Originally Posted by
FBinNY
Yes and No.
The valve itself is unaffected by pumping, and until a few years ago neither was the tube. That's because the valves had fairly large metal base flanges which kept them from pulling through or wiggling in the rim. Over the years this base flange was eliminated and replaced by a molded rubber cone which glues the valve to the tube. Unfortunately to save dough, many makers have shortened the metal portion of the valve so it ends about 1/8" short of the tube. That means that the high stress zone where the valve passes through the rim is all rubber and it's no longer rare for valves to be broken off when hand pumping, or pulled out when the pump is disconnected.
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Welcome to a world going cheap. This way they can charge you $7 to $10 for a tube and not worry about another tube purchase happening every 7 to 10 years, now it can happen every 1 to 3 years if your lucky.
But there is a savior...besides Jesus; there are a couple of good semi mini pumps on the market that now come with a hose. Using a hose, like a home pump, puts far less stress on the pump then a pump that attaches directly to the stem. The best pump for the money is the Topeak Road Morph (a G after Morph means it has a built in gauge). The Topeak has a fold out L handle and a fold out foot peg, this pump will pump to higher pressures and do it easier then any other pump on the market. But it's external hose makes the pump look kind of ugly and it weighs a lot, but the heft of the pump does mean it's built sturdy and should hold up a long time. The other con is is that it doesn't come with a water cage mount to mount the pump off to the side of the cage...weird, but you can buy one from Topeak for $7. The price of this pump is around $25 on sale.
The other good mini is the Lezyne Road Drive, this pump is a very nice looking pump, the geniuses over at Lezyne hid the hose inside the pump for a much nicer looking pump and it weighs about 100 grams less then the Topeak. Con is the pump doesn't get to as high of pressures like the Topeak and it takes more effort to get to it's max of 110...not the claimed 160 from the manufacture, and this effort is high due mostly because there's no fold out handle and no fold out foot peg to assist with the pumping. The other con is the darn thing cost $45 to $47 and it doesn't include a gauge, but you can buy a optional gauge hose for $22, get both and your almost at $70 vs $32 for the Topeak if you get the cage mount.
And just in case your wondering, no mini pump on the market will reach the manufactures claimed psi rating! Most in fact will be lucky to get to 100 and that will be with over 500 strokes and a hard effort for the last 10 psi.
So eliminate some of the problems of the inferior built stems and get a bike pump with a hose.