Pump, compact, that actually works.

[Sweep]

is there anything you haven't taken apart Brucey?

all the best

[fastpedaller]

I used to carry a mini pump on a down tube bracket on my road bike, but it failed me a couple of times, so I now carry my 'normal' portable pump, the Topeak road morph.

Good on you, Vorpal - I'm another Road Morph enthusiast. I did for my right shoulder in 2002 and moved to a CO2 pump, but got fed up with poor connections that lost gas (and froze fingers on occasion). With the Road Morph I can reach 7 bar (105 psi) without pain, and it doesn't cost me 3€ a pop.

I also use a Topeak Road Morph attached to the down-tube bottle cage.

Can you also attach a bottle cage? All I see advertised are in-line mounts which (I guess) exclude bottle cage.

[CJ]

When I go on a club run there are many and various inflators available but my frame fit Zefal HPX pump is always in demand.

When I go on a club run, everyone uses my Topeak Road Morph - with gauge - whilst the push-me-pull-you guess-what pressure pumps remain in-situ!

[The utility cyclist]

Pump: Specialized MTB airtool, end of conversation.

Continue conversation... . Zefal hpx (available in four sizes).

sorry but HPX model aren't available in small sizes like the airtool, that's the 'profil', I have an classic hpx, it's ok but doesn't fit so inconspicuously on a frame and is heavier and a pain to fit to a modern carbon racing frame.

[Sweep]

When I go on a club run there are many and various inflators available but my frame fit Zefal HPX pump is always in demand.

When I go on a club run, everyone uses my Topeak Road Morph - with gauge - whilst the push-me-pull-you guess-what pressure pumps remain in-situ!

careful cj - I would often watch with amusement as folk used their mini pumps they could proudly (until pumping was called for) pop in their jersey or up their ** but the last mini pump poseur I helped out by offering my mountain morph to bust the stand off by folding it the wrong way and standing on it - the technology was too advanced for him. He did immediately offer to replace it, then almost as immediately forgot.

[Username]

On the assumption that a carbon road bike won't take a frame fit pump, I'd put a decent mini-pump on a clip under a bottle cage (probably one of those Lezyne mini-track pumps).
With pumps, the general rule is that the bigger it is, the better it works.

Two inner tubes
Two CO2 canisters and a connector.

As a point of information, what is your technique for finding the hole in the dead tube?
Do you just rely on being able to find the sharp by inspecting the tyre?

I believe that's true regarding length. Don't wide pumps need more strength due to ramming in more air at the same time? I once had a double barrel footpump which was completely useless for much above the pressure you would put in a car/motorbike tyre. It was a Halfords pump tho.

[Samuel D]

2) Annoyingly spare parts for the chuck are not to be had from Zefal.

At least some parts seem to be available.

I have tried a variety of mini pumps including the good Lezyne Road Drive, but the Zéfal HPX frame pump is my favourite. The combination of low cost, durability, and quick and easy pumping is impressive. So impressive that it would be reasonable not to have a track pump at home if you had an HPX.

[rmurphy195]

Topeak Road Morph, it came with an "inline" bracket which if you mount it using bottle cage mounts doesn't allow you to fit a bottle cage. The mount does include a couple of zip ties so you don't need to use bottle cage mounts. I prefer a side mount next to the bottle cage so bought a bracket for a Topeak Peak DX.

I can only manage to put about 80psi in with this (same as for any mini pump I expect) however this is OK with my tyres.

I did look at the CO2 canisters but then realised of course that they are one-shot - so if I had more punctures than co2 cartridges (or just got it wrong, or needed to pump the tube up to find the hole) - I was stuffed! keep finding those things ling at the side of the road, often 2 or 3 at a time.

[De Sisti]

At least some parts seem to be available.
I have tried a variety of mini pumps including the good Lezyne Road Drive, but the Zéfal HPX frame pump is my favourite. The combination of low cost, durability, and quick and easy pumping is impressive. So impressive that it would be reasonable not to have a track pump at home if you had an HPX.

Website not secure.

[Brucey]

the larger the piston diameter is, the harder it is to pump to any given pressure. A zefal HPX has a piston ~17mm dia, The effort required of course goes with piston area though; this means that a piston only ~24mm is diameter requires twice the force to move, but of course displaces twice as much air with each stroke too, as do pumps with barrels that are twice the length.

FWIW a Zefal HPX piston has an area of about 0.35 sq in. That means (whilst neglecting friction) to get to 100psi requires a force of about 35lbs or so on the pump. Maybe that works out at about 40lbs with friction? Anyway it hardly seems an onerous task to get to 'normal pressures'.

2) Annoyingly spare parts for the chuck are not to be had from Zefal.

At least some parts seem to be available. I have tried a variety of mini pumps including the good Lezyne Road Drive, but the Zéfal HPX frame pump is my favourite. The combination of low cost, durability, and quick and easy pumping is impressive. So impressive that it would be reasonable not to have a track pump at home if you had an HPX.

good find that, ta. It is a shame that they are not more widely available; I am surprised that SJS don't have them. Anyway those parts are the ones you are most likely to need (bar the lever follower) but if they fit the HPX then the valve insert may not fit some older HP models; IIRC the wall thickness of the lever follower varies so the older HP pumps require a valve insert that is a bit smaller, so it fits inside the (thicker walled) lever follower. Perhaps the HPX one can be filed down to fit or something.

Despite my inherent misgivings about having a check valve (i.e. that it is more complicated than it needs to be, and that pumping might be slightly harder work with one than without) the HP/HPX check valve seems reliable and flows gas reasonably freely. [It makes a distinctive noise, too, that (I imagine) allows you to impersonate a dying pigeon... ] I have never had cause to disassemble one but I have always supposed that it can be done by using a long tool which is the shape of a flat blade screwdriver (but with a blade that is ~16mm x 4mm, and may have a slight curve to it) that reaches down the inside of the pump barrel.

