Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Mini Pumps

Okay people, give me your recommendations on a solid, relatively inexpensive mini-pump.
Ones with a short hose preferably.

I have a Topeak Mountain Morph. It's amazing. It has a hose, and a fold out handle and foot/stand thing. The hose keeps the pump on the ground, and keeps you from ripping you valve stem off like those ****ty jerk off pumps do. It's small, light, and once again, amazing.

Nothing comes close to the Topeak Road Morph pump... Topeak even recently released a mini version (http://www.topeak.com/2006/products/minipumps/minimorph.php). Haven't tried it yet and it doesn't come with a guage but it's smaller.

What is the main difference between the road morph and mountain morph?

I have no idea, but the mountain doesn't have a gauge. However, it inflates my BMX tires up to 120psi (you can usually only get about 60psi out of a mini pump). It also has shrader and presta adaptors, I don't know if the road does or not.

another for the topeak morph, never leave home without it. built in gauge is pretty accurate, and i've aired up my tires plenty of times with no problems.

Road has a reversible head, so I assume it has both schrader and presta ends.
So, I guess the difference is the gauge and since they're both the same price at Performance, seems like a no brainer.

Performance says that the mountain has the gauge, not the road.

I have the Topeak Master Blaster, and it's functional, but I'd like something better. I'm considering the Road Morph for convenience, or the Crank Bros Power Ultra Alloy for it's pocketable size. I'd appreiate input on both of these pumps.

Whoa whoa, mattface.
Get your own thread.;)

i used to carry the crank bros mini in my camelback when riding off-road, and everytime i'd need it to fix a flat i would pull it out in pieces. the body would unthread from the head and separate. this happened a couple of times, and just when i was considering loctite, deejay from innovations gave me a co2 head so i gave the crank bros to a friend.

Whoa whoa, mattface.
Get your own thread.;)

Dude take a look at the Crank Bros pump. It's under 7" long, and 118 grams. and $16 bucks at Cambria (http://www.cambriabike.com/shopexd.asp?id=20753) If it can really get a tire up to 115psi it's a really appealing little package.

That's pretty rad, but I really like a mini hose.
Then it works basically like a mini floor pump and it helps prevent ripping the valve when pumping.

you could probably get your tire up to 115psi with that, it would take a bit of effort, air volume adjust or not, and you would also run the risk of tearing your valve off from the physical strain. i was visiting portland and airing up my tires after my flight when i commited this very act. marched off downtown in search of a better pump (the morph), and haven't looked back.

I'm sold on the mountain morph.
$26 on ebay plus shipping.

the road morph comes both with gauge and without gauge versions
http://www.bikesomewhere.com/bikesomewhere.cfm/product/60/328/3807
http://www.bikesomewhere.com/bikesomewhere.cfm/product/60/328/85?g=1

$21 without a gauge.
Sold.

That's a link to the mountain morph without the gauge.

anyone try that cyclaire **** out yet? http://www.cyclaire.com/

So, both mountain and road come with and without gauges.
Any real difference between them?

so you're right, i still want a gauge

http://www.topeak.com/2006/products/minipumps/turbomorphg.php
http://www.topeak.com/2006/products/minipumps/roadmorphg.php

here's the two spec sheets for the gauged road and mtn versions

the turbo morph g has a flip down gauge, which is a little easier to read while inflating, and it seems to be a tad more accurate. the road morph has the gauge incorporated in the air line, so it takes some fiddling to get it in position to read.

edit...after looking at morbot's links, it seems that they may have changed the design for the road morph gauge, but f#ck it, my morph g is going on three years old now, with no problems yet (sounds of knocking on wood)

I'd forgo a guage to save 2" of packing space, but not to save $10 or 10 grams. The road Morph does look better all things considered. The hose and flip-out foot-stand thingy make an easier to use pump, but it's also 3" longer than the mini morph, so that may be the winner for me. The crank Bros is even 4" shorter than that, but I guess I'd rather have 10" of good pump than 6" of lame pump.

Any real difference between them?

The previous year's mountain models did not have a gauge and didn't have the same upper end range that the road model did... this year it appears they both have guages so probably not much but I haven't seen them yet.

edit: nashbar has the road morph for 26.95 (http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?sku=11578)

I love my Road Morph. Pumps to 120 psi pretty easily and having the built-in guage is pretty convenient. The reversible head insert came in handy last week when a friend of mine bought an old Peugot road bike with Schraeder valves and flat tires.

I ordered the road morph with the gauge.
Almost can't wait to get a flat on the road now.
Only not so much.

yeah, i have the road morph with gauge, and it's been awesome.

i just got the mini morph and it awesome. i can carry it in a pocket no prob. and it gets my tires up to 120psi. i've been carrying c02 previously but since getting the pump i just carry it.

