Pump head and hose?

Good afternoon fine folks,

yesterday after work I stopped at the thrift store on the way home; I'm always looking for old kitchen stuff and hoping for some good stereo gear (it's happened a few times)

anyway, while I was looking around in the back of the store, I found a decent looking floor pump for $5. It is completely missing the hose and head, my thought was to then buy a good one and hopefully have about the cost of a new middling pump invested.

However, I can't find any clear consensus on what to buy, and what's worse, it looks like the connection from the hose to the pump is not standardized? Any advice?

It looks like I didn't really get a great deal after all. The pump is a Blackburn Air Tower 4 and it looks like it's worth just about the $5 I paid for it. However I should have a pump anyway as I don't have one at all now - I gave my old Joe Blow to my ex because my housemate has one that I've borrowed a few times.

thanks

Nate

On Tuesday, March 23, 2021 at 5:39:14 PM UTC-4, N8N wrote:
Good afternoon fine folks,

yesterday after work I stopped at the thrift store on the way home; I'm always looking for old kitchen stuff and hoping for some good stereo gear (it's happened a few times)

anyway, while I was looking around in the back of the store, I found a decent looking floor pump for $5. It is completely missing the hose and head, my thought was to then buy a good one and hopefully have about the cost of a new middling pump invested.

However, I can't find any clear consensus on what to buy, and what's worse, it looks like the connection from the hose to the pump is not standardized? Any advice?

It looks like I didn't really get a great deal after all. The pump is a Blackburn Air Tower 4 and it looks like it's worth just about the $5 I paid for it. However I should have a pump anyway as I don't have one at all now - I gave my old Joe Blow to my ex because my housemate has one that I've borrowed a few times.

thanks

Nate

I guess I should point out that all my bikes have Presta valves, but the capability of inflating Schrader would be nice too as there's three of us and a lot of bikes here.

https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...UaAsCkEALw_wcB

The best pump hose/head available. Topeak. Both presta and schrader. I have it on my Silca pump body in the garage. I attached it using a small hose clamp.

On 2021-03-23, N8N wrote:
Good afternoon fine folks,

yesterday after work I stopped at the thrift store on the way home; I'm
always looking for old kitchen stuff and hoping for some good stereo gear
(it's happened a few times)

anyway, while I was looking around in the back of the store, I found a
decent looking floor pump for $5. It is completely missing the hose and
head, my thought was to then buy a good one and hopefully have about the
cost of a new middling pump invested.

However, I can't find any clear consensus on what to buy, and what's
worse, it looks like the connection from the hose to the pump is not
standardized? Any advice?

It looks like I didn't really get a great deal after all. The pump is a
Blackburn Air Tower 4 and it looks like it's worth just about the $5 I
paid for it. However I should have a pump anyway as I don't have one at
all now - I gave my old Joe Blow to my ex because my housemate has one
that I've borrowed a few times.

thanks

Nate

Wow. About a year ago I was riding my bike in the area and stopped at a
local park to use the facilities. I was very surprised to see a slightly
scratched up but otherwise complete Park floor pump in the trash can.

I left it there, thinking that eventually the owner *had* to be back for it.
I decided to check again a few hours later....the playground was full of
kids playing basketball etc. Lots of people, but.....the pump was still
there in the trash!

This time I took it home. The handle "free wheeled" up and down the bore.
Taking it apart showed that the O ring on the plunger was very 'dry' and had
simply rolled out of its groove. A healthy dose of grease and reseating
the O ring and lubing the bore has yielded a *great* pump at a price I can
afford. It has a dual-valve head and the hose is in great shape.

A peak on eBay shows that rebuild kits for it are cheap and available, but
so far it works perfectly fine w/ easy pumping action. I can't believe it.

I keep it up at my Mom's so I finally have a decent pump to use there.

pH in Aptos

" writes:

https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...UaAsCkEALw_wcB

The best pump hose/head available. Topeak. Both presta and schrader.
I have it on my Silca pump body in the garage. I attached it using a
small hose clamp.

I had one of those, it finally gave up, and began to leak, even after
attempted repair. I replaced it with a fancier one:

https://www.amazon.com/Topeak-Floor-.../dp/B06XB1B29N

which so far has done very well. The Schrader side works well, I've
used it a number of times to top up car tires.

On 3/23/2021 7:53 PM, wrote:
https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...UaAsCkEALw_wcB

The best pump hose/head available. Topeak. Both presta and schrader. I have it on my Silca pump body in the garage. I attached it using a small hose clamp.

