Pumps & CO2 inflators

The Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HPG (with Gauge) is basically a miniature track pump that sits on your bottle bosses. It'll raise a 700x23 from zero to 120psi in just 158 strokes and three minutes while the gauge seems accurate to within three psi. But be careful of accidentally depressing the bleed valve when unscrewing the hose if you are using it with a Schrader valve.

Topeak Mini Morph splices the best features of a track and mini pump - you know, in one of those experiments involving matter transfer demonstrated by Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum's unfortunate scientist in David Cronenberg's visceral remake of the Fly).

Lezyne is a US company producing a wide range of tools, lights and other bike accessories, including this very nice Tech Drive HP pump. The HP stands for 'High Pressure' and the Tech Drive does exactly that: it gets your tyres up to high pressure, in an impressively short time for a mini-pump.

This sturdy floor pump is great and makes you wonder whether there's any point in paying more.

What's good? Funny you should ask... For a start, both the base and the 30mm-diameter barrel are steel, and fairly hefty steel at that. You're going to have to do something pretty darn careless to wreck either... and that's coming from a man who can break most things without trying.

The Portland Design Works (PDW) big silver pump is a beautifully executed example of the ton-up pressure midi size pump that has largely superseded the humble frame-fit.

It might be tempting to dismiss the Birzman Zacoo mini pump on the strenght of its perhaps laughable moniker alone. Don't it pulled the rug from beneath this doubting thomas, delivering a very commendable 110psi into a 700x25 within five minutes. Okay, in the heat of competition, you'll still want the Co2 cartridges close at hand and big volume mtb slicks were a morale sapping slog. However, convincing build quality means the Birzman delivers genuinely realistic road pressures, stealing a march on other pocket-sized competition.

SKS Puro Pro road pump's diminutive size will appeal to racers determined to shave every last gram from their bikes without forgoing a basic toolkit. However, while a tangible complement to Co2 inflators and with build quality to the brand's usual high standards; you'll need arms like Popeye and the patience of a saint to restore everyday 23mm training rubber from flaccid to 125, let alone 144psi as claimed.

As track pumps go, the Canyon Elite is on the big side, with a thick teardrop-shaped shaft, a heavy-duty-footplate, nice long hose, and a chunky soft-grip handle. But what really marks it out from other pumps is the electronic digital gauge. So when pumping up your tyres, instead of looking at a needle going round a dial, you look at LED digits on a little screen.

Does the pump work? Yes. Is the electronic gauge necessary? I'm not convinced.

There's a huge range of mini-pumps out there, but the Birzman Horizons stands out in the crowd, combining contemporary design with a few old-school attributes that work surprisingly well.

First - the dimensions. At 250mm end-to-end, it's not as small as some mini-pumps, but any shorter and the pumping efficiency would be severely reduced. As it is, I needed around 250 thrusts to get a 23x700 tyre up to 100psi - about three times more than with a full-sized pump - although this is an issue with all mini-pumps, not just this Birzman.

There's no two ways about it: I've never seen a pump like BBB's Oval Integrate Mini Pump before. With its slender concave shape, the design is simply unique, and undeniably intriguing.

So let's have a closer look.