Bontrager Flash Charger

When it comes to inflating tubeless tyres, there’s no denying that an air compressor with a decent sized reservoir is the best tool for the job. With a big reservoir inflated to 100psi or more, they offer a strong and constant release of air that makes it easy to seat the tyre bead, even with a loose-fitting tyre and rim combination.

However most air compressors aren’t all that portable, they need a power source and they’re noisy too. The most common non-powered alternative has been a large volume floor pump—just like a regular pump but with an oversized barrel that delivers lots of air fast.

While a big-barrelled pump can work, pumping whilst simultaneously attempting to locate the tyre bead can be a juggling act. You’ll succeed with a well-matched tyre and rim combo but it’ll leave you frustrated and sweating when things don’t go to plan.

This pump from Bontrager offers a solution. The heart of the TLR Flash Charger is a regular alloy skinny-barrelled highpressure floor pump, but instead of feeding directly into the tyre, it fills a separate air chamber—that’s the larger black barrel on the pump. With the filler hose locked off, you inflate the black air chamber to 160psi—this takes a minute or so of pumping. Now you can ready your tyre and attach the universal presta/schrader hose fitting to the valve. Flip the red lever and the pressurised air is released, blasting the tyre bead on just like a compressor would.

With 160psi behind it, the initial blast from the Flash Charger equalled my large home-workshop compressor when it came to the initial tyre seating step. If the tyre didn’t seat in the first 10 seconds, the rush of air would subside and you’d need to charge the chamber again for a second crack.

I tried a range of tyre and rim combinations and never had any issues—it seated the bead first time, every time. We also used the Flash Charger to inflate every tyre for our sealant feature. With 14 sealant products on test and a range of different puncture tests to conduct, we would have used the Flash Charger over 100 times.

At $160 it’s expensive for a floor pump and it costs more than a cheapo compressor too. However it’s also a unique product that proved itself extremely handy at events, at work or any time we needed to inflate a tubeless tyre without an air compressor. We've now been using this pump with reasonable regularity for close to two years and it hasn't let us down yet.

Here's a look at the Flash Charger in action: