Posted on June 30, 2022 by Ron Frazelle
A long-time secret that is said to date back to Cancellara’s 2010 Paris-Roubaix victory and was built by Josh (from Silca Velo) himself, is now available to the masses. That’s right, the “Truth” which was a secret only known to the top, inner circle of the world tour mechanics is now available for you. Introducing the new Silca Velo Truth Gauge.
Silca says that each Truth Gauge starts with a 100% USA-made digital pressure gauge which is temperature and humidity compensating, using medical-grade 316l stainless steel, wetted components for a long time trouble-free lifespan.
The Truth Gauges, according to Silca, use custom sensor calibration, where each gauge is calibrated to a perfect accuracy at 30psi. They say this guarantees 0.2% accuracy between 0 and 60psi with the accuracy drifting to 0.5% at 100psi and 1% at 200psi.
Silca claims that, “This sensor curve fit is unique amongst digital gauges, all of which have slightly non-linear behavior over their full-scale reading. By calibrating to 30psi instead of 0psi, we are able to produce much higher accuracies at low pressures than traditional designs.”
Each Truth Gauge is further fitted with a 6al/4v 3D printed titanium body and aluminum twist style bleed valve. This twist-style bleed valve is capable of bleeding air as slow as 0.1psi per minute, according to Silca.
The Truth Gauge is encased in a molded, high-impact, silicone housing and uses a single 9v battery, which is included. The battery life is prolonged with an auto shut-off after being left idle for 20 minutes. Silca says the gauge has an impressive 1200-hour battery life.
The Truth Gauge comes with Silca Velo’s Limited Warranty like all of their products.
Ron Frazelle is the Cycling Lifestyle Editor for Bikerumor, he has been writing about bicycles and the cycling way of life for 7+ years. Prior to Bikerumor, he worked in the bicycle industry, living and breathing bicycles since 1995. He is based in Anaheim, California, Frazelle is an avid cyclist of all disciplines, camper, father to 6 children, husband, musician and self-proclaimed retro-grouch.
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You had me at 6/4 Titanium, but that price tag, oopphfff. I will stick with my Topeak D2. (want to try out the newer D2X)
Does your Topeak have “TRUTH” written on it!? I think not!
For $50 less you can have 2% accuracy with digital readout and measure both tires’ pressure in real time with Quarq’s TyreWiz all without having to touch the valves.
And where does Quarq make this product? At least Silca is trying to make more products in the USA. To me that is worth the extra few dollars
TOPEAK SHUTTLE. YES IM YELLING. the feature list and usability of this option is real. Ironically I use it as an in-line gauge on my Silca track pump which has a pretty unusable analog dial gauge.
+/-1PSI on the Topeak Shuttle. At 50 psi, Silca’s gauge is 0.1psi accurate.
Local pricing on the Shuttle digital is about 50€. With that as a baseline, Silca’s gauge is a wicked deal. Not saying I need the accuracy of Silca’s gauge, but it’s a farily good price for what it offers.
…and probably the least expensive way to get some 3D Printed Ti bits
No doubt absolutely unnecessary use of 3D Printed Ti there (did someone get a 100k 3D Printer & then realize they didn’t really have a use for it?), but $250 isn’t all that terrible for a pressure gauge that’s 0.2% accurate. Quality 1% gauges tend to run in the $50-$75 range, double that if you want 0.5% accuracy, and double it again to get to 0.2%. Just took a look at one supplier & a 0.5% 60psi digital gauge is a bit north of $400.
Cheaper gauges are a dime a dozen, but if you are in a manufacturing or lab environment & need a gauge that is 100% trustworthy, then entry level is somewhere in this ballpark.
The company that I think Silca gets the actual digital gauge from may charge right about $250 if I wanted to buy straight from them & that would be just the digital gauge. At a minimum, you’d then need to cobble together some bits to add the tire air chuck to it, or you know… spend that $100k to get a metal 3D Printer to print the little bit at the bottom.
Before I got to the end I thought “It sounds crazy but I would spend $100 for that”…
250 dollar tire gauge? A little past a common sense price point.
I love how Silca tries to provide solutions in so many different fields, in some cases with great success (chain lubricants, pressure calculator, some of their small accessories) but sometime they try to solve a problem that doesn’t exist regardless how cool they are. They provide a pressure accuracy to a pressure-target we are way less accurate to measure. Pressure varies from road quality (no easy way to measure road rugosity) and is function of the cross section area (the wider the tire, the lower the pressure to achieve a similar “spring-rate” or “vertical deflection) that we usually measure from the outside of the tire… but the real x-section area is from the inside of the tire or the tube… So again, we measure a very accurate pressure to a non-very accurate target.
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