Topeak Tyre Pressure Gauge

Last night went to Mezda's house and brought home the goodies they brought for me from America.

Yet to be unpacked

Of course, I had paid for them but thanks to Gublai and Mezda/Boudi for the help in terms of buying them on my behalf and then carrying them here. I had procured three items. A pair of trekking poles from Black Diamond, an Anker solar charger and a Topeak smart digital tyre pressure gauge. 

The first item that I unpacked was the Topeak tyre pressure gauge.  The official name of the unit is Topeak SmartGauge D2. I attacked it first because this is the item that is necessary almost on a day to day basis. The most attractive feature of this gauge, which is why I bought it, is that it can measure the tyre pressure from both Presta and Schrader. It's digital and the measuring unit can be any three - psi, bar and kg/cm2. I chose psi because that's the unit we still use here in India (though every thing else is in metric system).

Features explained

The unit is battery operated. Last time when I had a puncture on the road I came home with 20 psi pressure in the front tyre. That's because I didn't realise how much air I had pumped. I just felt the pressure with my fingers and it seemed fine. Filling a tyre with 20 psi pressure when it requires nothing less than 60/70 is potentially dangerous. If you hit a pot hole or a stone you might get snake bite leaks. If I had this in my saddle bag that wouldn't happen. So getting a tyre pressure gauge for the saddle bag is a must. The problem with gauges is that in India you get only Schrader valve gauges - basically for cars. Presta pressure gauge is unheard of. Even in the West they aren't so common. My two bicycles have two different types of valves. Mampu's is an even third type but in terms of pumping or gauging it is as good as a Schrader. Technically it's called a Dunlop valve.  Life becomes easier if you have a gauge that can check both type. In fact if you think about it, I have a car, a motorcycle, three bicycles. I have to measure tyre pressure of all these. And this can gauge them all. Like one size fits all answer to my pressure gauging.

Therefore, when I saw that here was a gauge at $32 that can measure both the types I just grabbed it.

The unit feels fairly robust and well made, despite being made of plastic and in Taiwan. It runs on a small button cell battery (the supplied battery is a Sony). You turn the machine on, choose the valve type by turning the switch as per requirement. The valve shape is illustrated so that even confirmed idiots don't mess it up. Then you just hold it on the valve and press it in. Of course before that turn the cap of the valve loose, like you would if you were to pump the tube. This is for the Presta valve. There is a small beep and you can see the reading. There is a small amount of pressure loss when you engage the unit. But that, I suppose, is negligible.

I am yet to use it on my Schrader valve tube. But interestingly enough, the mouth of the nozzle does not change the shape whether you turn it to Presta or Schrader, like it does in a pump. I shall see tonight how it works on the car. I think I am going to carry this in my saddle bag from now on and also when I go long distance driving. I have asked Mampu to make a small cloth bag for it. Don't want to put too many scratches on it just yet.

The unit has another useful feature. Suppose you want 60 psi pressure and you find the tyre has 70, you can put it on the tune mode and slowly release the pressure bit by bit by pressing the yellow star like button and the display shows the change continuously - just like in petrol pumps. This will be convenient and useful for those who do not have a pump with a pressure gauge. My home pump has it but the road pump does not. But then overfilling a tube with that Park Tool pump is perhaps out of question.

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