Best Mini Pump for Presta Valve

pprendeville

Can anyone recommend a really good mini pump for using while out riding in case of a puncture. I have a Specialized air tool which I find hard to get past 60PSI. Anyone got one of these that can back up the 120psi claim?

check_six

I was about to recommend a Lezyne pump before I even clicked on your link.

Get a Lezyne pump, accept no substitutes. I've used a number of other pumps, SKS, BBB, etc. but none of them come close to this one. Even though some of the others have that nice fold out handle to help, they can't match the Lezyne one. I helped out a couple of people on a sportive recently with this pump and they were impressed by how well the thing worked compared to how badly they were getting along with their own pump.

I've seen them in that place in Greystones, and I got my one in Dundrum in the shopping centre, but the price was about €38, expensive, but then again, I've bought a lot of cheap ones that just didn't do the trick.

The only drawback I could see is that the holder for the pump is pretty fragile looking, but I suppose you could always shove the pump in your pocket.

irishmotorist

I have a Lezyne (this one, I think: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=24665) and found that it unscrewed the inside of the presta valve on me when I was removing the hose after I had a puncture the other day. It was a Continental tube. Is that a bad tube, bad pumping by me or bad pump?

Lumen

check_six wrote: »

I was about to recommend a Lezyne pump before I even clicked on your link.

Which one?

check_six

Also, not sure what the max pressure you can get with these pumps is in practical use, but they will get the tyres to a comfortable level of rock-hardness without too much effort, so that's got to be 90-100PSI anyway. Normally you would be half dead using some other mini-pumps getting to this level, so I suppose you could use your untapped endurance resources to pump them up over the 110PSI level.

check_six

Lumen wrote: »

Which one?

Mines a Pressure Drive (like in the link).

Lumen

Also, anyone know which shops in Dublin city centre stock Lezyne pumps?

check_six

Lumen wrote: »

Also, anyone know which shops in Dublin city centre stock Lezyne pumps?

I mentioned Dundrum and Greystones because I haven't seen Lezyne stuff in too many places. I think that CycleWays, Eurocycles, and MacDonald Cycles do not stock them. The new place off Capel St near the Luas does not do them either. Penny Farthing? I was there recently but can't remember what they stock. They're not easy to track down!

doozerie

I have the Lezyne Road Drive. I opted for the large one in the expectation that it would make inflating a tyre easier. Even with that it is still hard work to get a tyre up to decent pressure, but it does the job. My previous "mini" pump was a Blackburn (can't recall the model off-hand) and it worked quite well too - its strongpoint was the flip handle which made a big difference, whereas the screw-on hose on the Lezyne I find better than the push-on design of most other pumps. Between those two pumps there may be a great mini pump in the making, but in the meantime I wouldn't consider getting to 100psi with the Road Drive to be "easy" despite some of the online reviews I've read of it.

My wife has a medium Lezyne Pressure Drive. I've not used it myself so don't know how it compares to my Road Drive, but the Pressure Drive's holder and means by which it keeps the pump closed in transit are not as confidence-inspiring as the Road Drive design.

As regards valve cores unscrewing, Lezyne tried to address this with a new version of the hose a year or two ago which has a pressure release valve built into the end of the hose that screws to the tube valve. The idea is to use the release valve to release the air lock before removing the hose from the valve of the tube. Alternatively, with the older Lezyne hose on their mini pumps, just unthread the hose from the pump before unthreading it from the tube (or with their track pumps you can buy a threaded barrel with the pressure release valve built in and this barrel replaces the one at the tube end of the hose). I've still had it unscrew the core from a tube valve even after first releasing the air lock, but I reckon that core was not tightened properly in the first place. It's an occupational hazard with screw-on pumps I reckon but I still favour that design over push-on.

irishmotorist

doozerie wrote: »

As regards valve cores unscrewing, Lezyne tried to address this with a new version of the hose a year or two ago which has a pressure release valve built into the end of the hose that screws to the tube valve. The idea is to use the release valve to release the air lock before removing the hose from the valve of the tube.

I noticed that mine had the pressure release but I didn't figure it was much use for anything. Time to do a couple of test pumps I think!

runner2011

Lezyne pressure drive is the one i carry on the Bike, used others and this is the best, no doubt at all. got mine from Wiggle as i do for about 90% of things that don't need to physically try on/ out ..

pprendeville

Cheers for the advice. Went with the Lezyne pressure drive.

No Pants

When I get new tubes, I unscrew the core, smear a bit of Loctite on it and screw it back in. Seems to work.

No Pants

pprendeville wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a really good mini pump for using while out riding in case of a puncture. I have a Specialized air tool which I find hard to get past 60PSI. Anyone got one of these that can back up the 120psi claim?

After looking at your link, this might be the pump that I have. I'll have to check the pump when I got home. Have never needed to test the 120psi claim as I have a track pump at home and I now have a CO2 pump.

I did carry it on the bike for a while and I thought it was secured well by the supplied fitting. Did have to use slightly longer bolts than usual to fit it with a bottle cage. One thing that I would recommend would be to fit it to the seat tube rather than the down tube. I found that the hose would rattle when on the down tube, which I found distracting.

pprendeville

Pump arrived today. It's savage. Just did a test pump and I got it to 90PSI but there was room for 3 of 4 more strokes albeit hard to do. Needless tosay I'm delighted with it.

Wishbone Ash

I also have a Lezyne Pressure Drive and, although I've only had to use it twice, I am very pleased with it. I keep forgetting to remove it when I lock up the bike so I'm surprised I still have it.

(The only fault I'd have with it is that the rubber cap doesn't stay closed but I wrap it in clingfilm - which also keeps it clean.)