A bicycle pump is a type of positive-displacement pump specifically designed for inflating bicycle tires. It has a connection or adapter for use with one or both of the two most common types of valves used on bicycles, Schrader or Presta. A third type of valve called the Woods valve exists, but tubes with these valves can be filled using a Presta pump.
Several basic types are available:
- Floor models or track pumps
- Frame mounted
- Compact or mini
- Foot operated
- Double action
In its most basic form, a bicycle pump functions via a hand-operated piston. During the up-stroke, this piston draws air through a one-way valve into the pump from the outside. During the down-stroke, the piston then displaces the air from the pump into the bicycle tire. Most floor pumps, also commonly called track pumps, have a built in pressure gauge to indicate tire pressure.
Electrically-operated pumps intended to inflate car tyres (as available in most service stations) can in principle be used to inflate a bicycle tyre if the right type of connection is available. Some such pumps are designed to cut off before a suitable pressure (much higher for a bicycle than a car tyre), and will much underinflate the tyre. Others may not cut off, but deliver a high rate of flow to fill the larger car tyre, with a risk of overinflating and bursting a bicycle tyre unless it is stopped with split-second timing.
Read more about Bicycle Pump: Bicycle Pump Types, Tire Pressure
Famous quotes containing the words bicycle and/or pump:
“I well recall my horror when I heard for the first time, of a journalist who had laid in a pair of what were then called bicycle pants and taken to golf; it was as if I had encountered a studhorse with his hair done up in frizzes, and pink bowknots peeking out of them. It seemed, in some vague way, ignominious, and even a bit indelicate.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“My nurses, those starchy ghosts,
hover over me for my lame hours
and my lame days. The mechanics
of the body pump for their tricks.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)