric pumps might work with an airshot but I'm not sure what that would achieve. In an emergency or travelling then CO2 works. Wouldn't take that approach at home as it can shorten the life of some sealants.
In the old days with ghetto tubeless I used to use a coke bottle with some valves glued in the lid. Airshot is basically the same thing but more expensive and less terrifying.
With modern rims and tyres I've only ever needed a track pump, also carry a toppeak mountain morph which has reinflated tyres tubeless when out and about.
I bought a strikingly similar one to the one in the OP for my mum. There's o way she could repair a puncture so set her up tubeless but then even reinflating after a (sealed) puncture was a bit difficult for her.
The portable inflator is great but you need to give it a few minutes to actually inflate anything. There's no way it pushes enough air to pop a tyre onto the bead.
I had to give her a demo on what to do with it. I let my tyres down to 10 psi and it took a while to get back to 20.
Great for her to shove in her bag. Nowhere near as fast or as good as a track pump though.
I'm still on an Airshot.
I've still got a couple of tyres that won't seat properly with anything less - even a CO2 cylinder wouldn't do the trick on one of them on the gravel bike, out in 'the field' (pished away several cylinders on one bike packing trip after a puncture, before eventually resorting to a tube.)
I have a Bosch battery powered inflator. It's reasonably well made (and I have less fear of it setting on fire when charging than cheapo Chinese shite). But no way on earth this would seat a tubeless.
I've got the Makita one that uses the battery from my drill. Haven't had the chance to try it setting up tubeless but I reckon it has a similar throughput to giving the trackpump 'medium beans'. Might work on the friendlier tyre\rim combos.
In the old days with ghetto tubeless I used to use a coke bottle with some valves glued in the lid.
This was a very effective technique but an investment in a proper tubeless tank was a good thing for my nervous system
I've got one of the Aldi inflators like @Tracy.
90% of the time, it works every time (with the valve core out)
For the remaining 10% of the time when it never works, I use the compressor to inflate my terrifying, bodged together, garden sprayer air reservoir ghetto device.
I found the garden sprayer abandoned in a wood.
True story.
In this modern day of tubeless ready tyres do you really need anything other than a track pump?
Sometimes. I find that brand new tyres normally seat with no issue, but once they've been used a bit they can be a bit more awkward.
I’d argue you shouldn’t set tyres like that anyway, because if you have a problem on a ride you won’t be able to re-inflate.
With rims and tyres designed for tubeless, the bead is normally locked pretty firmly in place, so most punctures don't unseat the tyre.
I’m curious!
What other method is there for seating recalcitrant tyres? I’ve tried seating them with CO2, a track pump and my existing (crappy) car tyre inflators but none of these methods works and I inevitably end up wandering over to my LBS (thankfully only a 400m walk for me) to use their shop compressor….
I had trouble with my last tyres and couldn't seat them at all with a track pump, then found this video which saved me:
The TL;DR version is simply to push the bead on as much as possible by hand first. See if you can get it on (at least have the bead up on the ridge at the edge) both sides about halfway round the tyre, then just go nuts on the pump. Worked beautifully for me, very simple and obvious when you think about it.
I imagine they're great to take the donkey work out of filling a large inflator reservoir (mine's a converted fire extinguisher) - might have to get one.