Silca

I've used this maybe a dozen times, so this is more of a first impression review. I'm a road rider. I haven't swapped out my flat bag CO2 cartridges yet, but that's my intent.

So far I've been using it to inflate my tires at home. The instructions warn you to start the pump before attaching it to a partially inflated tire. It's a little awkward trying to connect the running pump, so I deflate the tires and start from near zero psi every time. It takes less than a minute to inflate a flat 32c road tire to exactly 60 PSI. The first few times I verified the accuracy of the pump's own measurement with my fancy digital gauge. It's spot on.

A number of people have noted that these pumps get very hot. At least with road tires and the shorter inflation time, that has not been my experience. Yes, it gets warm, but nothing close to hot. Battery charging time is super fast - seems like about an hour from a low battery state.

Overall this is a very nicely made!

I had been holding out on moving to wax. My new road bike came with a waxed chain and a bottle of the super secret drip wax. I was really impressed with how long the wax lasted vs lubes and topping off with the drip wax was as easy as lube. So I decided to switch my gravel and MTB to wax. Watched lots of "how to" videos and talked to others using wax. The Silica system seemed to make it easy to do. I have done 3 chains now with the system, no problems and can go about twice as long between lubes as I did with regular lubes. I use the strip chip when I do a full waxing which is much easier than cleaning a chain as it is just part of the waxing process. The hanging feature on the system is really convenient and easy to use. Chain stays noticeably cleaner too, besides being quieter. Not sure if it makes me faster as my new road bike is so much faster than my old but probably doesn't hurt.

I bought two of these, but one had a leaky valve right out of the box. Bike Tires Direct replaced it right away and all is good. I truly like the valve design. Ironically (since one came with a leak), it's the valve I like most. It seems really sturdy and it's easier for my pumps to connect to them compared with other tubes. I'll keep buying Silca tubes and will keep using Bike Tires Direct as their return policy was quite easy to deal with. I would of course have given it 5 stars had one not leaked from the beginning. While these do cost more, assuming I don't experience more leaks, they are definitely worth the extra money. You get what you pay for.

Had a flat on my Cervelo on the rear, and of course the Orange Seal spewed all over the frame. Since I was running a 50 on there (super tight, I know, Cervelo needs to up their game on tire clearance), I didn't notice the dried on sealant until I had the wheel off the bike a few weeks later. I had just added more sealant at the time of the flat and that had fixed it at that time. Ordered this stuff, and lo and behold, it managed to get it all off, not instantly, but it wasn't that long to get it all off. Impressive stuff, and it smells pretty good!