determining valve hole size on a wheel set

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  • December 13, 2016 at 6:10 pm #918869
    lordofthemark
    Participant

    Thanks to KWarkentian for lending me a bike.

    Upon further examination of the bike, it reveals a question for the forum. The wheelset is Mach 1 CFX, and the tubes KW had in them were Prestas. I continue to want to want to use my bikeroom motorized air pump for quick inflation, and it is schrader only (the bike room has, or at least had, presta-schrader adapters, but I find using them awkward) I would like to switch out the presta tubes for schrader tubes, but without taking the tubes out its hard for me to see the valve hole on the wheelset to see if there is actually room to do that. I have found wheelset specs online, but nothing about valve hole size. Is there some other way to figure this out easily without taking the tube out?

    If not should I

    1. Go ahead and take the tube out, because that is such a basic easy thing to do

    2. Just man up and use the adapters, because presta good, schrader bad.

    Assuming I find out that the holes are sized for presta and not schrader, I will have to do number 2 anyway. Even if KW gave permission (chance to chime in here!) I don’t think I would want to drill the wheels.

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Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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  • December 13, 2016 at 6:41 pm #1061657
    TwoWheelsDC
    Participant

    What do you mean it’s hard to see the valve hole? If the hole is Schrader-sized, but the tube has a presta valve, it should be pretty obvious. Do you mean it’s hard to see because of the nut on the valve stem? That nut has essentially no use whatsoever (except when you’re installing an empty tube), so you can just remove it and see if there’s a big gap between the valve stem and the edges of the valve hole. No gap = presta only.

    December 13, 2016 at 6:43 pm #1061658
    lordofthemark
    Participant

    @TwoWheelsDC 150296 wrote:

    What do you mean it’s hard to see the valve hole? If the hole is Schrader-sized, but the tube has a presta valve, it should be pretty obvious. Do you mean it’s hard to see because of the nut on the valve stem? That nut has essentially no use whatsoever (except when you’re installing an empty tube), so you can just remove it and see if there’s a big gap between the valve stem and the edges of the valve hole. No gap = presta only.

    yes. I haven’t touched the valve stem nut.

    December 13, 2016 at 6:59 pm #1061660
    TwoWheelsDC
    Participant

    @lordofthemark 150297 wrote:

    yes. I haven’t touched the valve stem nut.

    Just take that off and you should be able to tell pretty easily…no tube removal required. Like I said, the nut does nothing once the tube is inflated…it’s only purpose is to hold the valve stem in place when you’re attaching a pump to an empty tube.

    December 19, 2016 at 2:12 am #1061862
    lordofthemark
    Participant

    Finally went down to the bike room and checked it out. Those are definitely small prest sized hold on the wheels.

    I’m thinking the reason I have trouble with the adapters is that they are not standard adapters. Does this look like a presta schrader adapter?

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]12962[/ATTACH]

    I think I need to go pick up some simple adapters.

    December 19, 2016 at 3:27 am #1061867
    hozn
    Participant

    @lordofthemark 150516 wrote:

    I’m thinking the reason I have trouble with the adapters is that they are not standard adapters. Does this look like a presta schrader adapter?

    No, that looks like something you’d use to inflate a kiddie pool with a (shraeder) floor pump.

    Any bike shop should have a presta-shraeder adapter. Which I guess is useful if you want to use free trail-side air.

    December 19, 2016 at 3:59 am #1061869
    dbb
    Participant

    This

    http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/us/en/stans-no-tubes-presta-schrader-valve-adapter/rp-prod38828?gs=1&gclid=Cj0KEQiAhNnCBRCqkP6bvOjz_IwBEiQAMn_TMdTQjXzC46kcBGMzLZpq0rLXXoEXvmofBlUwkxkkxAUaAvlv8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

    December 19, 2016 at 3:19 pm #1061908
    lordofthemark
    Participant

    @hozn 150522 wrote:

    No, that looks like something you’d use to inflate a kiddie pool with a (shraeder) floor pump.

    Any bike shop should have a presta-shraeder adapter. Which I guess is useful if you want to use free trail-side air.

    Or the pump in my building bike room.

    December 19, 2016 at 3:31 pm #1061909
    hozn
    Participant

    @lordofthemark 150573 wrote:

    Or the pump in my building bike room.

    Really, a schraeder-only pump head?!? Someone should tell them that bicycles use presta valves. I don’t think you could even buy a pump from a bike store that wasn’t dual head (or presta-only). Maybe you could find a schraeder-only pump at Target, though.

    December 19, 2016 at 4:17 pm #1061905
    lordofthemark
    Participant

    @hozn 150574 wrote:

    Really, a schraeder-only pump head?!? Someone should tell them that bicycles use presta valves. I don’t think you could even buy a pump from a bike store that wasn’t dual head (or presta-only). Maybe you could find a schraeder-only pump at Target, though.

    It’s an auto style compressor, not a floor pump. I don’t know where they got it, or how they decided to install it. They only asked me about bike room needs a couple of times at most, and I think my main focus was on it being fob accessible (the old bike room was and is opened by keys kept only at the front desk, so not accessible at hours when the concierge is not in). I didn’t expect the tools and the pump the put in. And I am not about to complain about it.

    December 19, 2016 at 5:27 pm #1061899
    drevil
    Participant

    @lordofthemark 150577 wrote:

    It’s an auto style compressor, not a floor pump. I don’t know where they got it, or how they decided to install it. They only asked me about bike room needs a couple of times at most, and I think my main focus was on it being fob accessible (the old bike room was and is opened by keys kept only at the front desk, so not accessible at hours when the concierge is not in). I didn’t expect the tools and the pump the put in. And I am not about to complain about it.

    If you want to be nice guy, you can spend <$10 to buy this press-on presta valve adapter, which you can zip tie close to the end of the hose. When you want to use it, you can just press on the adapter onto your Presta valve tube, then use the Schraeder valve compressor pump. It's nice and quick because you don't have to screw it onto either, and it's always handy because it'll be zip tied onto the pump. [ATTACH=CONFIG]12969[/ATTACH] It’s available from QBP, so any shop can order it, or you can get it directly here: http://www.aebike.com/SKS-Pump-Adaptor-with-Chain-Schrader-to-Presta_p_21402.html

    December 28, 2016 at 4:33 pm #1062224
    lordofthemark
    Participant

    Just to wrap this up, I bought a pair of the ordinary cheap adapters, and they work fine.

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