tempocyclist

I use a compressor to seat all my tubeless tyres. Is it necessary? Not on all combinations, but it makes life easy.

My compressor cost about the same as a good-quality track pump with tubeless charger tank, and I can use it for a bunch of other tasks. The main downside is that it is LOUD when filling the tanks initially! I wouldn't recommend a compressor if you live in an apartment block. 😅


I do, yes. Mostly because I remove it anyway to add sealant to the tyre. Once seated, deflate slowly, add sealant, then pop the core back in.

bonsai171

Lots of advice for sure. I have tried the presta to Schrader adapters, and pretty much emptied my tire lol. Also tried putting a blow gun into the valve without a valve core. Tired of bodging this without good results. Managed to seat a few tires with a floor pump, but want to do things the easy way. Im still leaning towards the Arundel, contacted them directly since I haven't found much info about it.

Dave

SoSmellyAir

You managed to empty the tire before or after seating the tire beads?

It is almost impossible to hold an blow gun tip into (i.e., within and against) the Presta valve body (without the valve core). Much easier to use a blow gun soft tip over and around the Presta valve body (without the valve core). Does your blow gun have a 1/8" NPT fitting? If so, I can just send you one of the tips I bought if you cover shipping.

bonsai171

Hi,

I tried screwing the presta to Schrader adapter into a tubeless valve as an experiment. The tire was already inflated, but I suspect the valve wasn't on well and the air leaked out from behind the seal, so possibly user error.

Looks like my blowgun is 1/4" NPT, appreciate the offer though 😊. Maybe I just need a different blowgun, can you link one that would work?

SoSmellyAir

If all you are trying to accomplish is to seat the tire beads, then what I outlined above is going to work. I am not 100% sure, but I think all blow guns are the same size. The 1/4" NPT end is the end for the air hose to the compressor. The tip for aiming the air is 1/8" NPT. You can order the tips from Amazon.com via the link in my post #19 above to try.

bonsai171

Mine is fairly quiet. Got an oil compressor from Home Depot. The oil free ones are very loud.

Dave

PeteHski

I have no experience with fat bike tyres, but I find that mountain bike tubeless tyres (2.3-2.5” wide) are easier to seat than road bike tyres. In fact, I only bought a booster track pump for use with Road tubeless. Before that I always managed with a standard track pump and a bucket of soapy water. The booster pump has basically replaced the bucket of soapy water and I only need to use it occasionally. The latest generation of GP5000S seat easily on my DT Swiss rims using just a standard track pump.

Somehow I have managed to ride tubeless now for 20 years without using a compressor. Although if I had one already I would probably make use of it.

bonsai171

Looks like that will work! I probably wasn't understanding the 1/8" NPT part. The diameter at the threads matches my blowgun, so maybe that's the ticket. It's worth trying something less expensive first.

Dave

chaadster

I *highly* recommend the Park inflator as it was the single, greatest improvement in my tubeless cycling life.

I tried blow tips, Prestacycle inflator, and schraeder adaptors, but all are utter garbage compared to the efficacy, ergonomics, and ease-of-use of the Park Tool inflator.

I k ow it costs a grip, but man, it makes doing what needs done a breeze.

Regarding the Arundel inflator, it looks pretty decent (particularly in being rigid unit and not with a hosed portion), but has a couple of apparent shortcomings: 1) the flow lever is on the upper side, so when depressing it, you’re pushing away from the valve, potentially compromising the connection and requiring the extra effort of balancing opposing forces, and 2) the head does not swivel, restricting use angles (because the guage wouldn’t be visible), which may seem like a small deal, but would be a frustration given my daily inflation uses.

SoSmellyAir

Yeah, for sure. After you get the bag of tips, you can slightly stretch one using a Philips screwdriver of the appropriate diameter, so that you can more easily get the tip over the Presta valve body (with valve core already removed). Cutting the tip does not make the opening larger; shortening the length of the rubber piece actually makes it more difficult to fit over the Presta valve body.

Camilo

I use the cheapest digital presta inflator I could find on EBay several years ago when I was looking for one for the car, "Azuno"- less than $50. There's other brands of similar price point and quality, certainly on Amazon, Home Depot, etc. as well. It came with both Schrader and Presta heads. I've used it dozens and dozens of times with the car tires for several years and a few times with the tubeless bike tires. It's plenty solid for years of use. Don't get sucked into an expensive unit, the cheap one I have is solid, accurate and durable.

DangerousDanR

My first digital inflator was an Azuno. It lasted about 4 years and then it started giving very erratic readings. I replaced it with one from Prestacycle.

They may well use the same sensor. But there is more to an inflator than the sensor.

In defense of the Azuno, I do keep my bike stuff in an unheated garage, and here in the lesser white north that means below 0F, which they may not have been designed to survive. My work experience tells me that is not trivial.

SoSmellyAir

Pure conjecture here: Narrower tires designed to be run at higher pressure have tighter beads which thus make them harder to seat?

When I got a gravel bike and went tubeless, I read about the soapy water technique, which appears to predate tubeless. I wonder how the soap / detergent would interact with the sealant?

Maybe this contradicts my conjecture above, but I wonder if there is a max pressure difference between GP 5000 TL vs. S TR at the same size?

It is very handy to have a compressor, to inflate motor vehicles tires, to blow dust off electronics, etc.; seating bike tires is just a bonus.

jlaw

Absolutely - ear muffs, eye protection, and I turn down the output on the compressor to 50 psi.

