Are there any more free air pumps in Toronto?

Many of them will fill your tires for free AND you have a lot more control on the air pressure.

Or just buy a floor pump.

I've never heard of any requirement for service stations to offer free air to bikes.

I wish more provided free air, it's important for car drivers to maintain proper pressure to save the life of their tires and not waste fuel.

The Loblaws gas station at Victoria Park and Gerrard has one but it's awfully slow. I imagine there's a handful of others but they're becoming rare.

I have a floor pump at home, and almost always carry a simple tool kit and pump (Topeak Mountain Morph) when I'm on my bike. Simple fixes and flats are rarely a problem.

Any respectable bike shop will let you pump up too.

I know that the gas station on the east side of Spadina just north of front has a free air pump and there is a bike shop on the south side of Bloor just east of Ossington that has a free air pump hose hanging out the right side of its door. I know Two Wheels in the market used to have one - I don't know if it still there or not.

It would great to get all the locations everyone knows about all mapped out on google maps or something.

At MEC get a cartridge inflator for under $10, a tube for $3, tire levers for $4, and a wee bag for $8: $25. Get an MEC home-pump for $25. Better yet, go to Urbane for a pair of puncture resistant tires for $50. $100 and you're set for everything (less than two tanks of gas in a Civic).

too bad Igor's gone - he used to do that

I am sure all of the pro-Igor comments are coming from one person. Igor, or one of his crackheads, I don't know.

"Sure" (according to Oxford) : having or seeming to have adequate reason for a belief or assertion.

Fact:
There are multiple "pro-Igor" or "alternative" comments in the forum on bike theft.

Fact:
I'm pretty "sure" that prisoners being held at the Don Jail don't have their own computer stations.

Fact:
I'm also pretty "sure" that most crackheads are illiterate and/or too high to form a sentence.

still so sure?

I personally leave my compressor hose dangling from the side of my garage so that any of the local kids or anyone that needs air can just fill up and i carry a small hand pump when i ride i also stop to see if another cyclist looks like he needs help if we all work together the need for gas stations to supply free air wouldn't be an issue as there whinin about having to maintain the pumps and pay the electricity i don't think there asking to much for us to pay 50 cents to use them if we need em

Anonymous, you need to find someone to give you some. Just pay for it if you have to.

...at least in my neck of the woods, there are some. The Shell stations at Huntingwood/Midland, Brimley/Finch and McCowan/Pitfield have free air. But you cannot count on the pumps working well: more often than not, I found they do not seal when connected to the valve.

Best thing: get your own pump. Maybe a big one at home and a little one for emergencies on the road. Not only will you then live free from "implied debt" to the gas stations, but you may even become a hero to some poor rider along your route who has a flat but no pump.

Out in Oakville, I'm not certain if there are any free pumps left, of course most gas stations out here aren't in particulary safe places for cyclist to access anyway. I now check my car's tyre pressure at home and use the bike floor pump for it, too.

In the alley back of Curbside on Bloor near Brunswick, they've got their hose/pump available and I think they leave it on all night. It's saved my trip at times, though it's a darker alley, so some might be a bit uneasy. I think the Kensington shop also has theirs out/available though I'm unsure.
Thanks Don/Curbside - big help!

There is free air pump at the gas station east of martin grove on eglinton.

Hope that helps.

Urbane Cyclist still had free air last time I was in the shop, though you might have to ask at the counter for a Presta converter if you need one (and don't carry your own.)

At one point the regulation that allowed gas stations to charge for air also stipulated that air also had to be made available for free, that is some override or alternate supply of free compressed air be made available. This was so that kids with bikes, balls, etc would not have to pay for air.

Personally I have an objection to paying for air. We already pay for water, but at least the water we pay for is clean, potable water. I'll buy and pay for refined, compressed air, in fact I have a tank of helium in my garage for filling birthday balloons for my wife's daycare kids. But I'll not pay for compressed dirty air that I breathe.

I'd threaten, and follow up my threat, to call the customer service head office, and also to your local MP/MPP, because I don't know if the regulation is provincial or federal. I'd compain to both for good measure. ;-) Let them sort out whose jurisdiction this falls under.

I don't mind paying for air, I just don't like how they force a 'charitable donation' on you. its only .50/$1 but its the principle. A forced donation isn't a donation, it's extortion. call it what it is; a charge. That and if i make a donation, i want a receipt. Have you seen air pumps that give receipts?

My 0.02

At Dupont & Bathurst has free air

You think you got it bad? I had a slow leak in Niagara last fall and stopped into a rural bike store for help. I asked if he had an air pump, and he looked at me suspiciously and said "no, we don't have one of those."

I recently purchased some Mr. Tuffy tire liners from MEC - some people I trust swear by them. Prior to that I had 5 flats between September - December.

I carry a tube and a pump in my bag - plus a patch kit if needed.

Gas stations have always turned the pump on for me when I ask - no quarter.

Urbane has a pump at the front of the store, so does the Cyclepath on Danforth.

I find it hard to believe that a cyclist in a rural area -- or the city for that matter -- would ride without a pump (and the means to fix a flat). Frame pumps are unobtrusive, cheap, and very reliable: carrying one sure beats the l_o_n_g walk home.

Ignore

Oh, don't get me wrong, I had a pump. I just find those tiny portable ones a bother, so I'd rather stop for air.

The other part of the story was that the bike shop was attached to his home, so I think I startled him dozing there sleeveless in his Lay-Z-Boy!

Scenario: four men set out for Niagara on their bikes. They breakdown in some remote woods atop the escarpment. Suddenly a man with dirty hands and a gun emerges from the brush... Do grape farmers too like to "squeal like a pig?"!