Advice: inflating wheelchair tyres

[ciphergoth]

A recently wheelchair-using friend is finding that a bicycle pump doesn't seem to fit her wheelchair tyres, and they are slowly getting flatter and flatter. She mentions that she once had the tyres inflated from the compressed air at a garage, but I know that if I take the chair to a garage they will have no idea what to do or whether I'm in danger of blowing the tyres up. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks!

Comments

[pavlos.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what British service stations are like. In most parts of Europe there is a self-service (and free) compressed air machine somewhere off the pump area, usually close to the car wash. The machine maintains a reservoir of compressed air automatically, and you just use it as a dispenser.

Car tyres are inflated to something between 2 and 3 bars. Not that much. I believe street cycles take more, and generally the smaller the tyre the higher the pessure. Plese do check what your tyres take.

Garage compressors should be able to give you at least 5-6 bars. There's usually a pressure gauge and +/- valves, and you have to get the pressure right yourself. You do have to be careful not to blow up the tyre, but it's not hard so long as you use short bursts.