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Tyres have become thicker and the pressures on sporty bikes have risen to racing bike level - the developments of recent years are good reasons to load up air pumps with more oomph for the road. A new category is attempting to combine the user-friendliness and volume of a floor pump with the pack size of a mini pump. In theory, these mini floor pumps save arm strength. You work with your body weight and the ground counteracts this.
What can the mini floor pumps do in practice?
In the test, they are on average around ten centimetres longer and 100 grams heavier than the classic mini pumps. They are therefore only suitable for transport on the frame to a limited extent, especially as their design makes them susceptible to rattling and dirt. Almost all of them have a pressure gauge, folding feet and long hoses. But what can these pannier pumps do in practice? The models tested fall somewhat short of expectations. The number of pump strokes required is not significantly lower than that of the best mini pumps. Up to around three bar, the power saving is low, especially as some models are not easy to handle. Tips for the pannier are Topeak and Zéfal.
With the classic mini pumps, telescopic technology or pull-and-push function provided no advantage. Hand pumps with a diameter of around 25 millimetres offer the best compromise between power and volume. Above around three bar, they should be thinner. The hose connections on many models are particularly impressive at higher pressures. They reduce the risk of damaging the valve when applying the necessary force. In the end, Topeak and Lezyne came out on top with two extremely simple, lightweight and well-designed models.
Hand pumps
Floor pumps
You can download the complete comparison test of hand and floor pumps including all individual ratings as a PDF below the article. The test costs 1.99 euros.
Why not free of charge? Because quality journalism has a price. In return, we guarantee independence and objectivity. This applies in particular to the tests in MYBIKE. We don't charge for them, but the opposite is the case: we do charge for them - hundreds of thousands of euros every year.
