Zilch Reinvents the Bike Pump Head for Easiest One-Handed Inflation

For the reason that invention of the pneumatic bicycle tire, riders have been compelled to air up their rides. At this level, there are a number of totally different bike pump head designs, however for Fernando Tages, the Founding father of Radian USA/Chainlift, there needed to be a greater method. It’s a basic story, man will get uninterested in a problem he faces every single day, and decides to discover a option to repair it.

Uninterested in scuffling with current pump heads and shedding air when eradicating the chuck from the valve, Fernando determined to place his 30+ years of product design and manufacturing to make use of and Radian USA got here up with Zilch. That’s, a fairly attention-grabbing bike pump known as the Zilch.

It’s value mentioning that this isn’t Radian USA’s first rodeo. We wrote in regards to the model in 2020 with their Chainlift machine, which is a singular instrument to assist with bicycle upkeep. Now, with Zilch, Radian USA is poised to achieve much more shoppers with a patented pump design that appears like a house run.

The primary aim of Zilch is to make tire inflation simpler. Most pump heads both require you to power the valve by means of a rubber grommet or to make use of two fingers to function a locking mechanism on the chuck. Zilch makes use of a one-handed design that goes onto the valve with zero effort.

That’s as a result of till you lock the deal with in place, there may be nothing to the touch the valve. The Zilch head makes use of a patented auto-locking lever with a diametral seal design with two sides that squeeze onto the (presta) valve. If you’ve inflated the tire, a squeeze of the lever unlocks it, and prevents any air from escaping from the valve. Once more, there may be nothing touching the valve at this level, so you’ll be able to effortlessly take away the chuck from the valve–no extra struggling to take away the pump, solely have it launch and jerk your hand into the cassette enamel.

What about Schrader valves? Zilch works with Schrader valves, however you will need to use one of many included adapters. These adapters thread onto the Schrader valve and will be left in place with out air loss. The identical is true for Dunlop valves.

Packing a lifetime guarantee for the pump head, the Zilch head can be totally user-rebuildable with replaceable elements.

Offered solely as a part of a whole flooring pump or store inflators, the ground pump has some attention-grabbing options as nicely. A fast docking characteristic for the pump head ensures that it stays in place on the pump deal with and able to seize at a second’s discover. The pump deal with additionally has an auto-centering characteristic to return it to the identical place so the pump head dock is at all times there. A big triangular base helps to stop tipping, and if it does tip, rubber ends on the deal with ought to stop harm. The deal with additionally acts as storage for the included adapters for Schrader valves (2x) and a needle inflator.

At present holding three patents within the U.S. and with a number of patents pending internationally, the Zilch pump head has additionally been acknowledged with a 2025 Design and Innovation award.