Silca Floor Pumps
 

The original Italian Silca company was bought by an American in 2013 and now it's headquarters and manufacturing are in Indianapolis, IN. It was quickly turned into a boutique brand with it's pumps selling for several times the cost of nearly all of its competitors. They are well made and durable (as were their Italian made predecessore) but my personal opinion is they, and current Silca's other products, are way overpriced and sold mostly to those who favor fashion over practicality. I'm certainly not their customer.

Mini pumps and CO2 inflators, along with shaped carbon frames essentially killed the demand for traditional frame pumps many years ago. I have a Blackburn frame pump, and while it has a lifetime warranty, is no longer in production and Blackburn's support was to buy a mini pump at a discount when it failed. I did buy the modern Silca frame pump to replace it, and have no heartburn over the cost, as I have little doubt it will be the last frame pump I ever need to buy.

PS/edit - I also own a 30+ year old Silca Super Pista floor pump, and also anticipate it being the last I will need. It, like the frame pump is fully rebuildable with affordable parts available through Silca.

I think my Silca floor pump cost about $50 on sale when I got it. If it were stolen, I might replace it with a new $130 pump. It's that good.

If I win the Powerball lottery, I might splurge and buy the $500 Silca while my wife is picking out our new house. While I respect Richard Sachs, his autograph isn't worth $300 to me.

somewhere along the line, Silca became an aspirational lifestyle company, selling overpriced toys to well-heeled gentleman cyclists. The stuff’s good, but crazy expensive for what it is

I'm on my 3rd Silca floor pump. I've had this one pushing 20 years. 1 of my previous Silca I ran over with my car (I didn't see it behind me) and I'm guessing the other is going strong for the person who stole it from me. My current pump has been rebuilt twice (it has seen lots of shop duty) and I wouldn't hesitate to rebuild it again if it needed it. At my age I'm not sure I'd buy another one, I highly doubt I'll need another pump that last me till I'm in my eighties.

Silca's cheapest steel floor pump looks very good and only $115 retail so that's the one I would buy if stuck on getting a new Silca. I bought an SKS Rennkompressor about 10 years ago for about 1/2 that price in today's dollars and I would say it's close to the equal of the Pista and spare parts are still readily available. Nothing fancy about it but it's bombproof and should outlast me. As mentioned Silca has chosen to go the chi chi high end ($$$$$$) route with some of it's products, kind of like Ceramic Speed with it's $400+ replacement jockey wheels/cage offerings but not sure you're getting your money's worth with these.

I bought mine used for $10. Truth be told I am not a big fan of the push-on type pump head on the Silca. I find it to be fussier to twist and push on than the usual flip-up lever type head found on the usual department store pumps. It also needs more valve stem length to function.

In 1980 Bikeology advertised the Silca art 74 floor pump for $36. Mail order--not bike shop retail--kind of like internet shopping-remember? In 2021 dollars that is $121.43--so it would seem $115 for the 2021 equivalent Silca floor pump is much more reasonable pricing than many(most?) other bike products offered to the more than casual cycling community. Richie's autograph? Priceless! ;)

I bought mine from Bike Nashbar's Youngstown, OH retail store in the 1990's. It was on their remainders/returns table and I got it for $12. I did work well but I also found the brass "bell" push-on head fussy to use, hard on the rubber seal and intolerant of short valve stems. I used it for several years until I finally bought the Park FPF-4 and Hirame head discussed in another thread here and never looked back. At the current prices I would never consider getting another Silca pump.

BTW, I still have two of the Silca brass bell heads in my parts box as a reminder of how much better my current pump head is.

If I were ever to need another pump it would be a Silca Pista. I have mine almost 30 years and have replaced a few parts and it still works.

I am still using the pink Silca Pista pump I bought in 1986. Dealer cost was 27 dollars, retail was 50 dollars. The leather plunger has been replaced 3 times and the rubber bushing in the pump head once. The head bushing is one a customer made out of a higher durometer rubber and much tougher and longer lasting.
Around 2011 I won an SKS compressor and it is one hell of a pump. I did give it to my son who used it for about 5 years and the head failed. He asked me about it and I told him to simply replace the head, but he ended up replacing it with a Silca pump as he recalled that is the pump I preferred. So far so good.

FWIW, I do plan to replace the Silca pump head with a lever type head since valve stems are changing to unthreaded and it is difficult for the push on head to stay in place at pressure.

The great thing about the Indy based Silica is that they support the pumps made 30 or more years ago. In fact, the head they make for the floor pumps--which is a durable elastomer inside the brass chuck is a great improvement over the traditional rubber gasket which always elongated (and hissed) after a few months of use. I have a regular pista bought in '81 and a super pista from '86 and both work like new or better. I'd buy again if I lost them or they were stolen.

Their "other" stuff is expensive sure, but i buy it sometimes. When you pay unsubsidized heath insurance and full price college tuition--as I do--it's really pocket change in relation and I don't worry about it. Same thing for my woodworking--I buy some luxury tools I don't really need, but it's fun for me and what else am I gonna spend my money on?

The current Silca range is very good, and all of the parts for older ones are still available.

you can find a cheap one on ebay and put a rebuild kit in it - that would still come out under 100 bucks.

and good for another 20 years

/markp