You sure don’t have to worry about the pump body moving around with this one… That weight is what gives the AirTool Pro its “Pro” feel and it also helps direct all of your pumping power into creating pressure. The pump weighs in at 2.36 kg (4 lbs., 8 oz.), which is more than twice the Topeak Joe Blow, so that cast aluminum must be pretty thick. They’re also covered with a sandpaper-like coating that provides a generous amount of grip. The big foot pads are molded as part of the base they don’t fold up or down and they act as a very sturdy base for the 65 cm tall (25.5 inches) pump. This is a very hefty floor air pump, with a base and tube made from cast aluminum. Specialized lists the AirTool Pro output as 360 cc of air per stroke and a max pressure of 150 PSI (10.3 bar). That’s about twice the per-stroke output of the Topeak Joe Blow, which makes sense because the tube on the AirTool Pro has a larger diameter and longer stroke. My measurements show that it puts out about 0.5 PSI for each stroke, which means just 5 strokes will squeeze about 2.5 PSI into a typical 120/70-17 front motorcycle tire. One thing’s for sure: the AirTool Pro really puts out the goods. So, I put my thinking cap on and after some time, I was finally able to figure out a fairly easy and very cheap way to solve the “big head” problem as you’ll see below.īut first, let’s take a gander at the specs. There’s just enough room to fit the pump head with the open lock, as you can see in the photo.ĭiscussing this later on with the bicycle shop owner, he agreed that the pump head on the AirTool Pro is way too big and won’t even fit on some bicycle wheels. The only bike I could find that works with the AirTool Pro head is the 1986 BMW R65 with the second-gen cast wheels. I don’t know why they had to make the dang thing so big the chuck head on my Topeak Joe Blow Sprint (review) from 2004 is nowhere near this size (and by the way, I still use that pump on a regular basis for bicycles, cars, trucks and yes - motorcycles). Uh-oh right away - I suddenly discovered just how really, really big the pump head on this beast really is. The Air Tower doesn’t possess that massively overbuilt feel of an old Silca track pump or SKS’s Rennkompressor (those are the kinds of floor pumps you can pass down to your grandkids), but it should hold up to several years of knocking around.As soon as I pulled into the garage, I had to try the new pump on a motorcycle tire. The pump also has a nice sturdy feel to it and ranks right up there with some of the better shop pumps on the market. The large, easy-to-read gauge makes hitting that crucial PSI that much easier–even in the early-morning gloom of your garage. The Air Tower is supremely stable, thanks to its wide base. It takes relatively few strokes to bring tires up to snuff and the Air Tower ticks off the rest of the important boxes in any floor pump’s “to-do list”. For every other inflating job, the Air Tower excels. If seating tubeless tires is your top concern, I’m going to recommend you pick up one of those $50 pancake-style air compressors at Harbor Freight. I found myself capable of doing that half of the time I attempted it, but was impressed that my success rate was even that high with a floor pump. Specialized claims that the Air Tool MTB pushes so much air that you can seat tubeless tires with it. Auto-selecting “SwitchHitter II” pump head that automatically fits both Presta and Schrader valves.Wide, aluminum barrel that pushes large quantities of air in relatively few strokes.A large 3-inch pressure gauge that displays a 70 psi range (the high-pressure road models have, naturally, a wider range).The version you see here possesses the bulk of the important features and offers the best bang for your buck. This iteration is one of several specialized models that include high-pressure road models, pimped out versions of the floor pump for that rider who has to have shiny, aluminum handles (the $120 Air Tool Pro version) and budget models (the $40 Sport model) for the cash-strapped types amongst us. The Air Tool has been a mainstay of the Specialized floor pump line for years now.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |