"torque wrench" pump/compressor

On Thu, 11 Oct 2018 09:27:02 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On Thursday, October 11, 2018 at 5:00:33 AM UTC-4, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Thu, 11 Oct 2018 08:54:38 +0200, Emanuel Berg
wrote:

Just out of curiosity, is there a "torque
wrench" pump or compressor? I.e., you would
screw on the presta valve, set the gizmo to
e.g. 35psi, engage it, and instead of watching
the indicator, automagically at the right level
it would stop?

Most of the gas stations here use an air station that you can set for
your desired pressure and then just plug the hose onto the tire valve
- there is a little clamp to hold it there. When the tire is inflated
to the specified pressure the inflation stops and a bell rings.

Since they aren't manufactured here I had assumed that the rest of the
world had them too.

My experience from 50+ years ago says not to rely on those things, although I suppose they may be different now.

Back then I blew a tire off the rim with one. I suspect the problem was the volume of each pumping stroke. In a large sized car tire, the volume surge with each big stroke would be absorbed and barely raise the pressure. In a low volume bike tire, it caused an explosion. That's my guess anyway.

I usually inflate using a manual floor pump with a gage. It's easy enough to stop pumping when the dial reads the desired temperature.

- Frank Krygowski

When I was talking about the gas station automatic tie filler I wasn't
thinking about bicycles. In fact I can't remember ever filling a
bicycle tire at a gas station, just pump them up at home and ride :-)
But you are right, in a bicycle tire a small volume pumped in raises
the pressure substantially.
--

Cheers,

John B.