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Threaded #18: New Tools Day of pumps, plugs, and chain-things
Wolf Tooth enters the mini pump game, Abbey Bike Tools introduces a new chain wear tool, and a look at Cycplus' latest gauge-equipped electric mini inflators.
It’s a good day when you get a new tool. And you can bet it’s going to be a great New Tools Day when there are multiple tool releases to share!
A bit of sickness got in the way of delivering Threaded last week, so with that, I’ll aim to bring you a two-part edition of Threaded x New Tools Day over the next couple of weeks. In this first part, I’ll focus on a number of new tools largely aimed at everyday users and uses. You’ll see Wolf Tooth’s entry into mini pumps, the next generation of electric inflators from Cycplus, a few tubeless plug kit options, a portable chain breaker that doesn’t quite hit the mark, and Abbey Bike Tools’ entry into measuring chain wear.
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Wolf Tooth just announced its entry into the world of mini pumps. There are two sizes options for the Encase pumps: 40 (US$65) and 85 (US$70) cc. Both are rated to a maximum of 70 psi, or in other words, they’re specifically intended for mountain bike, gravel, or other wider-tyre pursuits.
The pumps are interesting, but it’s what goes inside of them that makes them worthy of discussion.Branded under Wolf Tooth’s Encase tool line, these new pumps can house the company’s line of stashable tools which were previously only hideable within the ends of handlebars.
The small 40 cc pump has room to fit one EnCase tool or Wolf Tooth’s new EnCase Tire Plug tool. Meanwhile the 85 cc pump offers room for both of Wolf Tooth’s EnCase tools. Pictured are those two EnCase tools. On the left is Wolf Tooth’s EnCase Hex Bit wrench tool, which covers 14 functions via its small double-ended 4 mm hex bits. Meanwhile on the right is the chain breaker which hides a tubeless tyre plug kit within its handle. These tools are US$50 each or can be purchased with the pumps for a small discount.The new EnCase Tire Plug is a lower cost option for those who just want something to jab a puncture with. There’s only one natural comparison point for these new Wolf Tooth pumps, and that’s the OneUp EDC. Also available in two sizes, OneUp’s mini pumps are well proven to be remarkedly good while also stashing OneUp’s EDC multi-tool, Co2 canisters, or a variety of other small items. A quick size guide. The 140 mm-long 40 cc Wolf Tooth pump (far left) weighs 95 g when empty, or 121 g with the new Tire Plug kit. The 85 cc pump sits at 154 g, or 260 g when loaded with the full EnCase tool system. For comparison, the 100 cc version of the EDC pump is 158 g, or 270 g with its matching tool.
Inflation wise, 100 strokes of the 40 cc Wolf Tooth got a 650 x 47 mm tyre to 13 psi. 100 strokes of the 85 cc got that same tyre to 31 psi. Meanwhile 100 strokes of the OneUp EDC achieved 37 psi. The Wolf Tooth pumps feels smoother in action, but the force required still quickly tired my little arms once above 30 psi (and brought back PTSD of the time I reviewed 43 mini pumps at the Old Place – a test which the OneUp pump convincingly won in the off-road category).The Wolf Tooth EnCase and OneUp EDC are closely related in terms of tool functionality. Wolf Tooth’s version feels higher quality and less like a jigsaw puzzle in use, but OneUp’s design has a tyre lever, dedicated space for a spare chain quick link, and the pump head doubles as a Co2 inflator. Another look at the contents of both. The bigger 100 cc OneUp pump also has room to hold a Co2 canister or a small storage container with OneUp’s plug kit or mini master link pliers.The ball-detent-based swivel head bit driver on the Wolf Tooth EnCase tool is nice to use. Also, the head of the driver is an 8 mm hex key, clever. Regardless of the pump size, the stashed tools are retained with an effective rubber cap. This cap does a good job of sealing out the elements, and the tools within are well damped from making noise. Similar to the OneUp pump, the push-on pump head is Presta-only. The external seal on this one holds tight and will ensure the pump works when you need it most. The Enviro-Lock is another feature I rate highly. It sits at the mid-way point and keeps the pump secure from accidentally extending when you don’t want it to. The threaded seal also doubles at keeping muck out of the pump.
