Continental Conti Valve Extender (Pack of 2)

Originally, I just tried screwing one of these puppies over the presta valve of a tire on an aero wheel, but that didn’t work well at all. Prepared to award this seemingly miserable product a single star and a nasty review, I happened to glance at the DIRECTIONS, and realized the valve was to be disassembled BEFORE attaching the extender, and that the black plastic piece in the packaging was a wrench intended to accomplish this very purpose, and not, as I initially perceived, a roach clip misplaced by a Continental or Amazon employee. This is a great product that works wonderfully, even if the wrench looks like a piece of drug paraphernalia.

First off I want to point out that these didn’t work for me as I thought they would have. I was setting up 50mm carbon rims, tubeless, forgetting the fact that I need the stems to be fastened to the wheel. These are not threaded to receive a holding nut and can easily be pushed into the rim causing air leakage. However, as a product these are a much better option than using extenders that screw over the presta core, where it is hard to check pressure with a standard gauge and needing to stick a piece of wire or spoke down the shaft the release air. The presta core screws right in to the stem allowing to easily achieve the a fore mentioned tasks. Definitely use a little Teflon tape on the threads before screwing into valve stem.

Don’t waste your money and give yourself aggravation using any valve extenders that dn’t have this feature of actually moving the valve. The ones that just screw on to the end of your valve and rely on pressure to open the valve are a royal pain in the butt compared to these guys. Never had a failure with this brand or its harder to fine equivalent from Zipp. Multiple failures with other extenders that close the valve or don’t seal wells etc. Get these and give yourself some peace of mind. (You’ll need to buy tubes with a removable valve core, which cost a couple bucks more…but you’re riding Zipps or some other expensive wheel if you need these, so quit complaining about a couple bucks for a decent tube!). 🙂

It would have been better to buy the right size for my tubeless stem, but my LBS only had 44mm’s. I had enough bite for a shallow air chuck, but it would be too short using others an unfortunate oversight when I went on a trip. These stem extenders are just the right length without looking stupid and work better than the extenders where the valve does not need to be removed. I did use plumbers tape to make sure I had a good seal and had to re seat the tires in order for me to inflate them after installation so if you are planning on using them make sure you have a compressor or good pump or you will need to take a trip to your LBS.

As long as you remember that these work only on tubes with removable cores, these are great. Try them out at home before you ride. Simply remove the valve core, screw these in, and put the valve core in the extender. Voila! They are well made and come with the mini, plastic valve core wrench. If you find a good deal on tubes with short stems with removable cores, these might come in handy, or if you have deep aero wheels that require an extension, these can help. Better to buy the right length stem to begin with.