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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater Fri, 29 Apr 2005
As I was passing a few idle moments last night, I happened to look I rode home in that state, gingerly awaiting the explosive decompression of the tire that was sure to happen, now that I'd noticed the problem and acknowledged it. Fortunately, nothing untoward occurred, and I made it home unscathed. I had a few dicey moments when I was following a couple hundred feet behind a semi, and it felt like the rear tire might have gone half-flat, but it was just wind currents eddying around the truck. This morning, I decided I'd better fix it before continuing in this dangerous condition. So, I pulled out my unproven Stop-n-Go Pocket Tire Plugger kit, and Ultraflate CO2 inflator for their initial test. If they failed, I'd ride the Le Mans in, if they worked, I'd ride in on the repaired Ninja. The instructions on the Stop-n-Go are fairly straightforward. The one that caused me some consternation is where you're supposed to insert the plug into the insertion tool, and ensure that it's centered. Well, I couldn't get the plug in there and centered for the life of me. It always bent off to one side, and never inverted right. Eventually I decided I'd just have to work with it like that. Fortunately, it doesn't appear to have been an issue. The rest of the plugging operation worked pretty well. I was worried, in pulling the plug back out to seat the mushroom head, that I might accidentally pull it back through the tire. I needn't have feared, it was definitely going no further than the head. So, for the first-time use, I give the Stop-n-Go a thumbs up. The Ultraflate gets a kind of middling-thumbs from me. It actually works quite well, but it's plain that their marketing division got hold of the inflation guidelines, rather than the engineers. The packaging says that you can expect to use 4 CO2 cartridges to fill a 180/70R17 motorcycle tire to 25 PSI. It took me 6 cartridges to fill my little 145/80R16 tire (probably 2/3 the volume of the larger tire they mention) to 25 PSI. After 4 cartridges, it was at 16 PSI. 5 brought it to 20 PSI. After 6, I gave up and grabbed the compressor hose, since this was only a test, anyway. For all that it took more cartridges than I'd expected, it's a great device. I loaded a cartridge in there when I first got it, to see if it would leak at all. All indications are that it maintained excellent pressure in the loaded cartridge. Its method of attaching to the valve stem was good and secure, and meant that I could swap out cartridges without removing it from the tire. It was very easy to use, and far less effort than a manual pump (although on a long trip far from gas stations, I'd definitely want to have some kind of supplemental pump with me). So, the results of the test are that I'm actually well-prepared to deal with a tire puncture on the Ninja or Le Mans. 25 PSI is enough to safely ride even 100 miles to find a gas station with a compressor, as long as I wasn't going too fast. The plug seemed to hold fine, although the real test will be this evening when I go down to ride home. I like the Stop-n-Go kit a lot. The Ultraflate is actually fine, it's just going to take a lot more cartridges than I expected. Despite the urgent warnings to only use their branded CO2 cartridges, Crosman airgun cartridges worked fine (and I wouldn't want to use the thing if I was tied to their $2 per cartridge prices, and couldn't use the $.64/cartridge examples one can procure at any sporting goods shop). I'll be getting more, since I used up 5 of the ten I'd gotten plus the one cartridge that came with the Ultraflate in my test. I got both these items at the Aerostich website, although I believe the Ultraflate will be available at many bicycle shops, and the Stop-n-Go is available from a variety of sources. I like Aerostich, as their customer service is top-notch, and their prices are about as good as any other shop. I definitely recommend against paying the Ultraflate company (which is called something goofy like Total Innovations or somesuch inane name) for their overpriced CO2 cartridges. Posted at 10:54 permanent link category: /motorcycle Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. |