When I can swing it, I'm getting one of these (the Topeak). Saw one in use at the MNG and that pretty much sold me. I'm back to CO2 at the moment, as my Crank Bros mini pump finally gave it up. I had mixed feelings about it until one day I was fixing a flat on my girlfriend's bike and the thing disintegrated into pieces. It disintegrated into even more pieces once I started whipping it against the sidewalk to demonstrate that I was bigger than it and that I would ruin its day more than it would ruin mine.

The Road Morph is only $30 (including shipping) from that BikeSomeWhere.com site.

Both are on Nashbar for under $30, right now.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROAD AND MOUNTAIN IS: road has presta valve and is skinnnier.
the mountian is the opposite

According to their description, both pumps have both presta and schrader valve ends.

The difference between real information, and information gleaned on internet message boards is that real information has some basis in reality.

I could have pulled an answer out of my butt, but I've never seen the MTB pump, so I'd have to guess at the difference. My flatulent guess: MTB version is higher volume design for filling big tires at lower pressures, the road version is a high pressure version for filling skinny tires at higher pressures. In other words the MTB version pushes more air per pump, but it's hard to push it once the pressure gets up there. The road version displaces less air making it easier to push at pressures north of 100psi.

Make sense? It does to me, that's why it's probably wrong.

The road morph is longer and skinnier. The mountain morph is thicker and shorter.

I have no idea if there are any other differences, however the difference in shape could change the volume of air pushed into the tire per pump. If you have road tires, I'd recommend getting the road morph unless other factors make the mountain morph more desireable (road morph won't fit in your bag, etc.).

Anyone tried emailing Topeak and just asking?

Also, the Crankbros pumps suck. I've had the miserable experience of using them in the past and they just pop off the valve once the psi starts to go remotely high. Skip them and go w/ any number of other decent minipump/co2 options.

The difference between real information, and information gleaned on internet message boards is that real information has some basis in reality.

I could have pulled an answer out of my butt, but I've never seen the MTB pump, so I'd have to guess at the difference. My flatulent guess: MTB version is higher volume design for filling big tires at lower pressures, the road version is a high pressure version for filling skinny tires at higher pressures. In other words the MTB version pushes more air per pump, but it's hard to push it once the pressure gets up there. The road version displaces less air making it easier to push at pressures north of 100psi.

Make sense? It does to me, that's why it's probably wrong.


Exactly. One is more ideal for not-so-high pressure but more volume (ATB tires) and the other for low volume, high-pressure application (road). I have the mountain morph, and I pump tires up to 120psi with it routinely. It takes a little bit of special technique, kind of like doing chest compressions for CPR, but it works just fine. The road morph pump should be able to go even higher without requiring such a hard push, but it will not move as many CFM of air per stroke.

Yes, both the road and mountain versions of the morph pumps have an adaptable head. It's not one of those crappy ones that fits both types of stems really badly, either. You unthread a ring from the end, pop out a rubber and a plastic piece, flip both of them 180 degrees, and reassemble. Bam; you just switched from Presta to Schraeder or vice versa. Just be careful not to cross thread that little aluminum ring when putting it back onto the plastic pump head. I haven't done it yet, but it feels like it would be easy to do if you were in a hurry and not watching it.

I know a guy here in Mpls that has that compact Crank Bros pump and he hates it. No firsthand experience here, but he was very interested in my morph pump when I showed it to him, and he had a few crummy stories about his CB pump to share. Based on that, I'd steer clear of it. If you want something small, stick with CO2, not a tiny pump.

On the topic of bigger pumps, I picked up a Joe Blow last week to keep at home. It's nice, but the T handle is a but uncomfortably flexy when under heavy load. It also takes a pretty good push once you get up around 90 PSI and above. The upside is that I can fill most tires extremely quickly. I think I filled my road tires from too low to safely ride on to 100PSI in less than five pumps each. I brought the Joe Blow home from the bike shop in a pannier bag (it sticks way out the top) and pulled it out to see how it worked and top off my tires while waiting for the train. After I finished and put it back in the pannier, some guy standing there asked me if I thought that smaller pumps weren't as good or what. I was very tempted to play the part of some excentric weirdo, but I gave him the straight story.

yeah, i have the road morph with gauge, and it's been awesome.
+1

I have the Topeak Master Blaster, and it's functional, but I'd like something better. I'm considering the Road Morph for convenience, or the Crank Bros Power Ultra Alloy for it's pocketable size. I'd appreiate input on both of these pumps.

Oh man, reminds me of this game
http://www.nesfiles.com/NES/Blaster_Master/Blaster_Master_cart.jpg

I've got the Mountain Morph. I liked the shape of the handle better. Tested it on the 125psi tires on my Fuji;took longer than my floor pump,but way easier than my Crank Bros.

I originally bought the Crank Bros for it's small size and built-in gauge. But it wouldn't sit on some presta valves right. Tried to help a dude at CM and it was a real pain to hold the pump on the valve straight and pump at the same time. 2 person job,and the friggen thing slipped and we lost most of the air we put in. Bought the Topeak the next day.