Funny thing. I have that same hose and pump head, attached to an old
Nashbar floor pump. Today I tried to use it to inflate the Schrader
valves on my wife's folding bike. No dice; I think it failed to depress
the Schrader valve pin.

This has has happened before, but in the past just shaking the head
(which yielded a slight internal rattle) seemed to fix it. Not today. I
gave up and pumped using a Zefal HPX, and put the floor pump on my work
table to inspect tomorrow.

And about the hose-to-pump fitting: AFAIK they are not standardized. I
had to fabricate an adapter to get this hose to fit.


--
- Frank Krygowski

On Tue, 23 Mar 2021 22:14:05 -0400, Frank Krygowski scribed:


And about the hose-to-pump fitting: AFAIK they are not standardized. I
had to fabricate an adapter to get this hose to fit.

Non-standard seems to be the standard. At one stage I had accumulated
about a dozen car foot pumps to fix in the future projects box. The first
thing that stood out was that no two were the same in and dimension of
any part, even stuff that was the same brand. I had thought that at least
a bit of mix and match might, in the future, give some life/use to a few
of them. I suspect each was a engineering design 101 project.

My sole result was a bit of uncluttering the future project box. At least
the thread on the end of hand bicycle pumps is standard enough that yu
can buy a connector hose at any bicycle shop.

On Tuesday, March 23, 2021 at 4:53:07 PM UTC-7, wrote:
https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...UaAsCkEALw_wcB

The best pump hose/head available. Topeak. Both presta and schrader. I have it on my Silca pump body in the garage. I attached it using a small hose clamp.
I'm in compete agreement with you. I had a pump I rebuilt with that and you could have fit anything with the collection of adapters.

On Tuesday, March 23, 2021 at 10:14:09 PM UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/23/2021 7:53 PM, wrote:
https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...UaAsCkEALw_wcB

The best pump hose/head available. Topeak. Both presta and schrader. I have it on my Silca pump body in the garage. I attached it using a small hose clamp.
Funny thing. I have that same hose and pump head, attached to an old
Nashbar floor pump. Today I tried to use it to inflate the Schrader
valves on my wife's folding bike. No dice; I think it failed to depress
the Schrader valve pin.

This has has happened before, but in the past just shaking the head
(which yielded a slight internal rattle) seemed to fix it. Not today. I
gave up and pumped using a Zefal HPX, and put the floor pump on my work
table to inspect tomorrow.

Followup: In my Topeak pump head, there's a slotted plunger that depresses the
schrader valve's pin. It's essentially a tube, open at the back, almost closed off at the
end that contacts the Schrader pin. There's a tiny helical spring that sits in the back of that
tube, about 4mm diameter, maybe 15mm long, wire diameter about 0.2mm. It's roughly the
size of the spring in a retractable ball point pen.

Well, it was corroded and broken. I was able to find a similar spring, maybe a bit stiffer.
The pump head now works.

- Frank Krygowski

On Wednesday, March 24, 2021 at 9:30:21 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Tuesday, March 23, 2021 at 10:14:09 PM UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/23/2021 7:53 PM, wrote:
https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...UaAsCkEALw_wcB

The best pump hose/head available. Topeak. Both presta and schrader. I have it on my Silca pump body in the garage. I attached it using a small hose clamp.
Funny thing. I have that same hose and pump head, attached to an old
Nashbar floor pump. Today I tried to use it to inflate the Schrader
valves on my wife's folding bike. No dice; I think it failed to depress
the Schrader valve pin.

This has has happened before, but in the past just shaking the head
(which yielded a slight internal rattle) seemed to fix it. Not today. I
gave up and pumped using a Zefal HPX, and put the floor pump on my work
table to inspect tomorrow.
Followup: In my Topeak pump head, there's a slotted plunger that depresses the
schrader valve's pin. It's essentially a tube, open at the back, almost closed off at the
end that contacts the Schrader pin. There's a tiny helical spring that sits in the back of that
tube, about 4mm diameter, maybe 15mm long, wire diameter about 0.2mm. It's roughly the
size of the spring in a retractable ball point pen.

Well, it was corroded and broken. I was able to find a similar spring, maybe a bit stiffer.
The pump head now works.

- Frank Krygowski

My experience in fixing stuff is limited. Other than fixing construction, electrical wiring, plumbing in houses. But is there a place you can find different sizes of little tiny springs? I might, maybe, possibly be able to diagnose a problem with a spring if I took a pump head apart. But I would have no idea how to find a replacement part. Other than from the manufacturer, and I doubt they sell small parts like that.