Sunday, July 7, 2013

pump problems

The Excellent Wife (TEW) has been riding more, and is sensibly concerned about what might happen if she gets a flat. The frame pump that had been on her bike went missing (as they sometimes do). I had a couple of others in the garage, so I checked them out.

Neither the Wrench Force mini-pump nor the Specialized Windpipe (neither of which are still available in the models I had) were able to get any air in the tube at all. The Wrench Force could fill the tube when it was off the wheel, but when I mounted the tube, no air went from the pump into the tube.

I had the Race Rocket on the Yellow Maserati road bike, and that one will work for either Presta or Schrader valves, so that's now on TEW's bike. I had a Road Morph that I had bought some time ago, but never mounted, because the mounting options with the included bracket were either to hang it from the top tube (ugly) or replace one of the bottle mounts (not happenin'). The bracket for the missing pump fit the Road Morph in the offset postion next to the water bottle cage, so that's what's on the Yellow Maserati now.

The Road Morph is carried by many of the people I ride with, and whose opinions I respect... but it's bigger than the Race Rocket, and seems like more of a commitment to repair than I want to make. The Morph is also a bit harder to use than the Rocket. But it's got an in-line gauge, and could be used instead of a floor pump. But I keep a floor pump in the car, as well as in the garage.  And I can get a tire pumped up enough to get home on with the Race Rocket, and I carry two CO2's ...

Do I wanna bag the Road Morph and get myself another Race Rocket?

No comments:

Post a Comment