Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Lezyne Micro Floor Drive with Gauge

7
£41.99

VERDICT:

7
10
Delightful to use and beautifully designed track style mini pump
Weight: 
211g
Contact: 
www.upgradebikes.co.uk

At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.

What the road.cc scores mean

Good scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.

  • Exceptional
  • Excellent
  • Very Good
  • Good
  • Quite good
  • Average
  • Not so good
  • Poor
  • Bad
  • Appalling

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.

Beautifully CNC machined, anodised aluminium, its 29.2cm profile means it's a bit of a beast on the bottle boss but coupled with oversized piston and 3mm thick stainless steel foot-peg delivers real world road and mountain bike pressures. The other secret to efficient inflation comes from a separate hose-it's a beefy, rubberised affair with integral pen gauge so you can tell pressure at a glance. Reversible flip-threaded presta/Schrader 'chuck' (Valve head to the rest of us) means you'll never be left in the lurch and can pass that kindness to a fellow rider down on their luck.

Experimentation suggests the micro will sit snugly inside other resin pump brackets but invest in some extra long bottle screws. Keep the Velcro tie nipped tight, otherwise the barrel can shuffle downwards. It's best mounted to the down, rather than seat tube.

Down to business and with a series of freshly mended tubes courtesy of Lezyne's classic patch kit, it wasn't long before we had tyres of all shapes and sizes back to optimum pressure.

Technique doesn't really matter and there's no need to use it track-pump stylee - doing so quickly results in nasty scratches around the base so I cupped ours in my palm and inflated as usual.

Sixty psi comes along mighty fast, irrespective of tyre size, so don't get distracted too long or you'll have 75 instead of 45psi inside the trailer tyre, calling for an urgent press of the bleed valve. We've had a 26x1.75 to 80psi in a matter of three hundred strokes, a 700x35 to 100psi in 182 (by which time the piston was close to locking out) and a 700x25 to a genuine 115 in 160.

The Micro Floor Drive has, what Lezyne have dubbed, ABS - and who doesn't love a techy acronym, this one stands for Air Bleed System (patent pending) and if you're using it with a Presta valve it means you can bleed the air backed up in the hose before you releasing the pump head. Lezyne claim benefit here is that it "removes the challenge of unthreading removable Presta valve cores after inflation" - that was'nt an operation I'd ever thought of in terms of 'challenge' before, but you live and learn. The other claimed advantage is that it helps prolong the life of the o-ring seal on the pump head, and we can definitely see the point of that. If you're inflating a tyre with a Schrader valve the ABS lets adjust the tyre pressure by letting air out of the tyre - useful with a full size track pump, but it sounds like doing things the hard way when using a mini pump with an accurate pressure guage to inflate a tyre even with a pump as pleasurable to use as this - hence my note at the top about taking care not to engage it accidentally.

Oh, I nearly forgot, clever little adaptors mean it also inflates balls and airbeds making it great for those rides to the beach; oh and there is also an HP version of the pump - without a guauge.

Verdict

Delightful to use and beautifully designed track style mini pump

If you're thinking of buying this product using a cashback deal why not use the road.cc Top Cashback page and get some top cashback while helping to support your favourite independent cycling website

road.cc test report

Make and model: Lezyne Micro Floor Drive Gauge

Size tested: n/a

Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

"A compact HP pump design that brings floor pump function and power along for the ride". Reaches a genuine 120psi relatively quickly.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

The aluminum barrel, shaft, base, and T-handle are custom CNC-machined for durability, ergonomics

and reduced weight. A stainless steel wire foot peg provides stability while pumping

The ABS Flip-Thread Chuck and 24" | 60cm long rubber hose makes it easy to reach both Presta

and Schrader valves. Speed Chuck is also included. HPG model features in-line pressure

gauge with marks for psi/bar. Includes Composite Matrix frame pump mount.

HPG: 300mm | 194g

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
7/10
Rate the product for performance:
 
8/10

Impressive.

Rate the product for durability:
 
7/10
Rate the product for weight, if applicable:
 
7/10

205g by my scales.

Rate the product for comfort, if applicable:
 
7/10

Surprisingly comfortable, right up to 120psi.

Rate the product for value:
 
6/10

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

Essentially a track pump in minature. Delivers the high pressures demanded by road tyres remarkably efficiently - even the gauge seems accurate give or take 3psi. However, care is needed to avoid engaging the bleed when unscrewing the hose.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

Very original, beautifully designed and delightful to use.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

Price and the bleed valve's location.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes.

Would you consider buying the product? Possibly.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes.

Overall rating: 7/10

About the tester

Age: 38  Height: 1m 81  Weight: 70 kilos

I usually ride: Rough Stuff Tourer Based around 4130 Univega mtb Frameset  My best bike is: 1955 Holdsworth Road Path and several others including cross & traditional road

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Most days  I would class myself as: Experienced

I regularly do the following types of riding: cyclo cross, commuting, touring, fixed/singlespeed, mtb,

 

Shaun Audane is a freelance writer/product tester with over twenty-eight years riding experience, the last twelve (120,000 miles) spent putting bikes and kit through their paces for a variety of publications. Previous generations of his family worked at manufacturing's sharp end, thus Shaun can weld, has a sound understanding of frame building practice and a preference for steel or titanium framesets.
Citing Richard Ballantine and an Au pair as his earliest cycling influences, he is presently writing a cycling book with particular focus upon women, families and disabled audiences (Having been a registered care manager and coached children at Herne Hill Velodrome in earlier careers)

Add new comment

2 comments

Latest Comments