Tire pump to carry on rides?
 

Have been going on some long mountain bike trail rides without any tire repair kit. So far no flats but l feel l'm pushing my luck. What pump would you suggest to carry or mount on my rock hopper?

I've had good luck with a Crank Brothers Gem hand pump ($20 @ Amazon) and would suggest you carry a spare tube. It's no fun patching in the wilds.

I would recommend the Mountain Morph from Topeak. If you decide on another pump totally fine just get it from an actual bike shop even if it is online, that way you know you are getting legitimate goods.

Would agree on a spare tube always tubeless or not. Patches are really an at home deal to do while relaxed and not stressed out for time. I still carry them with me for an absolute emergency situation but I will go for a tube before patches when I am out and if I am fully prepared I am usually less likely to get a flat in the first place. However when I am not flat city baaaaby.

How big are your tires?

pump, co inflator, patches & at least 1 spare tube. all-day ride, 2 tubes

when you get your pump, try it out to be sure you can use it

The two models of Morph pumps (road and mountain) are different diameter. You can find this same difference across styles and brands. The (fatter) mountain one can push more air in fewer strokes but the road one takes less muscle to make high pressure. The road one is consequently lighter too.

I have mt morph pumps, two of them, in my laptop backpack and my Camelbak. They have turned out to be pretty large things to carry, for as little as I use them. More than a foot long and more than half a pound. I am usually airing up with an inflator or floor pump before a ride. Flats while out riding with tubeless are very rare. Maybe I'd like them better on a tour or something, where there is no floor pump.

I think if I went back to tubes, I'd also go back to CO2, at least for local riding. If I then added a pump it would be tiiiiny because it'd be the last thing to try. I switched to pumps because CO2 is not that compatible with tubeless sealant.

Topeak alone has pages and pages of pump styles for sale. There are a lot of gimmicks offered. Just for fun I made this list, and this is just one brand:

• convertible presta / schraeder head (fortunately most of them do)
• pumps on both strokes
• switch to a smaller shaft / cylinder nested inside the main one when the pressure gets high
• various levels of material from all-plastic to all-aluminum to carbon-fiber
• has a little hose
• Has a little foot
• has a little pressure gauge
• has a little dial pressure gauge
• has a little digital pressure gauge
• hides in a seat post
• pump head doubles as CO2 inflator
• Has ends made to nock into frame corners
• any of these in different diameters and lengths and color

I am pretty sure I've seen one that has multiple telescopes like a pirate spyglass, but I don't see it from Topeak

The newest wrinkle is lithium battery electric pumps. I feel that these are booming and I'll probably try one soon.

Thanks for all the suggestions. My tires are 29x2.35. I have been considering the electric pump but worry about trusting it will work when needed. I guess this comes from being an electrician for 40 years🤣

if you get a co inflator, get the larger cartridges

Haha, I totally get the irony of an electrician with 40 years of experience not trusting an electric pump out on the trails! Sometimes simplicity really is the most reliable option when you are far from home.

Since you are running pretty high-volume tires (29x2.35), a tiny emergency hand pump will take forever and exhaust your arms. I have to agree with the others on getting a high-volume manual pump like the Topeak Mountain Morph. It acts like a mini floor pump and makes life so much easier.

And as everyone else said, definitely pack at least one spare tube. Patching a tire in the dirt and sweating on the side of a trail is never a fun time!

This is my favorite gimmick. I can pump way faster with a foot plate to hold the pump down vs. other pumps that are hands only. I've seen people damage their valves with the back and forth wiggling of the hands only ones too.

The branding long since wore off on my decades old one with a foot that swivels out. Have my eye on a Muc Off Airmach Mini with a hinged foot for once it dies.

I have small frame pumps on my bikes but honestly they’re next to useless. Good for small tube inflations but will never bring a road bike tire to near full pressure. I’ve looked into many of the small rechargeable ones too but besides costs there’s pros and some cons to several of them and frankly for the price of those you can buy almost a full box of CO2 cartridges and carry three with you at all time. Using a small nozzle one cartridge will give you a full tire of pressure in 30 seconds. And carry at least one tube and three tire levers. A small cheap under the seat bag will do ya or a pouch stuffed into a jersey pocket.

I have a Topeak Mountain Morph for my gravel bike haven’t had a flat but I will eventually. I have the Topeak Road Morph for my more road oriented gravel bike and it has worked great when I have had to fix a flat in BFE. I always carry an extra tube and some patches the sticker type.

IMO, the standard for many years was the Zefal HPX frame pump, it was sold in 3 or 4 sizes to fit your frame perfect. What made the HPX great is that the handle was sprung to hold in place in the frame, but with a small turn of the handle, it locked out that spring so you didn't have a spongy handle when pumping, it worked GREAT. Mine went under the top tube, the radiused brackets at the head fit nested perfect in the angle between the top tube and down tube (54cm large tube frame). Some frames have a nub that one or both ends of pumps fit on, some go verticle in front of the seat tube. That pump could do high pressure road race tubes, and still, due to length, had the volume for fatter tires. I think they later came out with a "Mountain Zefal" that pumped higher volume. Zefal heads could be unscrewed and the rubber insert reversed to convert between presta and schrader valves.

These days, my monotube folder frame won't work with a frame pump, though many have bottle cage brackets that still allow a bottle cage, with the pump snapped in place to the side.

My pump these days is a short (micro) pump, a cheap Schwinn branded one that came with a used bike I bought; It fits in my trunk bag, has a built-in gauge, and cleverly rotates to provide a small lever to put my foot on when pumping vertically, allowing both hands to be on pump lever, a big help (plus it has a short hose to allow this). Great little pump, sufficient volume/speed and pressure for non-road-race tires.

I saw what looked like a fantastic pump at a used sport gear store, Crank Brothers Power Pump Pro; All aluminum, dual head, just twist barrel in direction of head you want to use, built in gauge. Looked quality. Had two modes, lower and higher volume, pressure would be inverse. But I tried it in the store, even in high volume, it was *incredibly slow*, it would have taken me steady pumping for at least 15-20 minutes or more to inflate my 20"/406x44 tubes. Just too slow. I later found an online review that said same. They now have newer micro pumps, I would hope better performance.

Test any pump you are interested in. Volume/speed and pressure really matter, especially if you pump it up and it still leaks and you need to redo things.

I used to have a mini pump mounted on all my bikes so I wouldn’t get caught out by not remembering to carry one. This proved to be a false sense of security when one of them failed after fixing a flat on a trail. Another rider happened along and lent me her Tattico pump. It was a gem. She said she’d researched pumps and that one was recommended.

I found when researching it myself later that cheaper pumps often fail because the o-rings/seals either just fail over time or they fail under the heat caused by pumping. I think the one that let me down failed from heat. It was almost hot to the touch. So I tested all of my pumps and threw away most of them. The ones that still were OK were the Topeaks. I kept those and left them on a couple of bikes, but I also bought a couple of Tattico Silcas to keep with the gear I use for all rides. They fit in the bottle-cage mounts that were already on my existing bikes and I bought some extra mounts that I use on new bikes.

I received a CYC+ pump for Christmas from my son and it's the one for me from now on.