Possibly the best bike pump I've ever used, for touring

willharris10

A week and a half ago I got back from riding Lands End to John O'Groats unsupported, i.e. with fairly heavy panniers. This puts a lot of weight on the tires and also means they need to be accurately and fully pumped up or you risk further punctures and add considerably to the workload through increased rolling resistance.

We stopped at every bike shop we passed for a quick borrow of a track pump, but quite often you have a long way to go and no bike shop for several days, so what should you take with you?

Well, last year I took some CO2 canisters but frankly, these scare the daylights out of me, so blowing your tyres up really fast and to a very high pressure, but I never knew what pressure and don't own a separate gauge.

This year I took a Lezyne Road Drive which is a beautiful little mini pump with a connecting hose so that you don't rip the valve off when pumping up, And I have ripped a number of valve tips off, so this is a welcome design feature.

For riding to work and short rides, this is a perfect pump. Enough to finish a ride, and enough to get you home, but for touring it’s really not enough and I can’t get more than 80psi out of it, or any truly mini pump. I am quite sceptical about those who claim to get 100psi or more out of mini pumps. You would have to have arms and pecks of steel to achieve this. Just think how hard you have to heave on track pumps and then try and imagine achieving the same compression ratio in a 6 inch stick. I don’t think so.

So this brings me to my riding partner for the trip who brought a different pump along, and this proved a total godsend.

A Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HP with Gauge.

This is a small lightweight pump that has the appearance of a track pump, but is considerably smaller and lighter. The gauge is inline with the connecting hose and you really can get 120psi out of it. You have to work quite hard, but not THAT hard to achieve this. The point is, that I can’t see any way I’d have got 120psi out of the Road Drive or my older other mini pumps. But with this pump we could.

I ended up using it most days to ensure the tyres were optimal, and though we didn’t have any punctures, I swapped front and rear tyres around on one evening with the confidence of knowing I could get them pumped back up to 120psi and not risk ripping the valve heads off.

It’s a bit too big to be perfect for around town, but for touring I can’t think of a better pump and I wanted to pass this on to y’all!

alfablue

Another pump of a similar "mini-track pump" design that can genuinely achieve these pressures, Topeak Turbo Morph (I tour with this one). It has a rotary dial gauge, fits under my downtube.

The Road Morph and Mountain Morph have a similar design, but the Turbo is the biggest.

father_jack

accurately and fully pumped up

Wouldn't be surprised it's way off, had your pump calibrated? I've got a Blackburn Aik Stik

giant_man

alfablue wrote:

Another pump of a similar "mini-track pump" design that can genuinely achieve these pressures, Topeak Turbo Morph (I tour with this one). It has a rotary dial gauge, fits under my downtube.

The Road Morph and Mountain Morph have a similar design, but the Turbo is the biggest.

+1 - I also got the turbo morph, good pump.

willharris10

Looks very good too.

Comes down to weight, price and preference.

Lezyne is £37 and 190g
Topeak is £28 and 280g

Must say, they both look like they'll do the same job. Like the Topeak gauge but like the Lezyne weight more!

willharris10

Well, when we used the Lezyne and then visited a bike shop with a track pump, after connecting the track pump and allowing the air from the tyre to fill the hose up to the gauge, the gauge usually read bang on 110psi, which would suggest the Lezyne was doing it's job pretty well. The gauge is a bit interesting as being inline with the tube and rather like a plunger, it tends to move in little jumps as you pump, so it's certainly not absolutely accurate, but it does seem to work very well.

alfablue

I like the Lezyne design and materials, the Morph's gauge and price, weight isn't too important after I fitted front panniers and a kickstand

willharris10

I think the really important thing is that you take one of these two with you if you're touring!

sungod

i've got the lezyne hp too, lovely pump

fwiw the gauge agrees with my track pump and a separate gauge, but can be a bit sticky, so usually i give it a tap to make sure it is reading correctly

if i'm on the bike it's with me, usually in middle pocket of jersey

father_jack

As long as my pump pumps upto road pressure, all ok...I mean not as if you need to use it often (touch wood)

giant_man

alfablue wrote:

I like the Lezyne design and materials, the Morph's gauge and price, weight isn't too important after I fitted front panniers and a kickstand

You really fitted a kickstand? Good god, I'm suprised you can still get these things.

father_jack

seem them loads of places.

alfablue

giant mancp wrote:

alfablue wrote:

I like the Lezyne design and materials, the Morph's gauge and price, weight isn't too important after I fitted front panniers and a kickstand

You really fitted a kickstand? Good god, I'm suprised you can still get these things.

Yep :oops:

It was really good, makes loading the bike up with panniers easier, I really got to like it. I have now ordered one for my utility bike. I have ignored the weight issue, especially as I had camping gear, and I will be getting a dynamo hub. You soon get used to hauling the weight and when I get on my carbon road bike I feel like a cycling god (er...well...)

I got a Pletscher Multizoom (really strong one) on the tourer, and a BBB Sidekick for the utility bike about £21 and £16 respectively, courtesy of Wolferkins.

father_jack

Where do they attach to?

alfablue

Both of these attach to the seatstay and chainstay at the dropout end. The ones that fit centrally behind the bottom bracket can damage the chainstays if heavily loaded, apparently.

Pletscher fitting:
the Multizoom actually looks like this:

BBB Sidekick (lighter duty)

warrior4life

I had a shiny new lezyne pump in white, it fell out of my jersey pocket and was squashed by a VW golf... Its now in the bin

It was a great pump though!

rdt

On my Lezyne Road Drive, the black rubber bits have begun to perish and split where they have the 180 degree bend in them. Poor show. :x

Anyone else experienced this?

vorsprung

The road morph is excellent but quite large. Long actually. It doesn't fit in a medium sized saddlepack