Originally Posted by
rekmeyata
The Zefal frame pumps are great, BUT, those two plastic feet on one end are not made as durable as the feet use to be, mine broke after just 3 months of use, I still have an old Zefal from 40 years ago, and the feet never broke. Our stupid world, and somehow all this replacing of stuff we buy is good for the environment, am I missing something here???
I weigh 175 and use 25c tires, and depending on the tires I need 100 on the rear and 95 on the front with my Vittoria tires, but other bikes with the same size tires only need 90 read and 80 front. But even with that Lezyne Road Drive large, trying to out 100 psi in is a huge chore and a huge pain, and it's the best mini on the market! That Topeak I have won't let me get to 100, the most I can get it to is 90. Granted, I'm no Popeye!! Plus I'm 70 years old, and like you, my shoulders joints hurt from bicycle crashes over the years, when going to the higher pressures. But most mini pumps won't let you get to 80, which is better than they were just 15 years ago when all you get out of most was 65!
When I was in my 20s and had a bike with tubular tires, tried to get over 100 PSI in them. That was before I realized that what really mattered was the suppleness of thr tire casing, not so much how high the pressure was (or looked at another way, how hard the road felt when you hit a bump).
I had a plastic frame fit Silca (still have it, have not used it in years), and one time when I got perturbed with how much trouble I had in getting much pressure, I calculated out the inside diameter of the pump tube, and from that calculated how many pounds of force I had to push my two hands together if there was no friction when you are pumping it that way, and was shocked to learn that there was no way I would ever be able to get the recommended pressure.
When I first saw the Lezyne and Toppeak pumps that had a foot rest, yet were small enough to carry on a bike, I knew that was the answer to life's problems.
My narrowest tire on any of my bikes is 28mm now, that still needs some good pressure, but since that rarely goes very far from home, I carry the Zefal HPX on it. I can ride that a short distance with less pressure. My rando bike, that as 32mm tires, also carry a Zefal frame fit pump on it, but when I ride a brevet I carry one of my pumps with a foot piece in the saddle bag.