Cycling UK Forum

For the past few years I've been relying on a frame fit pump for my commute. It's a 5-6 mile ride, I mostly use M+ and punctures have been few.

However the frame fit pump is inconvenient. I sometimes forget to take it off when I park up, risking theft and occasionally I have forgotten to pick it up when leaving work, which would leave me unable to fix a puncture on the way home (and probably on the way back in the following day).

So I wanted something to fit in the pannier. The Topeak Road Morph is well received on the forum, I decided to get it's little brother. It came with a frame fit plastic clip (zip-tie or bolt to bottle cage mounts instead of a bottle cage) but I don't expect to use it. Internal gubbins in the head can be swapped around manually between Presta and Schraeder settings.


It certainly is little and deploys easily in the miniature track pump style.



It needed a test, rather than wait for the fairy I let the tyre down and pumped it up again.

The head was not the easiest to attach to the presta valve requiring quite a firm push to go on (this may just be lack of familiarity), the locking lever was effective. The small barrel can only deliver a little air at a time (the reality of all mini-pumps) but it certainly delivered these smoothly.

The studded tyres I was pumping have a 58PSI maximum which was the target I was aiming for and was achieved with ease in around 120 strokes, the HPX would have got there in around 60 strokes but it would have felt like harder work.

The packaging claims it can reach 160PSI. In practice as a get me home pump, it won't need to reach half that figure.


Small, effective and for £16.43 good value; ticks my boxes and inflates my tyres .

I use the Road Morph but I may get a mini for my new handlebar bag that will be coming with me when I park the bike.

For me the great thing about these pumps is the hose connection. I used to have a frame fit pump but managed to break a valve one time. User error of course but the Morph hose eliminates the chance of that error.

How robust is the footpeg. It doesn't look awfully reliable from your photo.

Frankly having owned the pump for less than two hours it's too early for me to make any meaningful comment on it's longevity* .

However I agree that it does look like the foot pad could be the weakest part. I found myself holding the pump barrel by hand as well as having a foot on the pad.

If the foot pad broke in use it would be possible to continue to use it as a hand pump. It's secured by an allen key and knurled nut so in the event of failure it could be replaced, although I haven't researched availability of spares.

Edit 23/2/14 - *The Zefal HPX in the first picture is about 26 years old, Presta only as it pre-dates the version with the internal Presta/Schraeder widget. I'm more than happy to comment on it's longevity: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=33760&p=267755

Edit 2/3/14 - Spare footpegs are listed by Topeak, not the same as finding one for sale but it's a start: http://www.topeak.com/products/Pumps/trf_mm01

freeflow wrote:How robust is the footpeg. It doesn't look awfully reliable from your photo.

No problems with the footpeg on my Roadmorph after 5 years. The only problem I had was that a small screw attached the folding cam that secures the head on the valve came loose after a month or two. Replaced with nut and bolt from hardware shop. No issues since.

More opinions on the Roadmorph here. Mixed but mainly positive. I presume the Mini is the same pump but shorter.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/reviews ... ted=0&v=2T

I broke the footpeg on my Topeak turbo mountain morph a few years ago. I contacted Extra UK (The Topeak UK distributors) they sent me a replacement free. It was easy to fit the replacement.

I am now more careful when standing on the footpeg, I stand on it very close to the pump body which puts less stress on the footpeg.

I have also bought the mini morph because it is small enough to fit into a very small MTB frame. Great pumps!

freeflow wrote:How robust is the footpeg. It doesn't look awfully reliable from your photo.

I too lost the screw on my Mini Morph so delved into the 'baccy tin that holds my nuts n bolts and found a suitable replacement and added some blue loctite. One thing to be aware of with the foot peg is standing on it with cleated shoes, like I do, can wreck the clip that holds it on the pump when not in use. My solution was to sew a length on elasticated strap into a loop short enough to hold the clip in place. Although I've got the bracket mounted on my frame the pump lives in the pannier bag as the bike is used for commutting and much quicker to lift the pannier off with all the necessary bits inside.

I have had one for about 4 years, it is convenient as said due to being small enough to be able to tuck it in a bag that you might carry with you instead of leaving on the bike. It is also quite quick, easy and effective to use compared with any other pump I have met of similar size, and I find the connector excellent, much better than on my Aldi track pump for instance. I have had no issues with bits coming undone or broken, but then I don't use it very often due to my magical ability to repel the puncture fairy.

The only thing I do not like is the design of the frame mount: it seems a bit silly that, unlike the majority of other designs, you cannot fit it with a bottle cage, only instead of I would have liked to have put this on my audax bike to use during the summer when I only have a small saddle pack on the bike and do want to use both bottle cages, the zip tie option being a bit rubbish in practice due to slipping and marking the frame paint.

Bought the Mini-Morph after reading reviews and comments from others. Found it removed the valve from my tyres when unscrewing the connector, this happened several times despite checking the valves were not at fault. The unease caused me to buy a Zefal pump for peace of mind when cycling (I still carry the Topeak as a back up only). Maybe the problem is that the pump is unsuitable for the tyres on my bike (Panaracer Touring 26 x 1.75). At face value it looked a good piece of kit.

Perhaps it's your choice of words but I'm confused as to why you might unscrew a push-on connector.

Wesh-Laurence wrote:I broke the footpeg on my Topeak turbo mountain morph a few years ago. I contacted Extra UK (The Topeak UK distributors) they sent me a replacement free. It was easy to fit the replacement.

I am now more careful when standing on the footpeg, I stand on it very close to the pump body which puts less stress on the footpeg.

I have the Mountain Morph and Road Morph.

The footrest on the Mountain Morph is now broken but that was only because I foolishly lent it to a London metropolitan minimalist after pitying his efforts to pump a tyre with an uber-trendy mini mini teeny weeny pump. Despite his fondness for what he saw as his appreciation of great design, simple flip-flop wheel and stick-on patches the great lummock bent the footrest the wrong way and stood on it. I''m confident it would still be fine if it weren't for that.

Edinburgh Bike Co-OP do a sort of copy which has a beefier metal footrest BUT the internals of that pump cannot be rebuilt.

The Mini-Morph has bit the dust .

Before setting off this morning I was changing contents from the commute pannier to another, it was clear that something was wrong with the pump.

The barrel has cracked into two pieces, all the way around its circumference where it appears to be screwed in to its plastic foot, which is also cracked.

Exactly how is a mystery but I guess its been bumped and bashed about in the pannier bag, more likely a case of accidental damage than manufacturing fault. Back to the HPx, at least until Christmas.

My "Mountain Morph" has travelled like this for a couple of years, and for several years before that it travelled in the bottom of the saddlebag. The barrel is alloy.

Santa brought me a replacement for Xmas. I've secured the frame mounting bracket to the top of the pannier which should save a repeat performance. Glad to have one with me again.