Well This is Awkward

I was reading my Bicycling magazine, specifically an article on CO2 pumps. They can be a little fussy, and if you do it wrong you've still got a flat tire and you're out of CO2. I myself have wrestled with these things (CO2 pumps inflate your bike tire by using compressed CO2 which saves you the body strain of attempting to hand-pump your tire up to 120 psi) to about a 50% success rate.

The article had a select list of CO2 pumps that explained the pros and cons of each. The last one on the list showed a dual pump: part hand pump and part CO2 pump. I had a vision. At the base of my hand pump is something that almost resembles a dial. Could it be my hand pump is also a CO2 pump?

I jumped up from the couch to check it out. My first observation was that my hand pump was not on my bike. Hum. I have done two rides apparently without my hand pump on my bike. Kicking myself now.

I found my pump and flipped it over to view the dial type thing on the bottom.

Well. What's funny is, if I didn't share this with you, I could keep my embarrassment to myself and no one would ever have to know. But then again, embarrassing stories are interesting.

So....it turns out there is a high pressure switch on the bottom of my hand pump.

Let me explain.

Mountain bike tires use a fairly low air pressure (40-50 psi maybe). Road tires use a high pressure, like 110-125 psi. I have a road bike. The idea is that in an effort to not waste CO2 cartridges, and get the most out of a cartridge, you first pump up the tire with your hand pump until you can pump no more, and then you switch to compressed gas and it finishes off the tire.

This dial switches the pump from a low pressure (high volume) pump to a high pressure (low volume) pump. Mechanically I'm not entirely sure how that works, but that's not important. What is important though, is to have the dial switched to the correct setting.

I spun the dial to see which setting I had it on currently.

Ha! Yep. 0-40 psi. Hmmm. So I'm thinking- pressure vs volume. I bet if I had that thing switched to the correct setting, I would be able to inflate my tire a little more easily. Makes me think back to all those times on the side of the road where I pushed as hard as I could and wondered how people with less upper body strength ever manage to inflate their tires.

I bet they use the correct setting.