I find that the tires will do their initial pop at about 30 psi so that they seat and temporarily hold air without sealant. Then I air down and open about 12 inches of the bead on one side and pour in the sealant. Then reset the bead and hit it lightly with the compressor until I get a pop. From there I'll air up to about 40 psi with a floor pump which usually causes a second, louder pop. Then back off the psi to about 20 to 25 psi for riding. This is for tires in the 48mm to 2.2in size range.

Doing it this way seems pretty unlikely to create a blow off.

Road tubeless is not my thing and seems riskier with the higher pressures necessary.

jlaw

$129...

and it gives you an excuse to also buy a nail gun.

jlaw

Assuming I understand your issue - here's what I suggest for tire sizes 45mm and above.

When trying to seat a new tire...

1. Remove the valve core, install the Shraeder adaptor, and air up the tire with no sealant to about 30 psi so the beads pops, then let the air bleed back out.

2. Open up about 12" of bead on one side an pour in the correct amount of sealant. Push the tire bead back over the rim.

3. Air the tire up again with the compressor until it pops - still no valve core - let the air bleed out again.

4. Remove the Shraeder adapter, install the valve core and air up the tire again using your floor pump to reach 40+ psi. This should firmly seat the bead - you may hear a second, louder set of pops. This eliminates the problem of using a compressor with a Shraeder adapter and a valve core.

5. Spin the tire, wave the tire overhead, etc. to fully distribute sealant around the inside bead.

6. Air down to the desired riding pressure, 20 - 25 psi.

You can skip step 1 but if the tire doesn't seat for some reason then you have a mess of sealant to deal with while trying to figure out why the tire won't seat.

PeteHski

I think the ease of seating simply comes down to specific tyre and rim combinations. Some combinations are just easier than others. A lot of people reported having trouble seating the previous gen tubeless GP5000 TL and that was resolved for most people with the GP5000S TR. I had minor problems seating Pirelli road tyres on my Giant SLR rims, which is when I bought a boost track pump. Then it was easy.

Over the years I have had the odd stubborn tubeless mtb tyre and that’s when I would use soap to help seat. But I wasn’t using any sealant in those days. I doubt it would be a problem though.

For sure a compressor is handy for other things, but certainly not necessary in this case. I do actually have a small compressor for car tyres, but I prefer using a track pump for bike tyres.

DangerousDanR

​​​​​​Cleaning electronics with compressed air can easily lead to static electricity damaging them unless you are using an electricaly conductive and grounded hose and nozzle.

I know, you do it all the time and you haven't seen anything break. Most of the time any damage is not going to result in immediate failure, but it does reduce the life of the electronic device.
​

Calsun

This is an alternative that works quite well:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BJ4MXQY...lig_dp_it&th=1

Basically a pony bottle that you can put air in at a very high PSI and then send a blast to tube to pop the tire into place. There are pumps that do this but if you already own a good pump this is a $65 add-on.

Mtracer

I don't find air compressors to be the end-all of seating tire (tubeless of course). While 90% of the time it works fine for me, for difficult tires, I need to use an Air Shot. Now, a compressor has a tank and ideally could be set up to function the same as an Air Shot. But you need a very short hose to do this, and the Air Shot is simply easier to use than my compressor because the Air Shot is very portable.

Russ Roth

I bought the ryobi 18v air compressor for this purpose since i already have a load of batteries. I've got it set to 80psi which is sufficient for everything but my road bike. Easy to carry to the shop, basement, driveway, or even bring to an event where I might need to do lots of tires. One 4ah battery will do 15-20 tires or several car tires as I recently test out. I've got the air nozzle for cleaning out caged bearings and such. Just very convenient and not too loud for being oil-free.

LarrySellerz

could you elaborate on this? How is the static electricity being generated, and what kind of electronics are delicate enough that this is a worry? Do you recommend against using compressed air on electronics, and if so what kind and why. Like a circuit board (or whatever those green things are) for a random thing applies to this?

I am electrically illiterate despite attempts to learn, and the extend of my knowledge about this is that some delicate electronics want people handling them to wear “ground straps ” around their wrists to protect them. How related is this?

Thanks.

DangerousDanR

The WIkipedia article on this is not too bad as an introduction to static electricity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_electricity

The basic idea is that when dissimilar materials rub against each other electrons will move from one to the other. In the case of blowing a circuit board clean with compressed air, the air rubs against the circuit board. Unless the air stream is treated to eliminate the electrons (there are ways to do this) the moving air will deposit electrons on the surface of the circuit board.

Once enough electrons build up on the surface of the board, they can jump to a conductor, such as one of the contact pins on an integrated circuit. With traces that are just a few nanometers wide, the current may be enough to cause localized heating. If the charge is great enough or the part is sensitive enough it may cause immediate observable damage. Or it may cause damage that accumulates over time that shortens the life of the component.

chaadster

Airshot is portable, but the rest of it makes no sense. If your compressor setup is failing to an AirShot, it’s simply set up incorrectly. Maybe it’s tank size, inflator head, pump CFM, hose diameter, or a combo of problems, but pressurized air volume goes up with more hose, giving more working time to get those beads up. There is simply no reason an AirShot should outperform a compressor.

I seat road tires all the time off +50ft of hose and a 4.5gal tank on a compressor rated for 3.0 scfm at 90psi. I keep the system charged to 150psi, and can seat a pair of tires without even running the compressor (IIRC; I don’t really pay attention because I don’t have to. It just works seamlessly).

Herzlos

I use one of the charging track pumps. It's basically got an air chamber you can fill and pressurize up to about 160psi and then unload into the tire, it sometimes takes a couple of attempts but works great.