Many cyclists ride with too little air in their tyres. This is bad for the tyres and costs unnecessary energy when riding. Clever cyclists are therefore well advised to check their tyre pressure regularly. Frequent riders and meticulous types often inflate the tyres of their bikes weekly or even more often. The quickest and easiest way to do this is with a good floor pump.
There are lots of different models, but which ones are best for trekking bikes? Floor pumps can be divided into three categories. The first category are pumps that are primarily intended for mountain bikes. With a thick cylinder, these pumps are able to pressurise even fat knobby tyres to 2 bar with just a few strokes. However, because they are designed with a large volume, it takes a lot of effort to inflate them as soon as a little more pressure is required. MTB pumps usually do not manage more than 4.5 to 5.5 bar, depending on the model. They are therefore not suitable for most trekking bikes.
The second and largest category are normal floor pumps, whose upper performance limit is around 8 to 11 bar. Their cylinders tend to be thinner, but they are easier to pump. For comparison: a normal 28" 37-622 trekking tyre is designed for around 4 to 6 bar. Most of the pumps in our selection of twelve are "normal" pumps, they are all suitable for trekking bike tyres.
The third category are so-called racing compressors, which are suitable for inflating thin road bike tyres to a really high pressure. Their upper pressure limit can be 20 bar (!) or even higher. With thicker tyres, they need many strokes, but they are rather easy to pump with little effort. They are also suitable for trekking bikes.
Since the advent of mountain bikes, floor pumps must be able to operate not only Dunlop and Presta valves, but also Schrader valves (auto valves). To ensure this, manufacturers have found different solutions.
In the past, most floor pumps had a small pressure gauge at the bottom of the base, which was often difficult to decipher. For this reason, better models had a pressure gauge at the top of the cylinder. This improved readability, but had the disadvantage that the pump design became more complex. The air flow had to be channelled from the bottom of the foot to the top of the pressure gauge. Interestingly, the latest floor pumps often have the pressure gauge at the base again, but now with a much larger diameter.
Twelve floor pumps had to prove themselves in the TREKKINGBIKE test. Three of the four entry-level pumps have relatively thick cylinders with a diameter of 38 mm. They are particularly suitable for thicker tyres. However, all four pumps can also inflate thinner trekking tyres to 6 bar - the Procraft, as the test winner in this class, is the easiest. All four floor pumps are more than sufficient for occasional riders and were rated "good".
If you get on your bike more often and therefore inflate your tyres more often, you should consider investing 20-30 euros more. The mid-range floor pumps not only feel better, they also pump better. All of them deserve the rating "very good".
The high-quality floor pumps go one better - three are "Super" in terms of pumping performance. All four are assembled to a high standard. The Profil Max FP70 falls slightly short due to its pump head and handle, but the other three pumps are all recommendable. Now you have the choice.
The full-length article from issue 2/2014 is available as a free PDF download.
