What should be simple, is not

DavisBXL

This may be a silly question, but I recently tried to give a little boost of air to my bike and ended up leaving it entirely flat. My efforts to fix this came to no avail.

The reason? Well it's a normal schrader (sp?) valve, and I used it with an old-school pump. i.e. handheld with a separate tube, but without a lever on the back to lock-on to the valve.

Now it's been a long while since I did this, so I'm wondering how this could be so difficult. Firstly with the old style pumps you have the screw on tube at the bottom (seems to be called a hose pipe), and for the life of me I cannot get this to lock on. Shouldn't it screw onto the valve somehow? Without this locked on I feel I need 3 hands - one to hold it on the valve, one to hold the pump and one to pump the pump!

I had a meander through bike help videos but all the pumps they show are modern. Im fine to buy a new one if needs be, im just intrigued how I got by as a kid with this older version.

Any suggestions? It's really the inability to lock it onto the valve (and stop air escaping) that is the problem. That, and probably just my inability

cdaly_

At a guess, you have the wrong hose (tube). The hose for a schrader valve has a wider nut at one end with a centre pin to press the valve core. It should screw on tight and you shouldn't need to hold it.


And would you believe I can't find a pic...

Ant

Your pump hose pipe is probably designed to fit on to an older valve style called a Woods valve rather than the more common (these days) Presta and Schrader valves. You should be able to pick up a hose pipe for a Schrader valve for not much more than a euro. I paid £1 (punt) in my LBS for one about 10 years ago.

abcdggs

Ant wrote: »

Your pump hose pipe is probably designed to fit on to an older valve style called a Woods valve rather than the more common (these days) Presta and Schrader valves. You should be able to pick up a hose pipe for a Schrader valve for not much more than a euro. I paid £1 (punt) in my LBS for one about 10 years ago.

a presta adaptor will work perfectly well for inflating woods valves

Bunnyhopper

This might help:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_u-v.html#valve

DavisBXL

Thanks very much for the suggestions. I'll need to go and check tonight but the tube is new (was just given to me by a shop without the bike or pump with me at the time).

Once I know it should lock in then at least that's a good start.

Thanks again. Fingers crossed!

DavisBXL

I'm back with a follow-up to this having been away recently. Finally had time to roll my sleeves up and try and fix this.

No luck. For the life of me I cannot get the pump to lock to the valve.

Instead I took some pictures. Maybe somebody can spot if there's an incompatibility, or something broken, or just me:






Thank you!

Neilw

That's a presta valve and you look to have the right hose connector for it.
Did you loosen the knurled knob on top of the presta valve?

easygoing39

@davis,I'd advise you to pop into youre LBS and show them youre problem.I'm guessing youre doing something very small wrong.Get the benefit of experienced bike staff to get you back biking in a jiffy.