This Pump Doesn’t Suck

I just got back from four days of hammering my bike and my body in Canada: one day of classic Vancouver North Shore riding, 3 days of lift-served dowhhill action in Whistler and one epic climb and brutally technical downhill in Squamish, BC. Most of our crew shed some blood, and we killed our share of innertubes on the jumps, big drops and sharp rocks. The spike-filled pits of doom, wild tigers and Canadian mountain ninjas probably got a few too.

By the end of the trip, everyone was asking me if they could use my pump, even though they had their own. What’s so cool about my little $25 pump? It’s a Topeak Road Morph, and it is the coolest portable pump I have ever seen.

It folds up small enough to fit in the middle pouch of a 2-liter Camelback, so in that regard it is on par with most other “frame” pumps. It’s not the smallest, but small enough. Here’s why you want it:

• This pump has a gauge. No matter how hard you try, I guarantee that if you do not use a gauge, you will not inflate your tires to a good working pressure, and that means you will get pinch flats. Try it, test yourself, I bet when you think you have 45 pounds, it’s more like 20.
• This pump has a flexible hose between the pump body and the valve. Ever get your new tube installed just to shear the valve stem off with the herky-jerky action of pumping it up? If you haven’t, you will. Very upsetting, especially if you are only carrying one. The hose is super important.
• This pump has a T-handle and a foot pedal so you can use it like a floor pump. Priceless.
• It pumps high-pressure enough to fill your road tires too, reaches 120 pounds easily.
• Yes, you can inflate Presta or Schrader valves, so your old Huffy is covered too.
• This thing folds, converts, and morphs like a damn Transformer. That’s just fun.

They have a Mountain Morph too. I’m not sure what the difference is, but I’m guessing that it might be high-volume instead of high-pressure, or maybe it has some anti-spandex slogans on the side. I’m not sure. I think I’d rather have the ability to hit those high pressures, if I wanted to. We filled our big, fat freeride tires in a reasonable amount of time, so no loss there. There you go, go get this pump, and become the envy of all your friends next time you flat out hucking a 20 foot drop into a tiger pit.