Anybody tried Clik tire valves?

Jeremy McCreary

Jeremy McCreary

Bought it anyway
Region
USA
City
Carlsbad, CA
Just learned about the new Schwalbe-backed bike tire valve standard called "Clik" from this video, starting at 11:05:


Anybody tried Cliks yet? Can they really just replace your presta cores?

If you want to see why a new valve standard like Clik might be a good idea, watch from the beginning — especially if presta valves give you murderous thoughts. Interesting history along the way.
 
Everybody in my community uses Presta valves (tubed or tubeless), and no one reports issues with the type. Any modern sporty bike comes with Presta. I myself have never experienced any problems with this type of valve.
It is so sad to see how a reactionary influential youtuber is gaslighting his viewers. According to Seth, you shall ride the 3x drivetrain, use Schrader valves and at best convert your existing MTB into an e-bike using Bimotal system. Now, you feel compelled to try the Click system.
I asked YouTube to never show me that stupid face again.

If Presta were so hopeless, it would be no reason for the industry to provide any expensive bike with this type of valve. Guys, please be reasonable.

The best YT comment:
@sjanzeir
1 day ago (edited)
Here's the thing: most people think that in order to inflate a tire with a Presta valve, you're going to need to unscrew the valve nut all the way out. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact it is doing just that - spinning the nut all the way out - that gives the air chuck/pump head the leverage to bend the valve stem as you attach it to and detach it from the valve. As soon as I realized what it was that I was doing wrong and stopped opening the nut all the way to pump up the tire, I no longer had any issues with bent valve stems. You only need to spin the nut out about one and a half to two turns to get full air flow through the valve and into the tire.

1742973520305.png

None of the fifty guys in this picture had anything else than Presta on their bike. I helped one of them to replace the inner tube during the ride.
 
Last edited:
I've used Presta for decades and haven't had any major issues, but they are far from perfect. The stems are weak and I have had rocks kick through the rims on my MTB and actually snap the stem in half. I've had the valve rip off a few times while removing the pumphead (super annoying when you're rushing to get ready for a ride). Cheap ones are prone to leaking. Without a cap, the valve is sharp and can puncture rolled up tubes. They don't allow a lot of air through for seating tubeless tires (I generally have to remove the core to get enough volume to seat). They are sometimes prone to clogging with sealant.

That said, they have the major advantage of being what everyone runs, so everyone has pumps that attach to them. I'm usually self sufficient in the pump department, but theres a lot of value to having peace of mind knowing that pretty much every cyclist I ride with or meet could spot me air if I need it. Plus I have a drawer of valves and tubes and nice pumps already setup for presta.

Interestingly I did know several people who ran schraeder tubes on their downhill bikes in the 2000s. They found them to be more reliable, and at the time downhill rims were about the only ones wide enough to actually drill out for the larger schraeder hole. Nowadays even road bikes run pretty wide rims can can probably accommodate schraeder...
 
and if you do not want to guestimated when your city-bike tyre needs to be inflated we do carry those:
8715957574895_1_1.jpg


most "city"-bikes are setup with tyres who would run at 4 bar so when there is a schrader valve you just have to look at the cap to see that you would need to put some pressure in...

Carqon_Cruise_USP2.jpg


like you can see on this front wheel
 
jabberwocky said:
I've used Presta for decades and haven't had any major issues, but they are far from perfect. The stems are weak and I have had rocks kick through the rims on my MTB and actually snap the stem in half. I've had the valve rip off a few times while removing the pumphead (super annoying when you're rushing to get ready for a ride). Cheap ones are prone to leaking. Without a cap, the valve is sharp and can puncture rolled up tubes. They don't allow a lot of air through for seating tubeless tires (I generally have to remove the core to get enough volume to seat). They are sometimes prone to clogging with sealant.

That said, they have the major advantage of being what everyone runs, so everyone has pumps that attach to them. I'm usually self sufficient in the pump department, but theres a lot of value to having peace of mind knowing that pretty much every cyclist I ride with or meet could spot me air if I need it. Plus I have a drawer of valves and tubes and nice pumps already setup for presta.

Interestingly I did know several people who ran schraeder tubes on their downhill bikes in the 2000s. They found them to be more reliable, and at the time downhill rims were about the only ones wide enough to actually drill out for the larger schraeder hole. Nowadays even road bikes run pretty wide rims can can probably accommodate schraeder...
Click to expand...

Back in the 80s it was more clear cut. Road bikes = Presta and mountain bikes = schrader. I took it was because the 700c x 19 or 22mm tyres or tubulars were smaller and delicate and high pressure & of course European standards. MTB was American and the schrader valves seemed more robust for off road riding on the 26" rims with the massive 1.9" tyres!

