Air Mattresses On The Road

Southern Tier participant Dee Griffin entertains us all with her great emails detailing daily life on our spring Southern Tier journey, and gives great tips and tidbits about bicycle touring. Below is her tip for blowing up her air mattress -- I'm certainly going to try it out the next time I'm on the road!

'What I've Learned about Blowing Up Air Mattresses', by Dee Griffin

My self-inflating camp bed requires some blowing up, and my extra-wide Big Agnes air mattress requires quite a lot, so I spent some time before the trip looking for an easy way to inflate them. And I found one that works for both of them.

At the time, I was not sure which one I was going to bring. Since we have a van and trailer to carry our gear, I opted for the self-inflating one (REI, 3.5 inches thick, extra wide and extra long, and more comfortable than many motel beds). It will self-inflate quite a bit but I still have to blow it up some.

So here's the system.  Buy a windbag. They are used in science classes to demonstrate Bernoulli's principle. I found them online, four for $10.  In the pictures below, the red one is the one I've been using and the green one is the way they look new. I brought it along for a spare.

Next, get a small length of plastic tubing that will fit the intake valve of your air mattress. You can buy small lengths at marine supply places like West Marine.  If the tube is a little too tight, you can put it in boiling water and then slip in a pair of pliers and open them to force the tube to open a little wider.  Gather up one end of the wind bag and tape it to the outside of the other end of the plastic tubing.  Here is what it looks like attached to the air mattress. (I made a second one to fit the Big Agnes).

Now, hold the windbag about 10 inches away from your mouth and blow through pursed lips, like you're blowing out candles.   You can fill the bag with one breath (because of Bernoulli's principle).

Now just fold over the end to trap the air and roll the bag up.  It will inflate the mattress.

For you science enthusiasts out there -- here's the technical explanation: In 1738, Daniel Bernoulli observed that a fast moving stream of air is surrounded by an area of low atmospheric pressure. In fact, the faster the stream of air moves, the more the air pressure drops around the moving air. When you blow into the bag, higher pressure air in the atmosphere forces its way into the area of low pressure created by the stream of air from your lungs. In other words, air in the atmosphere is drawn into the long bag at the same time that you are blowing into the bag.

Photos by Dee Griffin

--

ON THE ROAD is written by the tours team -- Mo, Paul, Madeline, and Arlen -- tours specialists and intrepid bicyclists, covering all things related to Adventure Cycling's Tours Department. Find tours you can use Dee's great tip on our 2012 Tours!

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/04/air-mattresses-on-road.html

cycling shops