Presta Is Dead
You’ve all been there right? You’re on the side of the trail, it’s hot, your heart rate is already 160 from the ride itself, and you’re hunched over a 2” nano fucking pump trying desperately to inflate your tire so you can get home. Each pump stroke looks vaguely X-rated and also manages to eject roughly 80% of the air you just spent 26 calories producing straight into the atmosphere. You can literally watch your will to live leaking out around that tiny brass disaster.
Ok I am going to say it. Fuck Presta valves.
Bent screw shaft. Threads buggered. Slow leaks. Finicky as hell.
The absolute worst is when you graze it with a fingertip and it instantly goes: ffffffffffffffffffttttttttttt.
Like it’s mocking you. It’s maddening.
It’s terrible for a reason: Presta is old. It was invented in the 1920s by a French engineer named Etienne Sclaverand (that’s why the original name is technically the Sclaverand valve). Back then rims were narrow and structurally weak, and the tiny 6mm valve hole made the wheel stronger than one drilled for a fatter Schrader valve. That was the whole point: small hole, higher strength, higher pressure. And it worked for the technology of its time. But the design hasn’t really changed in a century. Modern rims, modern tires, modern riding — none of it was built for this tiny screw-top antique.
But then I stumbled onto something new and hooooooly shit it’s a game changer.
Stick with me — I promise this is good.
It’s called Clik.
Clik comes out of a small engineering outfit led by inventor John Quintana, and it started getting serious attention when Schwalbe partnered with them and showed the system off at Eurobike in 2024. Instead of the old threaded Presta core and that stupid little screw-top, the Clik system uses a totally different interface — a spring-loaded, quick-connect mechanism that seals itself automatically. You push the pump head on, it clicks and locks, and you pull it off when you’re done. No more unscrewing anything, no more lever arms, no more “oops I bumped it and lost 12 PSI.” Just on, pump, off.
The whole thing is intentionally designed as a modern successor to Presta, not just another boutique upgrade. The valves themselves are made in Italy, the pump heads in Taiwan, and the system was built around fixing the airflow problem — they move roughly 50% more air than a standard Presta core. And because they knew the world isn’t switching overnight, they made it backward compatible: you can use Clik valves or swap your existing Presta cores for Clik-spec cores and run adapters as needed.
These things are almost like little mini motorsports-grade Staubli or Wilwood dry break adapters used at LeMans on race cars.
And before you ask, no, this isn’t a paid promo. I’m writing half baked stories with poor grammar and swear words about valve cores. Guys, they wouldn’t pay me.
You can get the valve stem cores individually and they screw right into your existing Presta stems, but I went ahead and grabbed Wolf Tooth Components stems too because, hey — I’m not above bling. If I’m going to rip out century-old tech, I might as well have anodized jewelry sticking out of my rims.
You do have to get a new inflation head adapter. They’re not expensive, in fact, compared to the amount of stress and sleepless nights Presta was causing, the entire upgrade feels nearly free. (You were up at night like me thinking about this, right?) Anyway, the adapter threads onto your pump or chuck or even your CO₂ inflator head. In a pinch you can still use a Presta pump head, but YMMV. Just get a couple adapters and be done with it. I even pony’d up for the Wolf Tooth pump with the built-in Clik head. Still nano… but now actually not leaking.
Installation is a one, no, a half beer job. You don’t have to take off the tire or anything. Just remove the Presta core and install the Clik core. If you want to be more obsessive like I was, then when you switch tires go for all-new valve stems at the same time. Bling mode engaged. With these Clik valves installed your life becomes one hand to click the pump on and one hand to pull it off. No leaking. It feels binary — on or off, sealed or not, zero drama. I’ve been riding these all year now on long rides, big days, dumb lines, race efforts. Zero issues. No clogging, no leaks, no weirdness. They just work. Honestly that’s the most shocking part: they’ve been completely invisible in the best possible way.
All my bikes are switched over now. I’m sleeping better. My tires are holding pressure. My trail-side stress has gone down about 200%. But pumping yeah, it’s still sort of X-rated. They didn’t fix that part.
If you want to get your own setup you can go to Clik’s site here or get the Wolf Tooth kit like I did. No these aren’t affiliate links.