Hand held air compressor

[Chuey]

Have any of you ever had experience filling your BMW tires with a hand held air pump? They look like battery operated drill motors and work with rechargeable batteries like the ones that come with drill motors.

I have had awful luck filling the tires on all my airheads, whether they are spoked wheels or snowflakes. I'd be happy to use my bicycle floor pumps but the attachment to the valve is too tall for my airhead wheels. I've had the same luck stopping at gas stations.

What has worked for me is if I take it to my bicycle shop and use the air chuck that is shaped like a diver's helmet. That is the one and only fitting that has worked well for me. Now, I'm trying to set myself up with something that will work at home. I don't have use (or space) for an air compressor any larger than it takes to fill my motorbike tires.

The reservation I have is whether or not the hand held style will fill the tire well if it does not have a screw on fitting. It seems that that is what they all have. It may take more of a "rush" of air to fill the tires with the diver helmet shaped air chucks.

Thanks for any help with this.

Chuey

[Bamboo812]

I like this one a lot, clamps on to the valve stem.

[Duane Ausherman]

Hand held air pump??? Do you mean the one that comes with the bike? I have used it to fill hundreds of tires. For the first couple of months in my first shop, Duane's Shop, I only had the original hand pump.

Some type of electric pump is better. My car came with a small electric air compressor............. that I haven't needed yet, thank goodness.

[Chuey]

I bought one today. It is a Craftsman from Sears. It looks like a portable drill motor - the kind with a rechargeable battery clipped in below your hand. It has a hose about 14" long sticking out where you would put the drill bit. It rattles mightily as it inflates the tire and has a digital readout to tell you the pressure. I've tried it and it worked very well on the tires I inflated. Thing is, I haven't done an airhead rear spoked wheel or front or rear snowflakes. I think I'll have to use a different kind of air chuck due to the limitations imposed by the location of the valve and the lack of clear space above the valve for flipping the locking lever.

Chuey

[She'llbe]

I bought 2 electric pumps that connect to the bikes battery at Walmart a couple of years ago. They fit in your hand and work great in the middle of nowhere. The name of the company on the box is "Slime" Last year while on holiday I found some slightly bigger models of the same brand and use them in my truck and cars.

[Chuey]

OK, tonight after work I tried the leetle tire pump on the R90S tires (spoked wheels) and on two pairs of snowflakes. Worked great!

Mine came from Sears. It is a "Craftsman" and was not available with a battery and charger. I had been shopping for a "drill/driver" combo kit anyway and the Craftsman one was priced very low for a Nickle Metal Hydryde or whatever battery kit so I bought the whole thing at Sears. My local tool store had nobody to help me after three visits. Home Depot and Lowes had nobody to help me after a few more visits and the Sears guy seemed to know his tools and not be full of crap so I bought them at Sears. They seem to work very well and most importantly, the pump head fits and the pump works on airheads!

I hope this helps somebody.

Chuey

[Airbear]

Hand held air pump??? Do you mean the one that comes with the bike? I have used it to fill hundreds of tires. For the first couple of months in my first shop, Duane's Shop, I only had the original hand pump.

...

Yes, Duane, we know about all those pills that were available in the 60s and 70s. With a proper mix of uppers and downers, hand pumping hundreds of tyres would have been a, um ... breeze.

ps: Chuey, I'm glad you found a pump that pleases you. I've read a lot about the Slime variants and other powered pumps on ADV. FWIW, I carry a 'Stop and Go' pump when travelling:



http://www.stopngo.com/engine-powered-a ... ase-lever/

It is small and lightweight and uses engine compression to drive a fresh air diaphragm arrangement. I have only used it once in anger and it worked well, taking about 10 minutes to inflate a flat rear tyre to a pressure suitable for riding.

[melville]

OK, tonight after work I tried the leetle tire pump on the R90S tires (spoked wheels) and on two pairs of snowflakes. Worked great!

Mine came from Sears. It is a "Craftsman" and was not available with a battery and charger. I had been shopping for a "drill/driver" combo kit anyway and the Craftsman one was priced very low for a Nickle Metal Hydryde or whatever battery kit so I bought the whole thing at Sears. My local tool store had nobody to help me after three visits. Home Depot and Lowes had nobody to help me after a few more visits and the Sears guy seemed to know his tools and not be full of crap so I bought them at Sears. They seem to work very well and most importantly, the pump head fits and the pump works on airheads!

I hope this helps somebody.

Chuey

Is that the 20V unit with the detachable attachments? I have that with the drill and impact heads and like it a lot. I may stop in to Sears for the compressor bits.

For the Airhead and the cars, I'm still using my Schwinn (Meidai) floor pump with a Topeak head and hose.

[Chuey]

It is a 19.2V pump. There is a warning on the box that says there is one 19.2 battery it won't work with so I'd take one of your batteries just to be sure.

The one and only reason I bought this unit is that I could not get my bicycle pumps to fit into the small space that is available in both the spoked (only the rear is a problem in the case of the spoked wheel) and snowflake wheels.

I surmise that the reason bicycle pump heads are so "tall" is that they have built in mechanisms to "switch" between presta and schrader. The pump head on this leetle pump is very short by comparison and it fits well. Even the flip lock lever on the Sears unit is short.

Chuey

[Zombie Master]

I bought 2 electric pumps that connect to the bikes battery at Walmart a couple of years ago. They fit in your hand and work great in the middle of nowhere. The name of the company on the box is "Slime" Last year while on holiday I found some slightly bigger models of the same brand and use them in my truck and cars.

Without a picture....it never happened.