Mini Pumps?

[OakLeaf]

What's anyone's experience with mini pumps? Can you really get a road tire up to pressure? Can you do it in a reasonable amount of time/effort?

I'd like to get away from the CO2 cartridges, but don't have a lot of room on my frame for a full-sized frame pump.

[Blueberry]

I LOVE my road morph. Lots of mounting options - and yep - you can get a tire up to 120. Not as mini as some, but it fits (with lots of space to spare) on my 52cm road frame.

[sgtiger]

I love the road morph too. I love the little fold out do hickey that let's you use it as a floor pump and the built-in guage. But it didn't work on my Rodriguez. I think I kept hitting it on my sloping top tube when I removed my water bottle and my bigger water bottle wouldn't fit with it mounted there(I chug down a lot of water on my rides so I prefer the bigger one). Also, it was too long for my seat tube.

So I searched & searched and found this one:

The Quicker Pro
http://www.quickex.com/

This is where I purchased mine:
http://www.velo-orange.com/quickerpropump.html

Here it is mounted on my seat tube:


Mimi posted a pic in the Seattle TE Fitting Party thread that shows it a bit better:


It has three telescoping sections and is about the size of my hand span(fingers splayed). FYI I do have largish hands: size 8 glove. I don't find it hard to use and I don't think I'm particularly blessed in the upper body strength department but YMMV. It might take more pumps than the Road Morph to pump-up a tire, but it takes a lot less plunging than other pumps of similar size with a lot less effort. It even has a built in guage. It would probably(sp?) fit in a large seat bag, something like the Baggins-type bags. I am suspicious of the attachment thingy that came with it but it hasn't fallen off so far.

I can try to get some more pics of it tomorrow if you want.

[Zen]

SGT- that's a very unusual frame - what kind of bike is that?

[Grog]

I have a tiny frame and the road morph doesn't fit on it. Everything was tried.

I always carry CO2 AND a pump. I have a Zefal mini-pump. I have used it only twice but it worked well.

Please do not carry "just" CO2. Unless you use them all the time they can be finicky and you could waste two carts before you know it! Then you're stuck.

Good luck!

[sgtiger]

SGT- that's a very unusual frame - what kind of bike is that?

It's a custom Rodriguez Adventure. I'm 5'1 3/4" with a 26 in. standover. So long torso with short stumps for legs. The guys at R&E thought I'd be better off on a modified step-through frame than to try to shorten the seat tube down which would lengthen the DT way too much(can't remember why that wasn't ideal) and make it come in at a wierd angle(maybe, that's why). The short tube from the top of the ST to the sloping TT helps brace the TT and gives the frame strength overall for hauling heavy loads(gear + heavy rider-50 lbs. over my ideal weight). The problem with some frames is they flex(this might only be an issue with steel) a bit too much when fully loaded and this problem can be worse in a step-through design. I'm guessing that's what the whole discussion about lateral stiffness meant between BIAK, Smiley, and the actual builder guy(Sorry, I don't remember his name.) Anyhow, to give you an example of why lateral stiffness might be important: BIAK's previous touring bike would flex when he was climbing hills with a load which caused his chain to jump to a smaller cog and throw him off of his cadence.

Hopefully the more technically apt riders will weigh in and explain things better or correct me if I'm wrong. (Yoohoo, BIAK! Time to put that physics degree to use.)

[Sorry for the thread highjack]

[MM_QFC!]

hey, did any sharp-eyed woman notice SGTiger's riding beverage in her bottle cage?! No drinking and riding there, SGT!!!

I love the road morph too. I love the little fold out do hickey that let's you use it as a floor pump and the built-in guage. But it didn't work on my Rodriguez. I think I kept hitting it on my sloping top tube when I removed my water bottle and my bigger water bottle wouldn't fit with it mounted there(I chug down a lot of water on my rides so I prefer the bigger one). Also, it was too long for my seat tube.

So I searched & searched and found this one:

The Quicker Pro
http://www.quickex.com/

This is where I purchased mine:
http://www.velo-orange.com/quickerpropump.html

Here it is mounted on my seat tube:


Mimi posted a pic in the Seattle TE Fitting Party thread that shows it a bit better:


It has three telescoping sections and is about the size of my hand span(fingers splayed). FYI I do have largish hands: size 8 glove. I don't find it hard to use and I don't think I'm particularly blessed in the upper body strength department but YMMV. It might take more pumps than the Road Morph to pump-up a tire, but it takes a lot less plunging than other pumps of similar size with a lot less effort. It even has a built in guage. It would probably(sp?) fit in a large seat bag, something like the Baggins-type bags. I am suspicious of the attachment thingy that came with it but it hasn't fallen off so far.

I can try to get some more pics of it tomorrow if you want.