This is one feature that’s superior to OneUp’s pump. Wolf Tooth’s approach is easy to get out of the way and simpler to use. As strong advocates of “The Right to Repair,” Wolf Tooth offer a full selection of spare parts and consumer-friendly instructions on how to use them. These new mini pumps are no different with a durable construction and wholly rebuildable design (and parts made available!). Wolf Tooth products are rarely the cheapest, but features like this go a long way to ensure you get your value out of the product.Each pump comes with a bracket for mounting beneath a bottle cage. The bracket holds the pump well, although the securing rubber straps can be a little hard on the fingers in cold conditions. The mounting brackets offer a heap of adjustment range to fit skinny or wide frames. Dynaplug has added yet another tubeless tyre plug tool to its line-up – the Micro Racer. Pictured up front, the Micro Racer (or as I like to call the mini baseball bat-lookalike, the Slugger Plugger) is effectively a single-sided version of my favourite Dynaplug, the Racer Pro. All made by Dynaplug in California, pulling the sealed aluminium cap reveals a pre-loaded plug within. However, like the Racer Pro, there is a hidden trick……the insertion tool is double-sided, meaning this tiny 16 gram tool has two pre-loaded plugs. By comparison, the Racer Pro (with its four pre-loaded plugs) weighs 27 grams. The Micro Racer tool sells for US$50. I’ve been a vocal fan of Dynaplug’s tubeless tyre plug tools for a number of years now. In my experience, the preloaded plug design, where the poking part of the tool is integrated with the plug, is just simple to use and provides reliable results. The big downside is that Dynaplug tools and refill plugs are vastly more expensive than the competition. Australian company Fumpa may have created the category of mini bicycle tyre inflators, but it’s now facing some real competition. I recently looked at the QiCycle Mini inflator , and now it’s time to look at two new pumps from Cycplus – the AS2 Pro (bottom left) and the AS2 Pro Max (bottom right).
Compared to the original Cycplus Cube I previously reviewed, the new Pro (US$109) and Pro Max (US129) versions introduce more ooomph and digital gauges with preset functionality.Here is the larger AS2 Pro Max against a Fumpa. For the past few years the Fumpa has largely replaced my use of a floor pump when getting a bike ready to ride – it’s not just easier, it’s vastly quicker, too.
With Cycplus adding a gauge to its inflators, they’ve transformed these pumps into something you’d want to use when setting up for a ride along with perhaps carrying on a ride (instead of a mini pump or Co2).Cycplus has closely copied Fumpa’s valve head design that can be configured to work with either Presta or Schrader valves (provided small parts needed for the latter). However Cycplus is now taking things a step further by including an optional threaded hose. With options for Presta or Scrader valves, this hose works well, and given the auto-stop preset gauge, these pumps can nearly be used hands free. Both are USB-C rechargeable. Like Fumpa, they are not weather-sealed and so a small plastic storage bag is provided if you choose to ride with the pump.
The AS2 Pro weighs 139 g, the AS2 Pro Max is 232 g. Expect a deep-dive on electric inflators in a future Threaded article. For now, I can share that the AS2 Pro has a gauge that measured accurately to the nearest PSI, but the bigger AS2 Pro Max suffered from a gauge that overshot the reading by 2 psi at low pressures (25 psi), and undershot the reading by the same amount at higher pressures (80 psi).
Speed-wise, Cycplus has made some impressive improvements, with the smaller AS2 Pro inflating a 700 x 28 mm tyre in 53 seconds, while the bigger AS2 Pro Max inflated the same tyre in 35 seconds. For reference, my go-to Fumpa does it in 24 seconds.Clever Standard may be a new name to some, but the brand’s founder, Tomo Ichikawa, has been responsible for a number of smart solutions licensed by bigger cycling brands. One such example is the contents of the new Anchor Stack tubeless tyre plug kit.Liscenced to WTB, the new Anchor Stack (52 g) is built around Clever Standard’s idea for using re-useable insertion bullets that work with regular bacon strip plugs. The tool features storage for a number of bacon strips, a handful of differently sized insertion bullets, and the plug driver.
There are a few ways you can use this tool, but I’ve found it best to preload the bullets with plugs and stash them where the spare plugs are pictured. Alternatively you can use the tool as shown but I’ve found it to easily result in small pieces on the floor.
