I’ve had enough of the frustration of trying to seat tubeless tyres with a cannister. Can someone recommend a good compressor, the larger cycling websites here in the NL don’t offer compressors except small hand compressors so I don’t really know what to look for. What is better for seating, high volume or high pressure?
Pretty much any home garage compressor will work fine - I think mine goes up to 6 bar. You just need to get an adapter to fit the (presumably) presta valve. I only use it on MTBs but it’s so satisfying how easily it pops them on. Worth every penny.
Something like this should work fine but is probably overkill.
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Here in the US I use a basic Harbor Freight compressor and it’s been excellent.
Others may have different thoughts…but honestly my view is if a floor pump cant seat your tires, the issue is with the setup, not the pump.
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Thats my first go to 
After that its a BBB air tank if needed ( Review: Beto CJA-001S Tubeless Air Tank Inflator | road.cc)
And after that its a CO2canister if needed
Touch wood I’ve never had to go beyond.
Road, gravel, or MTB?
For road the last year or two I’ve been spraying water at the rim/tire interface and simply using a floor pump. Spraying water on the tire/rim made a huge difference, and I’ve stopped using my pancake compressor.
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That can certainly be the case. But sometimes, the tire & wheel combo you have is the combo you have… so it still needs to get seated whether that be using a floor pump, canister or compressor.
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My road bike’s front wheel is always a pain, probably due to the small (17mm) internal width, I thinking the valve interferes, the 19mm rear wheel usually seats effortlessly. I always use plenty of soapy water because indeed without seating becomes much harder
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They always seat eventually but it can take a lot of frantic pumping. If the cannister I use were a little bigger it would probably be much easier but I don’t want to buy another cannister as compressors seem almost as expensive
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It will be more expensive but it is super handy to have a battery operated compressor. You can put it in your trunk or take it anywhere in your garage. This makes super helpful if you race or take your bike any place to ride besides home. I have recently switched my cordless tools to milwaukee and their cordless compressor is amazing. It is quiet, fast, and easily seats a bead. Of course you end paying the name brand price premium. I have heard that people also like the Bauer model.
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What part of the “setup” are you talking about? Tape and sealant can only get you so far sometimes.
Some wheel and tire combos just don’t seat well. There isn’t much “setup” you can do to overcome that barring buying a different pump, new tires, new wheels, or spending hours in the garage trying to make it work.
You can buy a compressor for about the same price as a single tire. Well worth it to me. The bonus is you can use the compressor for a number of other things. I also have a presta chuck with a gauge on it. Takes a few seconds to get the right pressure on each bike.
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Basiically just tightness of the tire fit.
In my mind, if you cant seat the tire with a floor pump…it’s a sign the tire has too loose of a fit, and will just be at risk of burping after you get it seated with a compressor. But honestly I think the difference between a loose and tight fit is like 2 layers of gorilla tape…
or your front wheel’s diameter is smaller than the standard. At 17mm it sounds like an “older” wheel, perhaps before the standards came out and for road it seems like its been more evolution than create a standard and everyone buys in and designs to it.
I’ve used Gorilla Tape, I have a set of wheels with it on there right now, but I’d do a lot to avoid using it. Especially a couple of wraps of it.
A “loose” fit isn’t inherently bad unless you’re trying to seat it. I haven’t burped a tire in years even with tires that won’t seat without a compressor.
If you can make it work without a compressor that’s awesome. Not everyone has one. But for the price and the ease of all future tubeless setups it’s a no brainer to me.
Although I have 7 wheelsets that are tubeless and swap tires often. If you’re only swapping tires once a year, don’t need one for car tires or nail guns, than it’s a whole different story.
It’s a Giant SLR 1 wheel, not the latest but sold by Giant until 2021
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With this wheel the tyre just doesn’t ever inflate unlike with a bad fit where it will leak a lot of air
I use an Airshot, been working great so far.
I might recommend a slightly alternate approach…think about what other things you might want to do with an air compressor, i.e. paint, nail, air tools, fill car tires, etc. and then buy the compressor that fits that purpose from a home improvement or auto parts store. Whatever you end up with will likely be more than sufficient for seating tires.
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It went without saying that we are all removing the valve cores right? Fighting the setup with valve core still installed until about two years ago until a real mechanic advised. I’ve had no issues with about ten different setups CX, road, MTB with either burst tank or compressor since following that advice.
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Valves > compressor. If you’ve got the right amount of tape under your tire and a good valve, you can setup a TL tire with anything
Any cheap, quiet air compressor or tank will work. Getting a tire to 5psi takes very little air.