Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

TECH NEWS

milKit Booster aims to make tubeless tyre inflation easy - just launched on Kickstarter

Swiss company releases its own tubeless inflator on Kickstarter

Tubeless tyres are great - fewer punctures being one of their big trump cards - but they can occasionally be an absolute sod to get installed properly. Thankfully tyre and rim compatibility is getting better all the time, and there’s a wide range of tubeless pumps and canisters now available that help a lot with the sometimes tricky initial inflation.

milKit reckons its brand new Booster eliminates all tubeless tyre installation woes and is easier to use, more efficient, lighter and less expensive than other products currently available. It has just launched on Kickstarter where the company is hoping to get CHF 30,000 funding to put it fully into production. We have no doubt it'll comfortably meet its target.

milKit tubeless booster n2.jpg

milKit has form in producing products that make going tubeless easier, just read our review of the excellent Tubeless Valve and Refill kit to see what we mean. The Swiss company’s new Booster is basically a tubeless inflation system, of which there are now quite a few available on the market, but it's smaller and potentially easier to use. If you're not sure what a tubeless inflator is, it's essentially a sealed chamber that you top up with air using a standard pump, then release it all in one go to rapidly inflate the tyre and pop the tyre bead so that it forms an airtight seal with the rim.

- 14 of the best cycling tyre pumps and CO2 inflators

To operate you simply inflate the Booster with a standard track pump, then attach it to the tubeless valve with the valve core removed, and release the air. The Booster looks to be well designed and because there are no hoses or extra valves milKit reckons it works more efficiently than other tubeless inflators. It's much smaller than other tubeless inflators though, and we reckon it will appeal to mountain bikers and adventure cyclists that might want to take it with them as a spare, just in case they need to reinflate a tubeless tyre out in the wild.

milKit tubeless booster n1.jpg

And that's made possible because a neat trick up the Boosters sleeve is that it can be used with a reinforced version of a standard aluminium drinking bottle like SIGG or MSR. milKit has, of course, developed a specific canister to attach to the valve, with two sizes available. It naturally works well with milKit’s existing Tubeless Valve and Refill kit but is compatible with any other tubeless system.

"Many tubeless users and bike mechanics approached us and said that they loved the milKit valve system, and asked if we couldn't also find an easy solution to the one problem remaining with tubeless tires: inflating them without having to use a compressor," says Pius Kobler, co-founder and CTO at milKit. "This inspired us to develop the Booster.”

It would seem milKit is on a mission to make road tubeless easier for the masses. We previously tested the Tubeless Valve and Refill kit which makes filling tyres with sealant easier, as well as also making checking the level of sealant several months down the road possible without having to remove the tyre. You can read Mike Stead’s enthusiastic review here.

Interested? The milKit Booster will cost €49 for the large bottle size, and a little less for the smaller bottle, but you can currently pick it up on Kickstarter where the company has decided to launch the Booster, and with a small size canister it is going for €40.

Check out the Kickstarter campaign here 

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

Add new comment

11 comments

Avatar
Another David | 6 years ago
0 likes

Tubeless has been a godsend for me, haven't had a flat since started using it. Tubes? I was having a flat every month or so. But, and there might be many in my situation, my failing eyesight and the start of arthritis makes it impossible for me to fix or change a tube on the side of the trail. Tubeless and something like this Milkit or even a couple air canisters and I'm on my way home.

Avatar
bobinski replied to Another David | 6 years ago
0 likes

Another David wrote:

Tubeless has been a godsend for me, haven't had a flat since started using it. Tubes? I was having a flat every month or so. But, and there might be many in my situation, my failing eyesight and the start of arthritis makes it impossible for me to fix or change a tube on the side of the trail. Tubeless and something like this Milkit or even a couple air canisters and I'm on my way home.

 

I agree with you. I never thought failing eye sight would impact on cycling but unless I carry reading glasses I would be in same position- trying to fix a tube puncture and struggling to see what I was doing, glue going everywhere! Tubeless a godsend for me too.

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 6 years ago
0 likes

I've never removed the valve core to inflate tubeless - maybe I'll give that a try the next time I have a difficult tyre.

Avatar
Leviathan | 6 years ago
0 likes

MilKit, MilkIt, MilKit, MilkIt?

Avatar
Dr_Lex replied to Leviathan | 6 years ago
1 like

Gerroff and

Leviathan wrote:

MilKit, MilkIt, MilKit, MilkIt?

Avatar
StraelGuy | 6 years ago
2 likes

Don't under-estimate two-litre pop bottles, there's a guy on youtube who tested a few and they'll hold 180-200 psi quite easily.

Avatar
check12 | 6 years ago
0 likes

Doesn't seem that good a deal to get it via kuckstarter or am I missing something?

Avatar
Gkam84 | 6 years ago
0 likes

The article is wrong, even the video on kickstarter states, it can be used with or without a valve core installed.

Avatar
nniff | 6 years ago
1 like

My tubeless tyres pop off the rim when the pressure gets down to about 20 psi, so if you have  to remove the core from the tyre then this will be a lesson in futility. (Schwalbe Pro 1 on Stan's Alpha).

My tubeless inflation kit includes:

- a large fizzy pop bottle - more than enough at 100psi to inflate a tyre.  As far as I can tell, they don't go bang if they fail - they just go fsssssssssssssssssssssss.

- a fizzy pop bottle lid fitted with two valves - one with a core and one without

- a length of car fuel hose and a hair toggle to hold it folded in half, to connect the bottle to the wheel.

- a large vet's syringe and length of narrow tubing for measuring and dispensing sealant thorugh the valve (ex core)

- a cheap old fashioned bike pump for injecting more sealant through the valve when it's mostly sprayed all over the bike and me before sealing, without all of the faff of reseating the whole thing using the above.

- an inner tube under the saddle for when it all fails out on the road.

 

Total cost? - nothing - all bits out of the recycling and the back of the garage, or  scrounged from a vetty son who had previously done something to a horse with it.

Avatar
. . replied to nniff | 6 years ago
0 likes

nniff wrote:

As far as I can tell, they don't go bang if they fail - they just go fsssssssssssssssssssssss.

I suspect two litres of air at 100psi could go bang in a very big, eye-extracting, way. 

Mine is wrapped in gaffer tape, and then in an old towel.  I tested it to 120 psi after filling with water.

Avatar
mike the bike replied to . . | 6 years ago
2 likes

. . wrote:

...... Mine is wrapped in gaffer tape, and then in an old towel.  I tested it to 120 psi after filling with water. 

You have obviously never been bound with gaffer tape and whipped with an old towel.  I can give you the number of a lady who might introduce you to this, and other, practices.

Latest Comments