I just bought a Camelbak Lobo and really love riding with it. I purchased a small hand pump to fit into the port pump on the Camelbak. I bought the Blackburn “Shorty”, but now I’m not so sure this was the best idea. Has anyone used this kind of pump? Would there be a small hand pump that you would recommend? I’ve heard people talk about how some small pumps don’t stay on the valve, etc. On another thread, someone recommended the Bell Airstrike 950 (purchased at Wal-Mart).
The small pump that rides in my Camelbak is a Topeak Mountain Morph. It may be up to five years old, but it works fine. The valve works with Presta or Schraeder, though you have to unscrew and switch around some small parts that can get lost in the grass. But it pumps up the tires and stays on the valves. Also it has a little fold-out foot thingie on the bottom, to help you use the ground as your base. Pump handle folds into a T shape. When it dies I’ll try to get whatever they’re making at that time.
I started with an Airstrike and upgraded to the Shorty. Its a great pump and it stays on the valve just fine in my experiences. The Shorty was $14.99 CAD and i think the Airstrike was $12.99. I dont regret buying it at all.
Its a lot of work to pump a tire up but its good for the trail because it is very small, dual chambered (with a switch to turn one off for easier pumping of high pressure tires) and presta and schraeder compatible.
Yeah its a good pump to have with you when you are out, but it is not good if you are just pumping up a tire in your room. It supplements my floor pump nicely though.
And the second most common form of litter along my local trails. Hopefully you’re not one of the ones who thinks empty C02 containers are bio-degradable.
(Most common litter, after wrappers, are dead innertubes)
Never tried it myself. Can they work with either type of valve? How much are the cartridges? Do they hold enough to fill a fat tire like a Gazz (probably if they can pump a road tire up to 100psi…)?
john: you’d need one of the 24 gram ones to even come close to good pressure on a gazz. that claims to be able to fill 2 mtn bike tires to 30-40 psi. smaller 12 or 16 gram cartridges probably wouldn’t cut it. plus with most systems its tough to just top off/adjust pressure. i rarely have flats unicycling, to tiny hand pump is fine for me. plus CO2 carts are $3 or so a piece. screw that. for bike racing they are perfect but otherwise not, at least imho.
$3?? Maybe for a 24g at a bike shop, but for a 5 pack of 12gs it’s less than $4 from the sporting goods section for pellet guns. Yeah it would probably take 2 for a 24x3, but I’d hate to have to fill one with a small pump too. The reason I carry mine is for emergency use only in a race or to get me back to the car. If I hit a cactus patch at one of the local MTB trails, the tube is usually shot and a tube change is in order. I also carry it on Coker rides with some patches so I don’t have to walk for miles, and yes I have both presta and schrader valves. I use my floor pump before a ride and typically prefer to go higher in pressure than I think I will need and then bleed later if the terrain calls for it. To answer John - I typically return from the trails with more trash than I start with.
No, absoluty not…think of the volume a 3.0 tube. it would take about 2 or 3 regular Co2 carts to gas a Gazz up, but a 700x28 roady tube being so skinny can hit 120psi with one or two depending on the intake seal/ quality of pump etc.
