Anyname
Active member
Last week I posted that Zagg (apparently the parent company of Halo) was having a sale of Lithium Ion jump starters. The Air Bolt seemed interesting in that it combined a jump starter, tire pump, flashlight/warning light and USB charger into a single unit. While I was a bit concerned that the integral tire pump might not prove adequate to filling a flat motorcycle tire without melting, the sale price of $69 (down from $129) was too good to pass up. When another member expressed the same concern over the tire pump, I said I'd let you know how it performed. It arrived this afternoon, so here it goes.
For the attention challenged members, the short answer is that it works well.
For the more detail oriented:
The unit is a fraction smaller than 9 1/2" long, 4 5/8" wide and 1 7/8" thick
The bare unit with only the short integral hose weighs 2lbs, 8ozs. With all of the accessories including the manual it weighs 3lbs, 7ozs.
The kit includes this stuff:
The main unit
AC charger
12volt cigarette lighter charger
Micro USB charging cable (for charging phones etc.)
A sack of odd little adapters for inflating air mattresses, basket balls etc.
The jumper cable attachments
An extension air hose said to be 24" (I didn't measure it)
The manual and the cloth bag. The bag is simple cloth and if I put the unit in bike luggage I'll want to work out more protection.
I did not test the unit's ability to start a car or motorcycle with a dead battery. I have a similar unit from another vendor and it started a neighbor's car with a dead battery surprisingly well.
I tried out the LED flashlight and it seems to have usefully bright and wide beam. The red beam was equally bright and also had a blinking red light option.
The unit has (2) 5V 2.4Amp USB A ports. That should charge most portable devices fairly fast.
With regards to the tire pump, the unit has an integral hose about 8" long with a thread-on Schrader adapter. The extension hose threads into this and has a toggle type connector to the vehicle tire. I should add that the connector fits tightly and disconnects cleanly with little loss of pressure. The combined length allowed me to place the unit on the seat of my R1200R and still reach the rear tire filler.
My first test was topping-off the tires on my wife's electric bicycle. You press the "units" button to activate the device and select the pressure units PSI, KPA, BAR or kg/cm2. The desired pressure is entered by pressing +/- buttons. The pump will shut off when it reaches the required pressure. Then connect the hose and press the "Air" button to start the pump. The device added about 10 PSI to two largish bicycle tires in about 20 seconds each and the charge meter still showed 100% after both.
The second test was on the R1200R's 180/55 X 17 rear tire. I deflated the tire until the hissing stopped and attached the hose. The unit agreed that the tire had zero PSI pressure. I set the pressure to 43PSI (BMW specs 42.1PSI). I pressed start and started my watch's stop watch function. It took almost exactly 5 minutes to reach 37PSI at which point the unit stopped. The instructions say that it will stop if it is too cold or hot. The case was only warm, so I waited about 3 minutes and restarted. It took another 50 seconds to reach 43 PSI. At that point the unit's case was slightly hot near the pump, but not too hot to comfortably hold. The instructions say that the unit will display a "Temp" message, but mine just shut off. I was handling the unit at the time so perhaps I triggered the shut off. Either way, a total of either 5 minutes 50 seconds or 9 minutes, including cool down, to fully fill a deflated tire seems reasonable to me.
The fitting disengaged with little loss of air and my digital gauge measured the pressure at 40.6PSI. I have no way of knowing which gauge is most correct, but agreement within 2PSI seems OK. The unit's battery charge meter was still showing 94% of the charge remaining.
The instructions claim you should get 4 accessory inflation adapters. As the photo shows, mine came with 10. My lucky day...
The bad news is that the sale is over and the price has gone back up to $129.
For the attention challenged members, the short answer is that it works well.
For the more detail oriented:
The unit is a fraction smaller than 9 1/2" long, 4 5/8" wide and 1 7/8" thick
The bare unit with only the short integral hose weighs 2lbs, 8ozs. With all of the accessories including the manual it weighs 3lbs, 7ozs.
The kit includes this stuff:
The main unit
AC charger
12volt cigarette lighter charger
Micro USB charging cable (for charging phones etc.)
A sack of odd little adapters for inflating air mattresses, basket balls etc.
The jumper cable attachments
An extension air hose said to be 24" (I didn't measure it)
The manual and the cloth bag. The bag is simple cloth and if I put the unit in bike luggage I'll want to work out more protection.
I did not test the unit's ability to start a car or motorcycle with a dead battery. I have a similar unit from another vendor and it started a neighbor's car with a dead battery surprisingly well.
I tried out the LED flashlight and it seems to have usefully bright and wide beam. The red beam was equally bright and also had a blinking red light option.
The unit has (2) 5V 2.4Amp USB A ports. That should charge most portable devices fairly fast.
With regards to the tire pump, the unit has an integral hose about 8" long with a thread-on Schrader adapter. The extension hose threads into this and has a toggle type connector to the vehicle tire. I should add that the connector fits tightly and disconnects cleanly with little loss of pressure. The combined length allowed me to place the unit on the seat of my R1200R and still reach the rear tire filler.
My first test was topping-off the tires on my wife's electric bicycle. You press the "units" button to activate the device and select the pressure units PSI, KPA, BAR or kg/cm2. The desired pressure is entered by pressing +/- buttons. The pump will shut off when it reaches the required pressure. Then connect the hose and press the "Air" button to start the pump. The device added about 10 PSI to two largish bicycle tires in about 20 seconds each and the charge meter still showed 100% after both.
The second test was on the R1200R's 180/55 X 17 rear tire. I deflated the tire until the hissing stopped and attached the hose. The unit agreed that the tire had zero PSI pressure. I set the pressure to 43PSI (BMW specs 42.1PSI). I pressed start and started my watch's stop watch function. It took almost exactly 5 minutes to reach 37PSI at which point the unit stopped. The instructions say that it will stop if it is too cold or hot. The case was only warm, so I waited about 3 minutes and restarted. It took another 50 seconds to reach 43 PSI. At that point the unit's case was slightly hot near the pump, but not too hot to comfortably hold. The instructions say that the unit will display a "Temp" message, but mine just shut off. I was handling the unit at the time so perhaps I triggered the shut off. Either way, a total of either 5 minutes 50 seconds or 9 minutes, including cool down, to fully fill a deflated tire seems reasonable to me.
The fitting disengaged with little loss of air and my digital gauge measured the pressure at 40.6PSI. I have no way of knowing which gauge is most correct, but agreement within 2PSI seems OK. The unit's battery charge meter was still showing 94% of the charge remaining.
The instructions claim you should get 4 accessory inflation adapters. As the photo shows, mine came with 10. My lucky day...
The bad news is that the sale is over and the price has gone back up to $129.