RAPID RESPONSE

BIG RED GEAR'S TWIN-HEAD AIR COMPRESSOR AND QUAD-FLATE HOSE KIT DELIVER QUICK, CLEAN TYRE INFLATION AND DEFLATION WITH QUALITY HARDWARE AND TIME-SAVING DESIGN - NO TANK NEEDED

- WORDS + PICS MARK ALLEN

For more than 40 years, I've been pumping up tyres the slow way. Back in the day - as a teenager - I relied on my old man’s trusty foot pump. Thirty to 40 minutes of leg work just to bring pressures back up after a weekend of low-psi fun. Hard yakka, but it did the job.

Then came the game changer: my first single-head 12V compressor. At the time, I felt like king of the track, kicking back while it did the hard work for me. Since then, I've owned a few different models - all single-cylinder - and never really felt the urge to upgrade.

Sure, I've tested plenty of twin-head units over the years, ranging from bargain-bin specials to top-shelf monsters. But none ever tempted me enough to make the switch.

HOSES AND ATTACHMENTS

Then came the era of inflation kits - head units, multi-hose systems and all sorts of fancy gizmos claiming to make tyre inflation quicker and easier.

Sure, some did streamline the job, but having a compressor, a control unit and four separate hoses to unwind, store and inevitably untangle just didn't make sense to me. Add in all the extra gear you need to carry, and suddenly a basic job turns into a storage hog - all for marginal time savings.

LIGHT BULB MOMENT

While trawling through the usual sea of aftermarket accessories, the Big Red Gear twin-head air compressor caught my eye. For the price, it looked impressive - especially with features like auto cutoff when a preset digital pressure is reached. Add the optional Quad-Flate kit, and you get rapid deflation capability too - a big plus in my books.

The real clincher? Unlike most four-tyre inflation setups that use four separate hoses, this one runs all four tyres with just two. Now that's a system I actually wanted to try.