Blush - Could someone whisper to me how to pump up my new tyres?? They are presto type valves and the last of that type I had anything to do with used valve rubber! There is a pin inside the thing but screwing on my Shraeder adaptor doesn't seem to let air in, and neither can I make the supplied pump work. Such higorance . . .
Agattu tyre inflating
- Thread starter tgame
- Start date
Standards - damn them
Panic over! I was too impatient with the foot pump and trying to use a car type schrader pressure gauge which clearly doesn't work. Why oh why don't we have standardisation??
Panic over! I was too impatient with the foot pump and trying to use a car type schrader pressure gauge which clearly doesn't work. Why oh why don't we have standardisation??
Woods/Dunlop valves
Hi Tony,
The Agattu has Woods/Dunlop valve inner tubes which I had never come across before. I had a serious glass puncture to my rear tyre 3 weeks ago and so I took the opportunity to replace the inner tubes with schrader(car) type valve inner tubes - also switched the tyres to Schwabe marathons. The Woods valve created a problem because I couldn't find a way to measure the tyre pressure and you also need a different pump or an adapter for a schrader pump. Woods valves are not very popular from what I see.
Hi Tony,
The Agattu has Woods/Dunlop valve inner tubes which I had never come across before. I had a serious glass puncture to my rear tyre 3 weeks ago and so I took the opportunity to replace the inner tubes with schrader(car) type valve inner tubes - also switched the tyres to Schwabe marathons. The Woods valve created a problem because I couldn't find a way to measure the tyre pressure and you also need a different pump or an adapter for a schrader pump. Woods valves are not very popular from what I see.
C
Cyclezee
Guest
My Agattu came without a pump, so I asked 50cycles for one. When I eventually got one, it didn't fit on the carrier locating points and more importantly didn't fit the valves.
With a bit of a fiddle, I have managed to get my foot pump to fit. This is far from ideal.
John
With a bit of a fiddle, I have managed to get my foot pump to fit. This is far from ideal.
John
I'm a Schraeder valve fan too, always switching any Presta/Woods bike I own to them at the first opportunity, drilling the rims where necessary.
Presta valves have a point, slim valves for slim rims, but Woods valves seem pointless when the Schraeder ones are so universal and well proven.
It seems that only some continental manufacturers persist with Woods, and I'd love to know why that is. They must have a reason.
.
Presta valves have a point, slim valves for slim rims, but Woods valves seem pointless when the Schraeder ones are so universal and well proven.
It seems that only some continental manufacturers persist with Woods, and I'd love to know why that is. They must have a reason.
.
I had the same problem with the Dutch designed Lafree when i bought one John. They didn't come with pumps, but do have the carrier lugs. I scoured all over the trade for a pump that fitted, but there weren't any available here, most a bit too long. It seems to be a continental only size, probably why 50cycles also couldn't buy one for you in the UK.
I switch to Schwalbe's low loss inner tubes, £3.99 each from SJS.
.
Thanks, Citrus. I had never even heard of the beast (not that that is surprising), and thought it was a standard Presta type even though there was no screw down to allow the pin to move. But I have always used a car emergency battery device which also has a tire pump to pump my tires, and this did seem to overcome the pin when I connected it via a presta/Shraeder converter, and pumped air in and measured pressure when pumping. Goodness knows how one would measure pressure otherwise. I shall change to Shraeder when I have to change inner tubes, but hope that won't be for a decent while.
I reckon this links to my comment to Scott " Please don't rush the PDI" on the Agattu 50cycles thread
Valve pics
Ian, those valve photos are so useful. I WAS confused and now am not. Thanks a bundle.
Ian, those valve photos are so useful. I WAS confused and now am not. Thanks a bundle.
Lets have simplicity
The Woods/Dunlop valve: I didn't know such things existed. In all my 55 years on/off cycling I have never seen them, to me the only tyre valves were Presta otherwise known as the French valve, or the Schreader. But now I can't understand why cycle makers still persist with Presta valves, no pressure gauge works with them & it would make life much simpler if they were to be consigned to history.
