Similar experience here - I got it for my partner as she travels a few times each year to race, and keeps buying/throwing away CO2s for every trip. This way she doesn’t even need to bring the foot pump (we’ve a portable one), or waste $10+ on CO2 that inevitable don’t get used. Plus, she’s a lot more comfortable with the AS2, you can screw up a CO2 and waste it, where the pump is quite forgiving and easy to use.
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Exactly, just makes sense.
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Unfortunately it didn’t make sense until she stopped to think, and realized between the two of us, we probably wasted $200 on CO2s and never used a single one 
I’ll still get CO2s for race situations, but otherwise 
I initially bought the larger cycplus pump that’s not something you carry in your jersey pocket but it works really well and I just use it for pumping up my tires before rides and it lasts a long time. Since I liked that so much I bought the mini so I could take it on rides with me.
What is the current recommendation for a pump that you can put in your jersey pocket? I think the Cyclami A2S has a good price and looks usable in the pictures
I’ve had the Fumpa Nano pump for 4 years now. Still going strong after countless of rides in wet conditions.
It even survived a wash in the washing maching. I had it in my jersey pocket after a wet ride and when I got home i forgot to empty the pockets and it just went in the washer.
Zero problems still.
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The A2S is great. My first and only experience so far but very satisfied in its performance. Really like the ability to set pressure and have it stop automatically. Battery life is adequate for at least 3 inflations on a 28c tire. Used it 5 times now on self and friends, been very good all witnessing it were impressed.
While these are all obviously made in China, I don’t really get the temptation to buy the knock-off versions from Aliexpress vs some of the established ones on Amazon that have 1000+ reviews.
IMO it’s not worth saving 50 bucks to roll the dice on Aliexpress for something that could leave you stranded if it doesn’t work.
Yep, and being stranded isn’t even at the top of the list of concerns. For anything with a chargeable lithium battery, I’ll generally pay the extra for a reputable company who has something to lose in case of a product failure (they tend to have better quality control). Poor QC or bad/cheap design can result in these things turning into fireworks inside your house while being charged. A small lithium battery with a poor safety circuit can create a big fire.
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I didn’t say anything negative about China. They have world class design and manufacturing capabilities. But just like most places, they make good stuff and they make crap. My point isn’t about country of origin, it’s that buying from a reputable company that has a bunch of QC folks (and lawyers) looking over everyone’s shoulders will cost you a bit more, but you have a better chance of having a safe product where corners are not being cut. Some things I don’t mind buying cheap and taking my chances. Some things I’ll spend the extra to improve my odds. I spent a bit of my career doing Product Management at a company that made electronics that included lithium batteries. And our parent company was a fortune 100 that was constantly breathing down our neck and making us go above and beyond for safety (particularly around the the lithium battery). It put us at a cost disadvantage to our competitors who used cheap batteries and cut corners on the charging circuits (and most customers didn’t care), but that’s how we rolled and our failure/accident rate was very low.
You can absolutely get lucky and end up with the same/similar quality product from a one man company if that person can source direct from the contract manufacturer and sell via one of the online markets. But it’s really hard to know unless they provide all the supply chain details (which they don’t). And guess what happens when a product defect is found? The big company will do a recall, the one man company will just close shop and start selling a different widget under a different company name.
Again, this isn’t about country of origin, it’s about buying from a brand that has a reputation and ongoing business concern to protect. And it’s a personal decision. If someone wants to buy the a cheap air pump form Ali, that’s cool, it’s just a bit of a crap shoot on something that can be pretty dangerous when charging. I feel the same about carbon wheels, bars, and frames, but totally understand that not everyone has the same risk tolerance as I do.
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Also the marginal value of a dollar won’t be the same for all of us.
Pretty much ditto with @grwoolf, I never said anything about buying American, I just broadly don’t get the cyclist temptation to buy no-name parts off of Aliexpress. E.g. it seems odd to me when people spend 10 grand on a bike, then want to buy no-name rotors and stems on Aliexpress.
Keeping it to the original topic, these are all very obviously made in China, but there’s Chinese companies like Cycplus who have been making them for 5+ years, and are widely reviewed and rated highly.
I don’t care about buying the Silca version or the stupid Muc-off branded one, but I do want a company with at least some reputation they care about defending vs a random drop-shipper that will just change their name to a different random combination of letters and continue if their first batch blows up.
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It’s obviously very different buying random no name stuff from aliexpress vs buying something like cycplus from aliexpress. Same thing with wheels.
Going with a known name brand with established history or something that just popped up selling something that might be skipping some qc
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Anyone have some long term reviews on any of these. Curious on two things":
- What have you found the main use case to be?
- What brand is viewed as best bang for your buck? Usually which just go Silca but it seems like its over priced.
I recently picked up the Silca Ultimate on sale. Shortly afterwards Zero Friction released their video about the Silca Micro and now I’m thinking that I’ll regret it. The plastic o-ring they’re using to seal the cylinders on these things is a terrible idea, especially given that nobody has released replacement seals.
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I have a cycplus as2. Been using it for about 8 months. Mainly as back up to take to events in case I forget to inflate my tires. Or if I need to adjust pressure after finding out the type of gravel at the event. Works great. I still use a co2 inflater for events.
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Ive the smallest AS2, I’ve got the once I used it once though but I was impressed with it an the amount of inflations I got with it and its size/weight and pocket friendliness. My only thought perhaps I should have got the Pro which isn’t much bigger and has a gauge. Then again given my p’ture record (there, I am guaranteed to p’ture tomorrow now), the ‘size/weight and pocket friendliness’ is out weighing the lack of gauge.
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Thanks for sharing! Was about to pulll trigger on the Silca one but might actually go for Muc-Off or Cycplus after seeing this….
Bummer the Silca isn’t built well. Wonder if they will respond to that video at all. Its a bit damning..
I’ve got the AS2 Pro and Ultra. I carry the ultra instead of a co2/pump on rides. It’s tiny and impressive. Aside from garage tests I’ve only used it on a friend’s puncture mid-ride, where it was much appreciated.
The Pro is still pretty small but gets you an extra inflation plus.
ok, im just gonna ask here in hope im not gonna get laughed at.
I have 3 different mini pumps, 2 ali express ones, 1 from craft cadence.
At first I thought it was the aliexpress cheapo’s just being stupid. But I now I have the same ‘problem’ with the craft cadence one.
I put the pump on the valve, set it to 4.0 bar (32mm tyres) and it seems to only go to like 2.0 and the tyre is already very hard. If I check with manual pump (with meter) its above 4 bar… or the alternative it doesn’t even blow air in.
It seems I’m doing something wrong, because as I understand it, it should “detect” there’s already a certain amount of air in the tyre and just inflate to whatever I have set. But it doesn’t seem to work correctly and I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong lol