From my old Italian-era Silca pump
came out a Presta pump head
with an incredibly small
head portion for inflating disc wheels (※).
※This is NOT a "disc brake wheel".
Anyone confused about that (→here)
This design just pushes straight onto the hose,
with no lever to tighten the seal,
so when inflating to high pressure
(disc wheels are usually tubulars
and usually inflated to high pressure)
you need to hold the pump head in place with one hand
to prevent air leaks and slippage.
When inflating to around 10 bar,
pumping with the other hand gets pretty exhausting,
so it helps to ask someone else to either
hold the pump head or do the pumping.
If the valve window on the disc wheel is large enough,
you can inflate with a regular side-lever pump head too,
but depending on the disc wheel type,
sometimes even a regular pump head won't fit,
and on disc wheels with a window only on one side,
when you flip the regular pump lever the protrusion
can scratch the inner wall of the wheel,
so for people with disc wheels,
knowing that you can't tighten the seal,
it's recommended to prepare a dedicated pump
with a small pump head permanently attached.
There's no identical pump head to this one
on current American-brand Silca pumps, but
there are similar versions.
This pump head has
a Schrader valve thread on the pump side,
so to use it with a floor pump
you need to buy a separate adapter
to convert it to hose connection.
The pump head is ¥4,000 before tax,
and the adapter is ¥1,600 before tax.
The reason I drew the seal in red in the diagram above is
because the current pump head has
an orange-red silicone rubber seal,
and that part is compatible with the old pump heads too.
By the way, the part number for the silicone rubber seal is
252 Disc Chuck Seal (※) and
the list price is ¥1,300 before tax.
※The product name also says it's for disc wheels.
A customer I've dealt with many times asked me recently
if there was any solution, since he had
a disc wheel where air couldn't be pumped in
with a regular side-lever pump head.
And what came to mind was
↑This Tni "Valve Adapter".
What's in quotes is not a generic term but a product name.
It's a direct hose-connection type like the old Silca disc chuck,
and while there's no spare rubber seal available,
since the adapter itself costs ¥900 before tax,
which is cheaper than Silca's rubber seal,
you can just buy a new one.
...or so I'd like to say, but
this valve adapter has been out of stock for years
with no sign of restocking.
The article with the same unit as in the photo is (→here)
In that article they mention using it on the compressor hose,
but later I switched to using it with
my home disc wheel floor pump.
It comes in black and red,
but when I ordered it, black was out of stock,
which is why I got red.
Even if it cost ¥1,500 instead of ¥900,
I really wish they'd bring it back.
By the way, it's a bit tricky to find this
on the distributor website.
After searching "Tni," the next category to open is not "Pump" or "CO2 Cartridge"
or "Accessories," but rather "Valve Extender."
The Tni valve adapter has
a slightly longer head, but not by much.
The current Silca disc adapter (←the one I drew in the diagram earlier)
is noticeably longer than both of these.
Because I used it on the compressor for a while,
the seal hole seemed slightly enlarged,
so I removed the side-lever pump head from
the floor pump we use in the shop and swapped it out,
then held the pump head and tried inflating.
There are no problems with use.
I'm going to send this to that customer I mentioned earlier.
The reason being, if the pump head doesn't solve it,
they're asking me to do an irreversible modification
to the disc wheel's valve window.
Let's not go down that road, okay!
came out a Presta pump head
with an incredibly small
head portion for inflating disc wheels (※).
※This is NOT a "disc brake wheel".
Anyone confused about that (→here)
This design just pushes straight onto the hose,
with no lever to tighten the seal,
so when inflating to high pressure
(disc wheels are usually tubulars
and usually inflated to high pressure)
you need to hold the pump head in place with one hand
to prevent air leaks and slippage.
When inflating to around 10 bar,
pumping with the other hand gets pretty exhausting,
so it helps to ask someone else to either
hold the pump head or do the pumping.
If the valve window on the disc wheel is large enough,
you can inflate with a regular side-lever pump head too,
but depending on the disc wheel type,
sometimes even a regular pump head won't fit,
and on disc wheels with a window only on one side,
when you flip the regular pump lever the protrusion
can scratch the inner wall of the wheel,
so for people with disc wheels,
knowing that you can't tighten the seal,
it's recommended to prepare a dedicated pump
with a small pump head permanently attached.
There's no identical pump head to this one
on current American-brand Silca pumps, but
there are similar versions.
This pump head has
a Schrader valve thread on the pump side,
so to use it with a floor pump
you need to buy a separate adapter
to convert it to hose connection.
The pump head is ¥4,000 before tax,
and the adapter is ¥1,600 before tax.
The reason I drew the seal in red in the diagram above is
because the current pump head has
an orange-red silicone rubber seal,
and that part is compatible with the old pump heads too.
By the way, the part number for the silicone rubber seal is
252 Disc Chuck Seal (※) and
the list price is ¥1,300 before tax.
※The product name also says it's for disc wheels.
A customer I've dealt with many times asked me recently
if there was any solution, since he had
a disc wheel where air couldn't be pumped in
with a regular side-lever pump head.
And what came to mind was
↑This Tni "Valve Adapter".
What's in quotes is not a generic term but a product name.
It's a direct hose-connection type like the old Silca disc chuck,
and while there's no spare rubber seal available,
since the adapter itself costs ¥900 before tax,
which is cheaper than Silca's rubber seal,
you can just buy a new one.
...or so I'd like to say, but
this valve adapter has been out of stock for years
with no sign of restocking.
The article with the same unit as in the photo is (→here)
In that article they mention using it on the compressor hose,
but later I switched to using it with
my home disc wheel floor pump.
It comes in black and red,
but when I ordered it, black was out of stock,
which is why I got red.
Even if it cost ¥1,500 instead of ¥900,
I really wish they'd bring it back.
By the way, it's a bit tricky to find this
on the distributor website.
After searching "Tni," the next category to open is not "Pump" or "CO2 Cartridge"
or "Accessories," but rather "Valve Extender."
The Tni valve adapter has
a slightly longer head, but not by much.
The current Silca disc adapter (←the one I drew in the diagram earlier)
is noticeably longer than both of these.
Because I used it on the compressor for a while,
the seal hole seemed slightly enlarged,
so I removed the side-lever pump head from
the floor pump we use in the shop and swapped it out,
then held the pump head and tried inflating.
There are no problems with use.
I'm going to send this to that customer I mentioned earlier.
The reason being, if the pump head doesn't solve it,
they're asking me to do an irreversible modification
to the disc wheel's valve window.
Let's not go down that road, okay!