Derrick - Llanberis
The Woods/Dunlop valve: I didn't know such things existed. In all my 55 years on/off cycling I have never seen them, to me the only tyre valves were Presta otherwise known as the French valve, or the Schreader. But now I can't understand why cycle makers still persist with Presta valves, no pressure gauge works with them & it would make life much simpler if they were to be consigned to history.
Derrick - Llanberis
When I was a kid, all normal bikes had removeable valve inserts, apart from some special high pressure racing types that we never encountered. They look respectively like the Woods/Dunlop and the Presta in the pictures. The Schrader type I didn't encounter later until I started playing with motor cars.
Nick
Nick
I remember the Woods/Dunlop valves from bikes I had as a child in the early 70's, but not seen them since. I remember them being awkward and don't miss them. Schrader valves seem to do the job better.
I've always preferred Presta myself - just because it's a pleasing design and reminds me of the racing bikes I graduated to later, rather than any experience that it works better than a Schrader.
I've always preferred Presta myself - just because it's a pleasing design and reminds me of the racing bikes I graduated to later, rather than any experience that it works better than a Schrader.
I too had bikes as kid with Woods valves, it was very much the English standard and are in fact known in the USA as "English valves".
Presta valves are the only valves a serious racing cyclist would use, the large hole required by a Schrader valve would seriously weaken the ultra lightweight thin rims and the valve itself is a valuable few grams lighter. A proper pump will work correctly with Presta valves, as will the pressure gauge if fitted to such a pump. Presta pumps are available from "proper" bikes shops and some universal pumps are available such as the aluminium track pump with 160 psi gauge that I recently bought from Decathlon which works perfectly on both types of valve. It was in the sale at a mere £12.99.
The mini pumps sold by Decathlon are also suitable for Presta valves and while they're hard work they can get you out of a mess.
Presta valves are the only valves a serious racing cyclist would use, the large hole required by a Schrader valve would seriously weaken the ultra lightweight thin rims and the valve itself is a valuable few grams lighter. A proper pump will work correctly with Presta valves, as will the pressure gauge if fitted to such a pump. Presta pumps are available from "proper" bikes shops and some universal pumps are available such as the aluminium track pump with 160 psi gauge that I recently bought from Decathlon which works perfectly on both types of valve. It was in the sale at a mere £12.99.
The mini pumps sold by Decathlon are also suitable for Presta valves and while they're hard work they can get you out of a mess.
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When I were a lad, and the whole family lived in a cardboard box, most of the bikes I came across had Woods-type valves with removable inserts.
The insert didn't have a valve built-in. You had to fit a rubber sleeve over the lower part of the insert, covering a cross-drilling. The sleeve let the air into the tube when you pumped, and stopped it from coming out again.
You normally found spare sleeves in puncture outfits. You needed to use them because they seemed to perish very quickly. It was common practise to spit on your finger and make a bubble across the top of the connector after inflation to check for a leak. If the bubble lasted a few seconds you were happy.
It was a great day when inserts with integral valves became commonly available. They were a great improvement.
The insert didn't have a valve built-in. You had to fit a rubber sleeve over the lower part of the insert, covering a cross-drilling. The sleeve let the air into the tube when you pumped, and stopped it from coming out again.
You normally found spare sleeves in puncture outfits. You needed to use them because they seemed to perish very quickly. It was common practise to spit on your finger and make a bubble across the top of the connector after inflation to check for a leak. If the bubble lasted a few seconds you were happy.
It was a great day when inserts with integral valves became commonly available. They were a great improvement.
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My lasting memory of Dunlop type valves with "valve rubbers" is that the tyres always seemed hard to pump up. The rubber sleeve added a fair bit of resistance to the pump. It was a bit of a revelation when I got my first "racing bike", with narrow tyres and Presta valves, although I'm sure these valves were just called "racing valves" back then..
Jeremy
Jeremy
Since I would not be up to drilling holes in rims like Flecc would there be any problem in swapping a Woods valve tube for one with a presta valve?
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