Review Methodology

I want to explain my review methodology so that you, the reader, can get the most value from my reviews. The reviews that I conduct are geared towards the cyclist who, like me, probably rides more than 2,000 miles per year. We are considered dedicated cyclists who ride alone or in groups; and, we will typically average somewhere between 16mph and 26mph over a 30 to 50 mile ride. We compete with ourselves by trying to ride farther and/or faster than previous rides; or, we may compete with other dedicated cyclists. In addition to our regular rides, we also typically engage in the occasional century, sportive, gran fondo, and possibly an official race or time trial. This type of cyclist is more than a casual or recreational rider and could even be an amateur racer.

Even if you do not fit within this broad category of dedicated cyclist you still should find value in these reviews. I approach each review as I approach researching my own purchases of cycling products that I use or want to use. Like other dedicated cyclists, I want to find products of high quality that are priced fairly and that will provide some benefit to my cycling. Like some dedicated cyclists I often ride alone and I cannot afford for products to fail when I am far from home. Also, there is the safety aspect to consider as some products can directly affect the safety of a ride such as a helmet, wheels, or tires.

I review each product thoroughly before I decide to purchase. My reviews are based on factors such as quality, design, and cost. After I purchase, I look at ease of installation, clarity of instructions, quality of design and construction, and whether the product performs as described. For my reviews I break all of these factors into four categories: Installation, Usage, Quality, and Cost. I then summarize each of these categories and give a positive or negative recommendation for purchase.

For each of these four categories I will assign a rating from one to five stars. Here is what each of these five ratings generally mean:
1 Star  - This is the lowest possible rating and indicates that products rates very poor. This indicates that you should look to another product for your needs.
2 Stars – This rating indicates that the product is above poor but doesn’t meet the average. This typically means that there are better choices available.
3 Stars - This rating indicates that the product is average. It may be ok for the recreational rider or even the dedicated cyclist depending on the category in question. For example, a product could rate this level in cost but be excellent in quality. Each person will have to determine which category is more important.
4 Stars - This rating indicates that the product is above average and is a good choice.
5 Stars - This rating indicates that the product is the best in its category. I try to only give one product this rating per category, but there may be occasions where more than one product could achieve this level.

For me, the research that goes into each product not only helps me determine what to purchase, but also enables me to learn more about cycling in the process. So, I hope that you will find reading these reviews as valuable as I have found in writing them. 

Review – Topeak Presta Valve Extender

There may come an occasion where the inner tubes that you are using do not have a valve long enough for your deep section rims. On these occasions you can purchase inner tubes with longer valve stems or you can purchase a valve extender.

In this review I will look at the Topeak Presta valve extender for Presta valves without a removable core (See Figure 1 below). If you are new to my review methodology please read my article (here) that explains how I conduct my reviews and score the products that I review.

Figure 1

Setup

For this review I used the Topeak Presta valve extender with Vitoria inner tubes with non-removable cores, Vitoria Rubino tires, and Zipp 303 NSWs. The Vitoria inner tubes that I used for this review come with a standard length Presta valve with non-removable core which is too short for the Zipp 303 NSW 45mm rim depth as you can below in figure 2.

Figure 2

Installation

I installed the Topeak Presta valve extender by screwing the extender directly onto the Presta valve. The extension gave plenty of room above my rim (See Figure 3 below).

Figure 3

The instructions, found on the Topeak’s website (here for the standard length and here for the XL length) and located in the packaging, were easy to follow. The Topeak Presta valve extender screwed easily onto my Presta valve and fit the hole in the Zipp 303 NSW rim just fine.

Usage

Overall I found that using the Topeak Presta valve extender was not difficult. When using the Topeak Presta valve extender valve lock to open and close the air valve on my Presta valve, it worked very well. I did notice that sometimes I had to put a little bit of downward pressure on the valve lock for it to grab my Presta valve lock underneath; but, I do not think this is an issue. However, I did have some minor challenges placing my pump nozzle onto the Topeak Presta valve extender and locking it to the Topeak Presta valve extender. And, I had similar issues when removing my pump nozzle from the Topeak Presta valve extender. Locking and unlocking the pump nozzle was challenging due to the length of the Topeak Presta valve extender and how high above the rim it extended. This caused the Topeak Presta valve extender shaft to be wobbly as you place or remove the pump nozzle from the Topeak Presta valve extender. With a deeper rim this most likely would not have been a problem; but, this was the smallest valve extender that Topeak offered. The other issue I noticed is due to what I consider a design flaw which I discuss in the next section; however, you will want to be careful seating your pump nozzle onto the Topeak Presta valve extender and have a firm grip on the Topeak Presta valve extender when you remove your pump nozzle.

Quality

Typically you can expect good design and quality from Topeak; however, in this instance they did not meet with their usual high quality. On the Topeak website is states that these Topeak Presta valve extenders are “Precision machined from aircraft grade aluminum…” That appears to be true to a point. While the outer casing and the valve lock nut appear to be made from aluminum and of good quality, the inner part that screws onto the Presta valve is made of plastic. It was nearly impossible to get a good photo of this but you should be able to see the issue in Figure 4 below.

Figure 4

If you look closely at Figure 4, you can see the darker color of the outer aluminum wall and the lighter color of the inner plastic. Since you are screwing grooved plastic onto a metal grooved valve, you can imagine that the plastic will not last long. In fact, in my testing I noticed after a few uses that one of the valves seemed to be leaking. Upon removing the Topeak Presta valve extender to determine what the issue was, the grooved plastic fell out of the aluminum shaft. I was unable to reseat the plastic insert and get the Topeak Presta valve extender to work after this happened. A second Topeak Presta valve extender that was purchased at the same time has not yet had this problem although I have now been extremely careful when installing or removing the Topeak Presta valve extender and installing or removing the pump nozzle from the valve extender. Based upon this experience and how this product is designed, I have to give this product a low mark for design and quality which is unusual for a Topeak product.

Cost

The cost for this product is average for this type of product. At the time this article was written I found the smaller version of the Topeak Presta valve extender at: Performance Bicycle listed (here) for $5.99, Chain Reaction Cycles listed (here) for $6.95, and at Amazon Prime (here) for $6.49.

Summary

In summary, for Installation I give it five out of five Stars; for Usage I give it four out of five Stars, for Quality I give it two out of five Stars, and for Cost I give it four out of five Stars. This is not the most expensive product in this range nor is it the cheapest; but, for the price, and considering the manufacturer, I expected a better product. In conclusion, given my experiences with the quality, I cannot recommend this product at this time.    

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Calendar Updates 2018

The 2018 Mid-Atlantic TT Race series and the 2018 MABRA Road Cup series have been added to the calendar.

Let us know if there are races or rides that we are missing.