The re-useability of the plugs makes this a very interesting design, but it’s still a bit too fiddly in use for my liking.Clever Standard also offer a similar tubeless plug kit that’s made from recycled ocean plastic. This one is a bit of nostalgic fun with a design that emulates old model-making kits. Open the cardboard packaging and you’ll find a collection of pieces to assemble your own plug kit from. Once again, it uses Clever Standard’s re-useable insertion tip design. The plug kit works and is light (23 g with four plugs). It doesn’t work so well with how I’ve photographed it here, but if you preload four bullets with plugs then the tool closes easily. Still, I found myself having to fish those preloaded plugs out, and so it’s not the jab-and-go type of efficiency I seek in my tubeless plug tools. Clever Standard has had its name to the Chain Barrel chain tool for a number of years. This tiny 36 gram chain breaker (including the removable handle) offers a easily packable shape.It’s competitively compact against other portable chain breakers. From left to right, we have the DaySaver, Clever Standard Chain Barrel, Wera chain tool, and PrestaCycle PrestaRatchet Chain Tool. The threaded handle is removable.Don’t want the handle? The chain tool can be held with either a 15 mm spanner or 6 mm hex key. Meanwhile the chain pin is driven with a 5 mm hex key. This tool fits just about every chain out, including new SRAM Flat Top. Unfortunately the lightweight aluminium construction doesn’t have the stiffness required to break a tough chain (Shimano Dura-Ace 11-speed, in this example). As you can see here, the tool is splaying apart under the load, causing the threads to skip.
I suspect this tool will work on lower-end chains with less aggressive pin peening, but it’s failure here stops it from being something I can recommend. Abbey Bike Tools has just announced its entry into the chain wear gauge market. The new LL Chain Wear Tool gets its name through how it offers both linear (elongation) and lateral wear measurement. This green tool will retail at US$45 (image courtesy of Abbey Bike Tools). When measuring for chain elongation (aka, chain stretch), the tool offers distinct holes for which you line up the chain pin against. This tool aims to remove roller wear and roller diameter variances from the equation – meaning the tool works with just about every standard pitch chain on the market, including SRAM’s newer 12-speed Flat Top (which feature an oversized roller that gives false readings on most chain wear gauges).
(In my opinion there are instances where significant roller wear should be cause for chain replacement, but that’s perhaps a debate for another day.) Pictured is a pre-production sample I’d been playing with. Here you can see the backside of the tool, with a chain located on the starting position for measuring chain elongation (aka, chain stretch).Most elongation-based chain wear checkers on the market are easily thrown-off by differing roller sizes, especially where newer SRAM Flat Top chains are involved (they feature an oversized roller). Abbey’s design aims to find the dead centre of the pin in order to provide a consistent starting point. Flipped over, you can see the design does a good job of finding and holding that centre reference. Then we get to the lateral measuring feature of the tool. Lateral wear (side to side floppiness) in a chain is less commonly discussed, but it directly impacts how crisply a bike will shift. Abbey’s tool offers a way to measure for this (with the chain off the bike) and provides a guide for what a laterally worn chain looks like. To use the feature, you place the chain on the provided shelf and see how much it droops at the scale. There’s no hard and fast rule for how much wear is too much, rather I suspect most mechanics will make up their own metrics for what this scale means to shift performance depending on the chain in question. Abbey’s new LL Chain Wear Tool aims to answer doubts and confusion over the accuracy and compatibility of existing chain wear tools. My early impressions suggest my ageing eyesight struggles to quickly use the elongation measurement feature of this tool. Meanwhile the lateral measurement gauge is super interesting, but that it requires a chain to be removed from the bike perhaps makes it more of a personal interest item than one of pure usefulness for busy mechanics.
I’ll await the production version that offers better clarity and easier reading before concluding my thoughts on this tool. Though consider me more than intrigued, especially concerning 12-speed SRAM Flat Top chains.And to wrap up, here’s just a tease of some things to expect next week. Ultra fancy lasers…… things that go zzzzttttt….… and what could well be the next generation of hex and Torx keys!
If you like this gallery, I highly recommend catching up on earlier editions of New Tools Day. Stay tuned as the next edition of Threaded x New Tools Day is likely just seven sleeps away.
