pumps

Thus spake "Geoff Bowles" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

What sort of pump do people carry on road bikes theses days?

Zéfal hp-x, you know it makes sense...

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden] Edgware.

In message <[email hidden]>, Geoff Bowles <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

On my mountain bike I carry a short pump in a mounting low on the seat tube, but this would look a
bit messy on an elegant road bike

I agree, but my compact frame is too small for a frame pump. I've got a Blackburn Airstick AS-1
mounted on the bottle cage. You could put an even smaller pump in your jersey pocket.

--
Michael MacClancy

Geoff Bowles said:

What sort of pump do people carry on road bikes theses days?

I'm finally retiring my old road bike, which has a neat frame-fitting pump, but the new bike has a
"compact frame" with sloping top-tube.

On my mountain bike I carry a short pump in a mounting low on the seat tube, but this would look a
bit messy on an elegant road bike

I find my road bike looks odd _without_ an HPX under the top tube!

~PB

"Pete Biggs" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Geoff Bowles said:

What sort of pump do people carry on road bikes theses days?

I'm finally retiring my old road bike, which has a neat frame-fitting pump, but the new bike has
a "compact frame" with sloping top-tube.

On my mountain bike I carry a short pump in a mounting low on the seat tube, but this would look
a bit messy on an elegant road bike

I find my road bike looks odd _without_ an HPX under the top tube!

~PB

Hi.

Having used many and various pumps over a good few years the 'SPECIALIZED Airforce4' that I have now
has been the best so far and mounted on the bottle cage looks quite spiffy on my current road bike.

Cheers

Jo B.

Jo B said:

Having used many and various pumps over a good few years the 'SPECIALIZED Airforce4' that I have
now has been the best so far and mounted on the bottle cage looks quite spiffy on my current
road bike.

How long is it, and how many psi can you get from it? Other pumps might be lighter and look better
but no mini pump can compete with the HPX when it comes to high pressure :-) (Just not physically
possible).

cheers ~PB

Thus spake "Pete Biggs" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

How long is it, and how many psi can you get from it?

Too right; LENGTH IS STRENGTH!

Quoted message said:

Other pumps might be lighter and look better but no mini pump can compete with the HPX when it
comes to high pressure :-) (Just not physically possible).

I have a largish supply of fairly useless little pumps, which I'm quite happy to donate to anyone
who is willing to send me an email first and to pop round to collect.

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden] Edgware.

"Pete Biggs" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Jo B said:

Having used many and various pumps over a good few years the 'SPECIALIZED Airforce4' that I have
now has been the best so far and mounted on the bottle cage looks quite spiffy on my current
road bike.

How long is it, and how many psi can you get from it? Other pumps might be lighter and look better
but no mini pump can compete with the HPX when it comes to high pressure :-) (Just not physically
possible).

cheers ~PB

It's about 10" long & rated up to 160psi, I have no trouble getting upto 110-120psi .

Cheers

Jo B.

Thus spake "Jo B" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

It's about 10" long & rated up to 160psi, I have no trouble getting upto 110-120psi .

Quoted message said:

Cheers

There speaks a Real Man™. He probably rides one of Sheldon Brown's saddles.

A Gurl

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden] Edgware.

"Helen Deborah Vecht" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Thus spake "Jo B" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

It's about 10" long & rated up to 160psi, I have no trouble getting upto 110-120psi .

Quoted message said:

Cheers

There speaks a Real ManT. He probably rides one of Sheldon Brown's

saddles.

Quoted message said:

A Gurl

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden] Edgware.

Ere you takin' the p*ss and wots all this about saddles ? dont use one meself :-O

A Blowk

"Jo B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Pete Biggs" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Jo B said:

Having used many and various pumps over a good few years the 'SPECIALIZED Airforce4' that I
have now has been the best so far and mounted on the bottle cage looks quite spiffy on my
current road bike.

How long is it, and how many psi can you get from it? Other pumps might be lighter and look
better but no mini pump can compete with the HPX

when

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

it comes to high pressure :-) (Just not physically possible).

cheers ~PB

It's about 10" long & rated up to 160psi, I have no trouble getting upto 110-120psi .

Cheers

Yep its also easy to inflate tyres to 110-120psi with cheap SKS or Zefal (SPS?) framefit pumps
costing 3 or 4 quid a 1/4 of the price of an HPX, much lighter than a HPX too.

The only downside of the cheap pumps is they can explode if you treat them without respect.

Jo B said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It's about 10" long & rated up to 160psi, I have no trouble getting upto 110-120psi .

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

There speaks a Real ManT. He probably rides one of Sheldon Brown's saddles.

A Gurl

Quoted message said:

Ere you takin' the p*ss and wots all this about saddles ? dont use one meself :-O

A Blowk

A Blowk with a name like Jo. ....I've been swizzed!

And 10" aint no mini, by the way.

~Pete "like I said, don't do inuendo" Biggs

Frank said:

Yep its also easy to inflate tyres to 110-120psi with cheap SKS or Zefal (SPS?) framefit pumps
costing 3 or 4 quid a 1/4 of the price of an HPX, much lighter than a HPX too.

