There are a whole lot of reasons to have this tool.
If you’re part of a household with multiple bicycles and frequent use, you inflate (or you should) plenty of tires. Our home service course contains road, time trial, cyclocross, mountain, and track bikes at the ready….for two people (and sometimes neighbors and friends). A good floor pump is adequate for the job, and is still a must have, but a compressor with the Park Shop Inflator speeds the process and eases the effort.
My intitial motivation to add this to the tool box was shoulder surgery. Even with an effecient floor pump, it was taxing at times to prep for rides. Add in the need to seat tubeless tires, and it became essential.
From the folks at Park: “Used in conjunction with an air compressor and hose, the INF-2 can pump up any bicycle tire in seconds. Features a durable, dual-sided head that is compatible with Presta and Schrader valves and rotates 360 degrees to access valve stems at any angle. The lightweight body is ergonomically-shaped, with an integrated hook for easy hanging and an easy-to-read built-in pressure gauge with a protective rubber boot. Great for bike shops, races, events, and especially useful for seating tubeless tire systems, especially MTB and fat tire setups. Built for everyday shop use and 100% rebuildable.”
We have no arguments with their description. We paired the tool with an older (but quite capable) Kawasaki compressor. We’ve experienced no leakage from the inflator, and found the swivel on the head to be a key feature. We compared the guage to our hand -helds and it checks accurate. The presta side will get the majority of usage. The gasket connects quite well, and while easy to replace, seems very durable. Again, this is a shop quality tool.
The only negative I’ve found (and it’s small and somewhat exotic) is inserting a disc adapter to inflate Time Trial wheels. You can push a Silca style adapter into the INF-2 to get a loose fit and bring the tire up to near optimum, but you’ll likely need a floor pump/adapter to finish. We are looking into some other style adapters as possible solutions.
The tool can be found for less than $150 and of course you must have a compressor. Worth it? Yes.