If somebody has one of the desirable old grommets and can provide an estimate or measurement of the durometer (probably a Shore A value) of the material in question (or can send it to me for a short while), I'd be happy to make a mold and try to put something into production. They're quite a bit simpler to mold...it's mainly just a case of not having to do much hit-or-miss on buying the casting compounds.
I'm also going to be looking at a Hirame next time I'm on that side of the Bay.
Scott Minneman San Francisco, CA, USA
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of dave martinez Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 1:36 PM To: Verktyg@aol.com Cc: CR List Subject: Re: [CR] Silca floor pumps- Repro. Silca gum grommet--Robbie Fellows?
Hello All,
I stand with Chas Colerich regarding the original gum grommet that was supp lied with the Silca brass chuck. These lasted for years and attached themse lves to the valve stem like a Hayward, Cal. pitbull, unlike the pitbull, th e chuck released easily. The replacement rubber grommets that Silca cu rrently provides are lacking. They tend to wear quickly and dont release well, I actually pulled a valve stem out trying to release the dang thing. Personally spending $50.00 on a Hirame presta chuck is significantly out of my comfort zone. If Robbie Fellows is reading this, perhaps he can develope a Silca chuck gr ommet thats made from similar materials as used with the Campag hoods for u nder $50.00?
Other than that, our Silcas have been great. I've had mine for almost 30 ye ars, its been rebuilt once, and early on I installed a longer hose and repl aced the inadequet Italian clamps with good 'ol American stainless steel ho se clamps.
Regards,
David Martinez
Fremont Ca
US of A
From: Verktyg@aol.com <Verktyg@aol.com> Subject: Re: [CR] Silca floor pumps To: philcycles@sbcglobal.net, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 3:54 AM
The old orange Silca floor pumps were much better than the new ones.
I have a Japanese made Maeda (Suntour ???) floor pump that I bought in the
early 70s. It has a chrome plated cylinder and a red enamel air reservoir
with a pressure gage.
I bought one of the large Silca chucks when I got the Maeda pump. The Silca
chuck had a gum rubber grommet that was the best I've ever used. I replaced
the hose several times and the gum grommet once. The next time the gum grommet need replacement I couldn't get one anymore so had I to settle for the newer black rubber style. It never worked as well as the original gum rubbe r grommets.
The gum grommets worked at any angle. You just slid the chuck over the Presta valve and started pumping. The black grommets require the stem to be
deeply inserted and the chuck centered over the valve otherwise they leak.
In my supernumerary state, bending over the old Maeda pump was getting a
little hard on the back so several years ago I bought a tall Silca floor pu mp. Two things that I don't like about it are the stiff rubber hose and the hard rubber grommet.
The wheel needs to be rotated so that the valve is near the ground and the
chuck has to be sitting straight over the deeply inserted valve. The hose i s so stiff that it will pull the chuck to one side impeding the flow of air.
I disliked the Silca floor pump so much that I went out and bought a Topeak
Joe Blow Sprint Floor Pump. It has a lot of interesting features plus the
pressure gage is at the top of the pump cylinder making it easy to read. Th e dual presta/schraeder air chuck is a bit of a PIA at times but otherwise I
happy with this pump.
Chas. Colerich Oakland, CA
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