The new and the old.
Lezyne offers a digital pump gauge retrofit that I couldn’t resist. For $35 US one can pry out the old and thread in the new. The primary benefit for me was reading a digital scale rather than a needle on a gauge, way down there. Yes, I’m old. The new gauge reads out in single digits. The old needle gauge reads out depending on one’s eyesight and ability to see where the needle stops relative to the 2 psi marks. Houston, we have improvement.
The new Lezyne gauge also goes to 300 psi (20.6 bar)! FFS, who cares? This is a bike pump, who needs the 150 psi to 300 psi pressure? The Park and Silca both go up to 220 psi (15.2 bar) which is still 100 psi more than even track racers use. I dare a pump manufacturer to make a road pump that goes from 50 psi to 150 psi. Frank could use it as it still goes up to 150 psi and everyone else might have much more accuracy from the dial. I kid Frank.
The Lezyne digital gauge also claims a maximum 3% error which I assume means plus or minus 1.5 psi at 100 psi. Everything and I mean everything has an error associated with it and I appreciate knowing this error. Nothing is absolute, not even death. I’m not dead yet. The real question is what happens when one hooks all three of these pumps to one manifold. The Silca and the Lezyne were only off by 2 psi but I would not have been surprised to to see them off by 10. The Park and Leyzne were spot on which is reassuring because the Park gauge looks to be a very professional piece of work. Anything is accurate until one has two or more of them for comparison.
Yes, I know this last paragraph will be ignored and I should move it to the top. Should you care more about tire inflation? Yes, you should. Since not one person clicked on this link in my post about chains (yes I’m watching all of you, Google analytics knows everything), the take home message was this: Aero wheels do make a real difference in speed and tire pressure is the biggest (only?) influence on perceived “vertical compliance”/ride stiffness/road feel/comfort. With 25mm tires, one can experiment with lower pressure and not flirt too much with pinch flats. It’s just air; a very cheap way to dial in your ride.
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Nice work Gianni, glad you included a Slowtwitch link. The tech guys there have been educating me for years. The forum can be a jungle though.
I'm also on the "bleed the valve first" bus.
23 or 25mm Vittoria Corsa EVO CX at 110psi at the moment. Down from 120.
Speaking of pumps; does anyone here own a Silca Super Pista yet?
Nice floorboards by the way.
I've run mid to high 90's on the 25mm GP4000s, have moved from DA C-24s on to HED Ardennes with the new bike.
Can definitely feel the difference in rim width with the wheels in the hand, not sure I've noticed much difference in wheel performance specifically, cos there's so many things about this bike that are better.
@PT
Yes, we should have paid Gianni that compliment far earlier in this discussion.
Great write-up. I, too, have both pumps. The Silca is beat-to-hell but still works as good as the day I bought it. The Lezyne is faster and easier to read, so the Silca only comes out once in a while. Tire pressure is such a subjective thing. I've run 100/105 for ages on my road bike, often dropping into the 90s. The origin of my approach was reading how the great Cyrille Guimard advised lower psi as the way to go. Guimard went toe-to-toe with Merckx back in the day. So I figured he knew what he was doing. Maybe I'll jinx myself here, but in addition to smoothing out the ride, lower psi seemed to cut down on flats, too.
I've got a Zefal Husky that is nearing 28 years old. Took some thought to think back to when I bought it. The presta adapter died long ago, and I've been using brass adapters ever since. Other than that, it's been a champ. I've been lusting after a new digital Lezyne, but can't justify it. Need to think of a reason to have two pumps. Maybe one permanently indoors for sessions on the rollers...
Interesting thread - so this winter I put some 28c Specialized Armadillos on my Dogma. Now spring is here and I really don't want to take them off! Here are some reasons why 1) Riding them at 95psi or so is a truly wonderful ride 2) have not flatted since 3) I regularly add a few gravel stretches to my ride giving me a bunch more options for loops and some more variety! Note - I weigh in somewhere around 80-82kg
For those "I've still got my original I've only replaced................."
I've got a couple of decent pumps (Silca and SKS) but what used to drive me nuts was the chuck/valve interaction, so I sorted that out with this awesome Hirama pump head. If like me you ever get frustrated by poor clamping/valve security from your pump find one of these bad boys - you will not regret it.
I'm all in a lather to build my first couple of wheelsets--one for me and one for the VMH--and I was just looking at the Pacenti SL23s today...