CYCPLUS Cube Review - TINY ELECTRIC TIRE PUMP! Are CO2 Inflators Dead ☠️?  

Thanks a lot for watching and the thoughtful comment, Chuck, appreciate your points. I’m sorry to hear about your Wahoo. My Garmin Neo trainer died too - after about 15K. Thankfully they replaced it under warranty. But I agree with you that dependability is important for bike stuff - especially stuff you really need to work. I think if you lived where it’s freezing that you’d be well versed in keeping your electronics protected. When I lived in Vermont we would plug our cars in so they’d start when it was 17 below, which wasn’t uncommon. With this pump I think you’d want to carry it close to your body to keep it from freezing. But that’s just an idea; I haven’t tried it. And I have no idea yet how long it will last. Cycplus say 200 uses but I’m not sure what constitutes a use. Might be running it until it needs charging or filling 2 tires? In any case it seems like it should last a few years at that. Thanks again Chuck!

Thanks Graham, glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for commenting. It does look like a little engine- I hadn’t thought of that. There are lots of these type inflators that are a larger size. The tiny ones are something new and I think they’re pretty interesting in how they do all the work for you. I hope we see more designs and technology as this category grows. Thanks again🙏

You’re very welcome- thank you for watching! Yes you can use rim brake rims with disc brakes. The hubs must be disc compatible but disc- or rim-brake rims will work. Rim-brake rims have a braking track that won’t be needed anymore. Have fun building your bike!!

Thanks so much for supporting the channel, indoor - greatly appreciated! And thanks for the thoughtful comment too. These pumps are hard working devices with motors and batteries so they will definitely wear out more quickly than basic hand pumps and CO2 inflators too - because those basic pumps pretty much last forever if you do some minor maintenance once in a great while to keep them working like new. In my mind I see these new electric pumps as mainly for convenience. Now that I've used the Cycplus as a portable tiny pocket pump I decided to buy a Ryobi inflator for home use - here it is without its battery and charger: amzn.to/3uSF7z5 . I already have a regular air compressor in my shop and lots of high quality floor pumps. But the thing is, it's easier and faster to use the Ryobi inflator (most companies that make power tools offer inflators like this). The Ryobi even has a built in gauge. You could definitely argue that a CO2 pump and a good hand pump will inflate a flat tire more quickly than the Cycplus and more quietly too while both of those are less expensive also. Plus, you'll never have to worry about charging those pumps either. But just for ease of use the electric inflators are gaining in popularity both for bicycle and automobile use too. I have heard of the Stomp pump but never had a chance to try one. It sounds very nice from your description. Appreciate you sharing your review! If the company sees this and sends me one I'll be happy to check it out. On lacing wheels, I actually show the 3-cross lacing pattern in my comprehensive wheel building video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XUqul03hbZ8.html For 4-cross lacing the only difference is that you need to use longer spokes and when you put in the second set of spokes you cross 4 spokes instead of 3 spokes as you lace the wheel. The method I show for spoke lacing is very simple and easy to understand. I've taught it for years. It's based on putting in 1 spoke at a time and one set of spokes at a time. As long as you follow that method lacing is very uncomplicated and you can't go wrong unless you're distracted and forget what you're doing. But even if that happens, since you're only working with 1 spoke at a time it's very easy to just go back one step/one spoke and fix any mistakes. Okay? Hope this helps. Thanks again for the support and great comment!!

@@JimLangley1 Thanks for the reply! I can see the electric pumps replacing co2, maybe they just need to build them so that the battery is more easily replaced. That way they could live a longer service life. I didn't know your video was 3-cross lacing! My first wheels built were based on your video but I thought it was 2-cross. Knowing this I'll just follow your video again. I bought spokes for 32h and 36h rims but found the spokes were too long. My plan is to use 3-cross for the 32h rim and 4-cross for the 36h rim. I'll let you know how I go with 4-cross and hopefully have a couple rims built up with some free time over the holiday period 😀

@@indoorkangaroo3431 have fun building those wheels! 3-cross on a 32 spoke wheel gives almost the same spoke angle as 4 cross on a 36 spoke wheel. So it's almost the same. That's one of the reasons 32 spoke wheels hold up so well.

Thanks for watching EM and sorry to hear your Cube is having issues. The only time I've seen red LEDs is if the battery is really low or about to die. If you charge it fully and you press the button one time, a green LED should appear. If you fully charged the pump - which should take about 20 minutes, and that LED didn't turn green, then my best guess is that the battery is bad or worn out. Hope this helps.

