Bicycle pump

[JetBlackE46]

Those of you that bring pumps to track events, what kind of bike pump do you use? Are they all pretty much the same? About how many pumps do you have to do to up the PSI by 1lb?

[nando]

bike pump? lol

I have an electric pump from costco. you're going to spend hours with a bike pump trying to move that much volume at pressure..

[87e30]

bike pump? lol

I have an electric pump from costco. you're going to spend hours with a bike pump trying to move that much volume at pressure..

That's what I thought. But I happily brought an old 14inch bottle cap tire up from 15ish psi to 35 in about 15 minutes. Much better than I anticipated. :D

(I wouldn't do it at a track though, it just happened to be all I had and the tire was flat)

[Evan Fullerton]

I exclusively use a bike pump on car tires and it isn't bad at all. Pressure and volume are not a direct relationship so as long as you aren't pumping up a flat tire, it is 3-4 pumps per PSI in a 205/15/15. For adjusting pressures at the track, it is much faster and easier than the cheap electric chargers.

[SkinnyVT]

I exclusively use a bike pump on car tires and it isn't bad at all. Pressure and volume are not a direct relationship so as long as you aren't pumping up a flat tire, it is 3-4 pumps per PSI in a 205/15/15. For adjusting pressures at the track, it is much faster and easier than the cheap electric chargers.

Actually pressure and volume are a direct relationship. How do you figure that it is easier to use a bike pump than plugging in a cheap electic compressor? Or even easier is just having an air tank that you charge up before you go to the track.

[NeoMishMoo]

I have went through a lot of cheap electric air compressors thinking that I was saving money, when in actuality a bicycle pump would have probably worked just as well and would have outlived the 3 or 4 compressors I've bought from such fine retailers as Harbor freight wal-mart, meijer, oh yeah and I even got a couple from J.C. Penney, even though most were given as gifts. ...unlucky bastards.

[McGyver]

pressure and volume are dependent on each other based on temperature. so what your looking for is a high mass flow rate.

that said, its probably called a "bike pump" for a reason.

[nando]

I wouldn't reccomend a cheap cigarette lighter pump either. It might work a couple times, but they take too long to pump the tires up and usually burn out fast. The one I have is powered by it's own battery (it's one of those jump starter things, but I've seen some that were just pumps). I got 4 years out of my last one, and I used it almost every weekend. It burned out because my friend used it and left it on for too long :(

Maybe a bike pump will work for 1psi, but I'm usually looking for a lot more than that, and I don't want to spend 15 minutes on each wheel. :p

[JetBlackE46]

I see guys at the track with bike pumps and it makes a lot more sense than a compressor/tank unless you have a truck/trailer to bring all that stuff with you.

[nando]

a battery powered compressor will fit behind my backseat. You can cram a lot of "track" stuff into an E30, no need for a truck. :p

[Hellabad]

I think all of the bike pumps from China are equally as crappy as the electric compressors from China. Neither one will last you a year.

My best cig lighter compressor is made by "slime" and you can tell the good ones because they have a metal compressor head.

Jay Morris

[NeoMishMoo]

I think all of the bike pumps from China are equally as crappy as the electric compressors from China.
My best cig lighter compressor is made by "slime".

Jay Morris

All the slime products I've seen are made in china just like everything else. Maybe you got a really nice one but the one's I've seen look about the same quality, in fact they are about the same price too.

[brodee]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone at the track using a bike pump. I have a jump box that has a compressor built in but I also take my air tank. If I need to I'll air up the tank with the compressor but I always use the tank on the tires. Quick and easy.

As far as fitting things in the car I used to take a plastic tub with tools, gloves, air gauge, compressor, etc. I could fit it, my air tank, 4 track wheels, helmet, and a floor jack in the car without being able to put anything in the back seat due to roll bar.

[BlackSpeed66]

I picked up this little guy for track & road trip duty:

http://www.viaircorp.com/OffRoad/70P.html

$40-$50 from Amazon. It's small, quiet, and fills up tires fast - all from the convenience of your cigarette lighter. The pressure gauge sucks but anyone with half a brain is going to use their own good-quality gauge anyway. It has a nice heavy-duty brass end that screws onto your valve stem for a good seal.

For the price, it seems fairly well built.

[JetBlackE46]

I ended up getting a "Max Pump" from Walmart for $10.

It's designed for automotive tires up to 70PSI. It claims to pump twice the volume of air vs. bicycle pumps. On my 225/45/17 tires, it took 20 pumps to increase pressure from 34lbs to 36lbs. Not bad.