This was the era where you rode Italian for road racing Colnago etc if you could afford it and US mtbs. Even though all the mainstream European bike brands had their own mtbs by then they were not cool. Even Colnago had an mtb! That's where the money was. Likewise the new alloy Specialized road bikes when they came in seemed cheap and uncool. Kind of crass compared to the Italian elegance. Wouldn't have been seen dead on one. Frame sizes and tyre sizes were metric for road bikes, imperial for mtb. And never the twain should meet. If I thought about it at all I assumed tyre valves were a continuation of that.
 
Rás Cnoic said:
Back in the 80s it was more clear cut. Road bikes = Presta and mountain bikes = schrader. I took it was because the 700c x 19 or 22mm tyres or tubulars were smaller and delicate and high pressure & of course European standards. MTB was American and the schrader valves seemed more robust for off road riding on the 26" rims with the massive 1.9" tyres!

This was the era where you rode Italian for road racing Colnago etc if you could afford it and US mtbs. Even though all the mainstream European bike brands had their own mtbs by then they were not cool. Even Colnago had an mtb! That's where the money was. Likewise the new alloy Specialized road bikes when they came in seemed cheap and uncool. Kind of crass compared to the Italian elegance. Wouldn't have been seen dead on one. Frame sizes and tyre sizes were metric for road bikes, imperial for mtb. And never the twain should meet. If I thought about it at all I assumed tyre valves were a continuation of that.
Click to expand...

Interesting. When I started MTBing in 2003, you could find schrader valves on entry level MTBs. I think my first bike (Giant Rainier) came with them. So even then, not totally depreciated. Pretty sure I have a few schrader tubes in the tube drawer, though I can't remember what bike they were bought for.

I've had people tell me that presta is better for high pressure, but every suspension component I've ever owned with an air spring uses schrader, and some of those run hundreds of psi.

Personally, there just a ton of inertia in my collection. It would have to be a pretty substantial improvement before I'd go to the effort of standardizing the entire collection of bikes (11 between my wife and I) to something new. I have two floor pumps, two pumps connected to my air compressor, every non-mtb has its own portable pump attached to the frame somewhere and each of my two mtb bags have a portable pump in them. Thats... just a lot of stuff to upgrade.
 
I am not immune to progress.
I dislike having to reach for tools just to inflate my tires every week.
If they suck I'll say it. If they're an improvement I'll say it.
Nobody is forcing anyone to try something new.
I am curious, and if it's a fail, well then we all learned something.
Sorry, not sorry. :)
 
jabberwocky said:
Interesting. When I started MTBing in 2003, you could find schrader valves on entry level MTBs. I think my first bike (Giant Rainier) came with them. So even then, not totally depreciated. Pretty sure I have a few schrader tubes in the tube drawer, though I can't remember what bike they were bought for.

I've had people tell me that presta is better for high pressure, but every suspension component I've ever owned with an air spring uses schrader, and some of those run hundreds of psi.

Personally, there just a ton of inertia in my collection. It would have to be a pretty substantial improvement before I'd go to the effort of standardizing the entire collection of bikes (11 between my wife and I) to something new. I have two floor pumps, two pumps connected to my air compressor, every non-mtb has its own portable pump attached to the frame somewhere and each of my two mtb bags have a portable pump in them. Thats... just a lot of stuff to upgrade.
Click to expand...
Yeah I've a drawer full of spare tubes. Still have a couple 26er mtbs and pretty sure I have presta & schrader tubes in there for them. Thing is most pumps come with 2 interchangeable connectors so it's never an issue and I've never fussed over which I use as long as they work. Even have a couple of that other valve is it Dutch? That are no good to me and gathering dust bought on eBay by mistake. Couldn't believe how cheap they were so quickly grabbed a bargain!

What I would really like and they are testing this currently in the pro peloton, is an automatic pump so as you ride from road to trail and back again you just press a button on the bars and a pump in the hub inflates or deflates your tyres to a preset psi. Saw something about them testing this, might have been last year's Paris Roubaix with those vicious cobbles, but obviously it's a very complicated device.

But how handy would that be!!
 
jabberwocky said:
The main argument against Clik as a long term industry replacement is that it seems to be a proprietary, patent protected standard. Hard to imagine the industry as a whole jumping onto it when they have to pay Schwalbe to license the tech to actually produce anything, even if its technically superior.
Click to expand...
I can understand that.
That said, I do not have a huge fleet of bicycles, I just have one. And if this innovation works, life will be slightly less of a PITA.
:D
 
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