I can't agree. I've still got a Zefal SP size 4 and anything much beyond 95psi with it (and every
other cheap pump I've tried) is extremely hard work. The HPX is far superior because it has a
narrower barrel, spring lock-out feature and a better valve connection system. I like to save weight
on my bike so there's no way I'd carry this big heavy ugly expensive thing if it wasn't so damn good
at inflating my 130psi tyres. It's also just simply nicer to use with _all_ tyres.

~PB

"Geoff Bowles" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

What sort of pump do people carry on road bikes theses days?

I'm finally retiring my old road bike, which has a neat frame-fitting

pump,

Quoted message said:

but the new bike has a "compact frame" with sloping top-tube.

On my mountain bike I carry a short pump in a mounting low on the seat

tube,

Quoted message said:

but this would look a bit messy on an elegant road bike

Geoff

Try CO2 cartridges, take two with you. If you need more than two then your

tyres are suspect.

Graham

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

Thus spake "Geoff Bowles" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

What sort of pump do people carry on road bikes theses days?

Blackburn FP1?

"Geoff Bowles" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

What sort of pump do people carry on road bikes theses days?

In a small pack under the saddle I carry 1 set of plastic tyre levers, two spare tubes, 1 pack of
self adhesive patches, 1 CO2 inflator, 2 spare CO2 cartridges, 1 chain link extractor, and 1 20
quid note.

The inflator hasn't let me down yet but the obvious risk is that each cartridge is a one-shot deal,
so if you tear a tube or have a fiddly puncture that takes several goes to get right you could run
out of charges.

--
Dave...

Frank <[email hidden]> wrote:

: Yep its also easy to inflate tyres to 110-120psi with cheap SKS or Zefal (SPS?) framefit pumps
: costing 3 or 4 quid a 1/4 of the price of an HPX, much lighter than a HPX too.

Depends if you have any upper body strength or not. I have the proverbial pipe-cleaner arms and
can't get 120PSI out of a cheap Zefal for love nor money. I can get 90, which gets me home but isn't
ideal for 23mm tires.

Just to confuse the issue I have a HPX but normally use a blackburn double action mini-pump (a very
good quality one) out of which I can get 110PSI, which does fine (I normally only pump to 115PSI
with the track pump anyway)

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune clune.orgclune.orgOpen ↗ Power is delightful. Absolute power is absolutely delightful -
Lord Lester

"Arthur Clune" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Frank <[email hidden]> wrote:

: Yep its also easy to inflate tyres to 110-120psi with cheap SKS or Zefal (SPS?) framefit pumps
: costing 3 or 4 quid a 1/4 of the price of an HPX,

much

Quoted message said:

: lighter than a HPX too.

Depends if you have any upper body strength or not. I have the proverbial pipe-cleaner arms and
can't get 120PSI out of a cheap Zefal for love nor money. I can get 90, which gets me home but
isn't ideal for 23mm tires.

Upper body strength is an issue, but I'm no weight lifter. I think technique is important:

I wear leather palmed track mitts (the frame fitt moulding is painful)

Brace the valve end of the pump against something solid (to push against)

Press the pump up into the valve (so the weight of the bike holds the valve in the pump).

Lean into to pump so the final part of the push comes off your shoulder.

You only need a momentary max force on the pump of ~ 30 kg

Quoted message said:

Just to confuse the issue I have a HPX but normally use a blackburn double action mini-pump (a
very good quality one) out of which I can get 110PSI, which does fine (I normally only pump to
115PSI with the track pump

anyway)

Quoted message said:

Obviously a track pump is the sensible thing at home. But for the 1 or 2 % of rides I actually need
to fix a puncture, a cheap pump is fine.

Frank <[email hidden]> wrote:

: Brace the valve end of the pump against something solid (to push against)

This can be very tricky - verges and hedges don't supply the necessary.

Personally I think that getting back on the road quikcly and with less fuss is worth 20 quid.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune clune.orgclune.orgOpen ↗ Power is delightful. Absolute power is absolutely delightful -
Lord Lester

Frank said:

"Arthur Clune" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Frank <[email hidden]> wrote:

But the HPX's has a narrower cylinder (the only reason that higher pressures can be got with less
force) so it takes longer to pump as less air goes in with each stroke.

Personally I prefer something lighter, I have to carry it on every trip and only ever use it
occasionally.

I know that the day I leave the pump at home will be the day I get a puncture, so as long as I have
a reasonable pump I wont get a puncture. Decent tyres help, too.

The zefal SP is cheap, lightweight and snugly frame mounting. Its quite comfortable to hold at the
valve end, too. (as long as you dont have too many spokes)

I have carried a pump whenever Ive been out on a bike and consequently havent had a puncture since
september. The pumps have been used to pump up plenty of other peoples tyres though!

-Alex

--
----------------------+ Alex Graham | [email hidden] | ----------------------+