Thanks for watching and the comment Bjorn. Cycplus makes pumps with larger batteries already if you want one: amzn.to/46PJDMz

@@JimLangley1 I have one of those. A little too cumbersome to carry with me on my rides but at home its a very nice tool! :)

@@bjornelfsberg3518 you might want to try the Cube. It has 2 batteries (2 can sometimes be better than 1 larger battery) and is pretty powerful.

​@@bjornelfsberg3518at home you don't have to use those. 12v pump, it's faster too. There's only only very limited choice for 12v + battery though. Those chinese batteries go out of service quickly as well

Thanks for watching and commenting Graydon, appreciate it. CO2 inflators and shop compressors are super fast and these new tiny electric pocket pumps are the complete opposite - v e r y s l o w 🤣But, I have been having fun with this little dynamo inflating people's tires (I carry it in my pocket). They get a kick out of watching it do its thing and are happy to not have to start pumping. Thanks for all the great comments and have a great New Year's!🎉

It's a great idea. For Paris Roubaix this year they were testing a hub inflation system that let them change pressure while riding. That would definitely be a nice feature. And those systems didn't use a compressor, just mechanical. If you didn't see it, here's a story from when it showed up: www.bikeradar.com/news/paris-roubaix-tyre-pressure-control-systems Thanks for the great comment, appreciate it!

Why would you assume that Michael?

Looks great Jim. Pops in a top tube bag. Saves CO2 cannisters so I'm happy. 🌏👌

@@JimLangley1 only because it seems to good to be true and you didn't mention it

@@michaelviglianco6121 I didn't mention it because with most tubeless tire issues out riding you would just be adding air to the tire since the sealant or the plug you put in would seal the tire. But if you had to remove a tire and put a tube in for example, the Cube will inflate the tire to the recommended pressures so long as you wait long enough and if it's a good tire that should seat it. If it doesn't seat it, riding on it might get it to seat on its own. You could let the Cube run as long as you want or at least until the battery runs out if you want to add more air. There are some tires that will refuse to seat with any pump. But good quality tires will usually seat and you can do things like wet the beads (soap them if you have it) to make them a little slippery or carry those grippy garden gloves so you can pull the bead out where the tire didn't seat. But, it's not a pump's fault if a tire doesn't seat, it's the fault of how it was installed or just that it is not a very easy to work with tire. Hope this helps and thanks for watching!

@@JimLangley1 I was thinking about its benefits for tubeless touring specifically. For periodic top up and any situation that might require seating a tire in a less than ideal location.

Thanks a lot for watching and commenting, appreciate it. Yes the batteries are tiny. I am surprised how well they power the pump.

​​@@JimLangley1not for very long 😂 durability wise

@@eXTreemator you could be right, but so far it's working great and showing no signs of tiring out 🤣I think it'll last at least a year but we'll see.

Thanks for watching and the feedback Ben. I understand how you could be unimpressed and that's fine. But to explain my perspective, this is a whole new category of miniature pumps, that's why I'm so impressed. I took it apart and it's very well thought out and built. I expected plastic and it's all metal and appears well made. I've only had it for a few weeks but I've tested it quite a bit. It can definitely do two tires. In the video I show it inflating 3. And while they give a 200 second run time limit on a tire, I let it run on a tire even longer and it kept pumping. I'm not saying it's perfect - just that I think it's impressive that someone can think outside the box and come up with something like this. But you are probably right that if you forget to charge it that the batteries might go flat after a long time, that's a great point. Thanks!

@@JimLangley1 It just needs better batteries. Could probably make one that would use an existing e-bike battery. But even that can go flat. A pump is for emergencies. It needs to rely on as few external things as possible!

@@benc8386 The batteries in the pump work fine Ben, no problem at all in all my tests and they recharge even faster than they said. In certain vehicles like RVs they often use two 6V batteries instead of a single 12V battery because this increases the durability. I think that's why they used 2 batteries in this pump instead of one. Also, I think a larger battery might get hotter than 2 smaller ones. So I think Cycplus did their homework. I'm sure there could be ways to tie it into an e-bike's charging system. But I think we're going to see some e-bikes start coming with built-in pumps. It should be easy to integrate them into the bike so that there's no need to carry a separate pump. I didn't search to see if this feature already exists on e-bikes but it wouldn't surprise me if it did. Thanks again.

Sure In the woods with 180 bpm heart rate and the mosquito eating away on you, id use this toy any day.