[edit; I found this
here http://bikelovejones1.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/product-review-zefal-hpx-frame-pump.html

The white plastic-looking piece is the part that unscrews, deep inside the barrel. If the screw is tight, an ordinary screwdriver will likely damage that part, because the slot in the part is not a normal shape. In the photo above the chuck itself is not shown disassembled.]

Current HPX sizes go down to size 1 which is small and light. Claimed sizes and weights are as follows

Sizes / Weight:
- Size 1: 360 - 400mm (210g)
- Size 2: 410 - 450mm (220g)
- Size 3: 460 - 500mm (240g)
- Size 4: 510 - 550mm (255g)

My own HPX4 weighs 260g and a (~size 3 non-frame fit at one end) HP pump I have weighs 195g, i.e. having an HPX pump in any given size 'costs' an extra 50g or so. A size 1 HP pump could be as little as ~165g in weight.

BTW if you don't like the top-out spring rattling inside the pump, a few turns of tape may be wrapped around the shaft just above the piston, the spring can become a tight fit over the tape wrap, and there will be no more rattles.

cheers

[andrew_s]

I also use a Topeak Road Morph attached to the down-tube bottle cage.

Can you also attach a bottle cage? All I see advertised are in-line mounts which (I guess) exclude bottle cage.

I believe that this is the appropriate mount
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/pumps/topea ... r-peak-dx/
(according to the US Topeak importer)

[CJ]

With pumps, the general rule is that the bigger it is, the better it works.

I believe that's true regarding length.

It's generally true, but not necessarily. The reason it's generally true is that pumps don't generally have a check valve. Here's why that makes a difference.

When you push down the handle of a pump no air goes into the tyre until you've first compressed the air in the pump to the same pressure as the air already in the tyre. So, as pressure in the tyre rises, a decreasing the fraction of the pumping stroke actually puts air into the tyre. This is why it's important to push the pump absolutely to the limit of its stroke, because only the last bit does useful work.

What's worse: any air remaining in the pump at the end of the stroke, in the dead space between the end of the piston and the valve, has been compressed in vain and simply re-expands as the pump piston and handle is pulled back - and initially doesn't need to be pulled but merely allowed to rise.

As pressure in the tyre increases, more of the pumping stroke is wasted in pressurising dead space air and ultimately: it takes the whole stroke of the pump. That's the pump's limit. No more air passes into the tyre. So it's no coincidence that as high-pressure tyres became more popular, the old-fashioned separate pump and flexible connector disappeared from the market in favour of frame-fitting pumps with integral valve chucks, that minimise dead space by bringing the end of the pump piston closer to the tyre valve.

But there's still quite a lot of dead space inside an integral valve chuck. Longer pumps make the best of a bad job by increasing the ratio between pumped volume and dead space, but the engineered solution is to put another valve inside the pump - right where the piston finishes up at the end of its stroke - thus reducing dead space to almost nothing. With a well-placed integral check valve, pump length becomes much less important and flexible connectors can be re-introduced without significant loss of efficiency.

Finally you have human factors, what is perceived as more effort, including the biological energy that is nevertheless consumed in holding onto something that doesn't move and hence does no work in an engineering sense. I'm talking about the other end of the pump: the usual sort of pump, the sort I call a push-me-pull-you pump - and now you know why.

Brucey has proved that it takes some 35 or 40 lbs-force to push - and simultaneously hold onto - a good high-pressure pump. He asserts that it hardly seems an onerous task. Maybe not for HIM, but for many people, especially those who are not any kind of 'him' and particularly cyclists who have no reason to exercise their arms very much, it IS an onerous task. Pushing 35lb with one hand whilst simultaneously pulling on the other with equal force, whilst trying not to tilt or twist or move too much the thing being pulled, is clearly quite beyond the ability of many. And since one now has the option of carrying a very good little pump that can be pushed down with BOTH hands, whilst the ground pushes back, I reckon push-me-pull-you pumping to be an unnecessary waste of effort for ALL.

Does anyone want my old Zefal hpx? Free to collect from Matlock, Derbyshire.

[meic]

When pumping the old fashioned pumps gets difficult I use a wall or something else solid to brace against with the hand that is holding the pump to the wheel.
It is of course much easier with the newer design (Topeak morph) because you can get your shoulder (and weight) behind the push.

[Brucey]

....

yup; the same logic applies to all pumps so the position and efficiency of the check valve and/or having zero dead space is very important. One comment I made earlier is that with a slightly leaky connection a presta valve is arguably a better bet because it seals itself between strokes, whereas it just leaks all the time with a Schrader fitting. Likewise if the check valve goes bad some pumping with a presta is still possible but less so with a Schrader valve.

With either valve type if the connection is made via a hose, a small leak at either end will spoil your day; they really only work at all well if they seal perfectly and the check valve is in perfect order too.

To clarify, a force of ~35-40lbs is required to get an HPX to ~100psi; since normal touring tyres might run at 50-60psi, the load required might be half of that, hence my comment that to get an HPX to 'normal pressures' is hardly an onerous task.

BTW if you have a presta pump that works OK then to pump Schrader valves you could do worse than to get one of these


which contains an unsprung check valve, so that a schrader valve pumps as easily as a presta.

cheers

[De Sisti]

Pump: Specialized MTB airtool, end of conversation.

Continue conversation... . Zefal hpx (available in four sizes).

sorry but HPX model aren't available in small sizes like the airtool, that's the 'profil', I have an classic hpx, it's ok but doesn't fit so inconspicuously on a frame and is heavier and a pain to fit to a modern carbon racing frame.

That's strange. I sold a size 1 (smallest of 4 sizes) last year.