Originally Posted by
calamarichris
After reading this thread, I went home last night and tested the following minipumps, (all of which fit inside my Jandt saddle bags (I mislike visible frame pumps too)):
Crank Bros Plastic Body. 40 strokes at "High Volume" setting, then 100 strokes at "High Pressure" Setting got me up to 75psi.
Crank Bros Aluminum Body. 40 strokes at High Volume, then 100 strokes at High Pressure got up to almost 80psi. About an inch an a half longer than the plastic model above (but it still fit inside my saddle bag), and it seemed more robust as well.
Blackburn Airstik SL. 200 strokes got up to about 70psi. This pump is very compact and is therefore a PITA to pump toward the end.
Topeak Pocket Rocket Micro. 200 strokes got up to about 70psi. This tiny pump almost looks like it belongs in a woman's makeup kit. It's tiny size made it difficult to hold steady toward the end and each pump was chirping out leakage (although this admittedly may have been due to the fact that I'd worked up a light sweat pumping all these little things.)
All tests were performed on a Dura Ace 7850 C24 Clincher wheel (which is 22mm wide and therefore has more volume than many 19mm rims), with a Continental race tube and a 23mm Conti Gatorskin tire.
I'll do another, more scientific test later, but I had other stuff to do last night and couldn't spent a whole hour testing these things. Could probably have continued pumping and achieved a higher PSI, but time...
Everyone always raves about Lezyne. Do they make a pump shorter than 6-inches?
I expect from personal experience with a variety of different pumps - that each one has a technique that works best with it. And the best evaluation would also include finding the opimum technique for each pump.
The only one one that list that I have myself is the Blackburn Airstik SL and normally I don`t like minipumps without hoses because of the risk of valve stem damage - but this one is different.
Its actually designed to have the head braced against the palm of your hand once the valve is inserted and then your right hand (if thats what you`re pumping with) is countered by the force from your left palm. Usually its a real effort to get high pressure from a pump this small, but this model has worked out to be less effort than some larger models.