Battleangel | Personal

I got a new bicycle floor pump from Blackburn. The price was discounted and so it was hard to resist. And besides, I’ve been looking for a good bicycle pump for some time now. It seems the Airtower 2 is a good compromise between price and performance.

One thing that I immediately ran into was an apparent incompatibility with Dunlop valves though. I know they suck but some bikes just have these antiquated valves and there isn’t much you can do about it. It doesn’t make sense to convert the valve if it’s just a city bike that you inflate a couple of times a year. The Airtower 2 has a dual head with Schrader and Presta connections. And in theory, Dunlop valves are compatible with Presta. But nevertheless I couldn’t get in to lock on to the Dunlop valves on this particular bike. The mountain bike and its Schrader valves worked as intended of course. I could easily connect the pump head to a Schrader-to-Dunlop converter so I reckon it does in fact connect to Dunlop using the Presta head. It’s just something awkward with the valves on this particular city bike. Perhaps there is some trick to it, but I didn’t stick around to find out. Instead I got a Dunlop-to-Schrader converter which works nicely. At least considering the limitations of the Dunlop valve. I really wish they would go away and be replaced with Schrader valves.