Topeak JoeBlow Booster, Black

Product Information

The gauge is mounted HIGH and at the TOP of the pump so it is very easy to see, even in low light conditions, and even by us 60+ year olds. Gauges on most other pumps are mounted at the bottom which makes it just about impossible to clearly see the gauge. This pump uses a 2” gauge, 3” if you include the bezel. Nice and large and easy to see. Those are the good points. The bad points are (a) higher cost than a clincher, need to run a tire sealant (which negates the reduced weight since not running a tube), a much harder time getting the tire initially mounted onto the rim and impossible to inflate the first time using a standard pump. Hence the purpose of this test using the JoeBlow™ BOOSTER pump.

Make sure that the tubeless tire beads lay flat against the outsides of the valve stem (i.e., none of the tire should cover the top of the valve stem or air will leak out at this point. See pictures to the left and right. What we really want is consistency in reading. Your 22 psi might be my 26 psi on our respective gages. But if those pressures work for us, we just need to be able to hit those pressures with confidence. A low range gage enables that both from reading observation and sensitivity (linearity). If you can look past the plastic finish, slow gauge and slightly flimsy feel of the Bontrager TLR Flash Charger, you will be rewarded with a well-performing pump that undercuts the competition by a large margin. The Milkit Booster is a simple gadget that can ease the pain of tubeless tyres 8. Milkit Booster Best multi-purpose tubeless tyre inflator… and water bottleThe Birzman Pump Up looks great and scores with its sleek aesthetic. However, in practice, the basic and poorly designed head is very hard to use efficiently. Unfortunately, we can’t recommend the Lifeline Airblast for use with MTB tires, and can only imagine it working with low-volume road tires. However, due to its poor overall construction and inaccurate gauge, we find it hard to recommend at all. If you don’t own a nice floor pump, or if you are a regular tire swapper, then a fully integrated option may be a good option for you. Specialist tubeless floor pumps integrate a standard floor pump with an additional high-pressure cylinder. All these pumps have a gauge for setting correct tire pressures and can be used as a regular pump too. However, the gauges on tubeless inflator pumps are not as easy to read and use as their ‘standard’ floor pump counterparts, as it often takes time for the pressures to equalize in the chamber. For maximum accuracy, we recommend using a dedicated pressure gauge for fine-tuning your tire pressure. Good pumps feature a pressure gauge to allow you to continue inflating the tire to the correct pressure after it beads. However, gauges found on tubeless inflator pumps can be hard to use accurately. What makes a good tubeless tire inflator?

The Milkit Booster hat tips early home-brewed attempts to build a booster pump using an old fizzy drinks bottle by modifying a familiar aluminium flask into a portable charging station.

Performance Comparison

As such there are two sizes to choose from, 0.6L and 1L, depending on how great you or your tyre’s thirst. Each bottle comes with two caps – a standard bottle top, for using with your favourite cold beverage, and a special thread-in inflator. Although the Topeak Booster is brand new, functionally it’s identical to the Bontrager Flash Charger. It’s essentially a standard JoeBlow floor pump with an aluminium air chamber bolted to the side. This is charged in the same way as the Flash Charger, but instead of a lever that flips down, it has a dial on the top, which you turn to select either Charge or Inflate. Before I received this pump, I used my own air compressor with a custom made Presta pump end attached to a standard pressure valve to get my road tubeless tires inflated (see pic below).