portable air compressors

[runnin4melife]

If there is a thread about this just point me in the right direction, but I would like to hear from the 800 guys. I found myself in a bad place over the weekend and learned a few things that I must always carry with my kit, one of which is a portable air compressor. I want the best for the motorcycle application and one that would easily plug into the BMW auxiliary ports. Please provide suggestions, and if you used your equipment only once or used it a lot please state that too. Longevity is a must!

[lawe]

I bought the cheapest possible for 10$ and ripped the plastic off. Been working fine for several years now.

Sent from my Sony Xperia S using Tapatalk 2

[Gerg]

You're money ahead to buy the cheap Kmart/Walmart and strip the plastic. The near $100 Best Rest has a nice package BUT it's the same pump internally. If you are at all handy you can buy an aluminum box and package the cheap $10 pump to a total WAY under $50.

All the expensive pumps I've seen have the same internals as the cheaper plastic versions.

You can swap the plug with a powerlet male that fits the BMW plugs.

Greg

[LukasM]

The Best Rest uses a Chinese pump as well, but it with supposedly modified and improved internals and a nice brass chuck. Since the performance in an independent test (MCN?) was better I would assume this is true. However it's also much heavier and bulkier due to the case.

The Slime compressor is cheap at around $25 and comes with all cables you could need.

If you strip the housing off one of the Chinese ones make sure that you solder and strain relief the attachment of the wires somehow so they don't break off.

[MikeMike]

This is a very, very easy thing to do.
Simply buy one of the cheapo Chinese little air compressors that run between $5 or maybe $8 max at any Walomart or flea market.
Open the plastic, there are usually 3 or 4 screws to remove.
Carefully extract the innards.
The guage is next to useless so either put teflon tape on the threads and cap it with a suitable plug, or cut the hose a little ways and insert a small ballbearing or silicone in a broken golf tee, and then use a zip-tie to keep either the ball bearing in or the golf tee in. You can use some duct tape on this to seal it, also, if you like.
On the electrical end of things, decide on what you want for a plug. I opted for using alligator clips, small ones, and I unsoldered the leads that were present from the male spade connectors (these were so poorly attached you could probably scare them off just by looking at them with a frown), next, I cut off the cheapo cigarette lighter end. I then soldered the alligator clips to the freshly bared ends, then I soldered two female spade connectors on the other ends. Why? Because I can then use the long electrical cable for another purpose if necessary and it makes it easier to tuck the whole works away.
The pump I ended up with will inflate a tire in less than 3 and a half minutes to 38psi, it hardly even gets hot (it is still easy to handle), it makes pressure instantly, and best of all, it all fits in the palm of my hand and I store it in a little airline shaving kit bag that I had kicking around in the workshop. It literally took me less time to make it than it did to post this message.

The difference between this setup and the $100 one for sale on some websites is the aluminum box and about $90 in my opinion and I will bet the performance is exactly the same, a few minutes to air up to 38 lbs.

[itsatdm]

I bought this version of the slime pump http://www.gadgetjq.com/slime_pump.htm, after the hose popped off my old Walmart special.

10 amps is more than what the accessory plug is rated for and they can drain your battery without the engine running.

I bought a 2 prong trailer plug wired directly to the battery, making sure the female terminal was the hot one and use it for the pump and my gps.

[vtbob]

I too bought one of the cheap ones that came in a small cloth case with aligator clips, some other accessories. I bought a BMW jack and put that on so I could use the accessory jack on the bike (not the one that is CAN bus). I found that I had to have the engine running to get up to 40Lbs in the tires ...just using the battery did not seem to get there...or maybe I was too impatient.

[WoodWorks]

There are things I'm willing to be a cheap bastard on, and things I'm not. When it's 105°F and I'm faced with airing up my tires after a flat or a session playing in the dirt, I want compressed air. So I got this pump from Adventure Designs. It's certainly not the cheapest option, but I bought the cheapest option from Walmart, and it suddenly died one day. Fortunately for me, I had a tiny bicycle pump on standby, and 45 mins. of pumping later, I had a tire full of air. Not something I want to go through twice.

[Flashmo]

Slime pump, the small sqare one.

Been using this one probably once a week since 2007.

[Snowbound]

I got the Slime pump on sale .took it apart ,used some tape and zipties .I use a BMW adapter . I have used it to fill up the flat tires on my skidloader a few of times . I have used it on my motorcycles as well on lots of others . It is about 4 years old . I also carry CO2 for backup.

[BCC]

I've been using the Best Rest for years. Works well. I like it.

I try to buy quality tools, once.

[runnin4melife]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I took a gnarly nail in the rear tire at about 80mph w/an instant flat that got a little squirrelly until I could slow down and get off the road. But I was inherently stuck for a while till I decided to walk it the 2.5 miles to the nearest gas station and swap the tube etc...

[Giuseppe]

No matter what you buy, if you have a later model BMW, the CAN bus may not be able to power it without overloading the outlet. The underseat outlet on my 2005 12GS wouldn't support the BestRest CyclePump (or almost anything else...), so I have to use it with an outlet that's wired directly to the battery.

The CyclePump isn't the cheapest or smallest, but mine's well-built and it always works.

[TJ Willy]

+1 on the slime. I had the bigger one for a long time in the garage. I decided to take it apart and use it on the bike.

[GoNOW]

My Mini Slime pump goes everywhere with the bike. I used it so much, the fabric covered hose started to split on the pump end, so I picked up a new pump for $25. Now I have a spare.