Topeak pocket Rocket

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Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
Being a sucker for mini pumps, and having owned many over the years and found most to be useless to varying degrees I thought I'd give the Topeak Pocket Rocket a try as CRC are selling them for £12.99 delivered. Now I'm a big fan of Topeak, owning both the Master Blaster and the Mini Blaster, both of which are described as mini pumps but I would class them more as small, being a bit bulky for the back pocket of a jersey. I don't like clippling them to the frame as they end up covered in road crap.

The Pocket Rocket arrived next day, and at just 22cm with a nice slim barrel it sits unobtrusively in the pocket. No good if it doesn't do the job though, so down came the best bike for an attempt to get the Fortezza Tricomp up to a rideable pressure. Not only did it get it to "safe to ride", but it put easily in excess of 100psi, the difference between giving it the berries and limping home hoping you don't get a pinch flat. It takes a good few strokes to get to pressure, but even my non-Stallone arms managed it without seizing up in pain.

Highly recommended for those who want a pump that's small and light, I reckon 120psi would be easily achievable and included in the price is a bottle mount bracket if you prefer to keep the pockets for munchies. It's no track pump obviously, but the effort required does no more than get you pleasantly warm on a cold day.
 

I like Skol

A Minging Manc...
Perfect timing as I have just been on Wiggle looking at mini pumps myself and some of the customer reviews are underwhelming to say the least. Any chance of a linky so I know I am looking at the pump you are suggesting?
 

bobones

Veteran

That's the very pump I have. I used it for the first time in anger this weekend (front wheel puncture Saturday, rear wheel puncture Sunday) while out on the road and it passed with flying colours. It got both tyres to a healthy pressure no bother and my trips continued. It looks good and feels strong and light and is quite unobtrusive on the frame mount next to my bottle. A track pump is obviously quicker, and that's what I use most of the time, but this is great when out on the road. Can't say I'm half as impressed with my new Gatorskins after this weekend's performance.
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
I'm going to have to get mine out and on the bike somehow. I brought it, brand new, still in its box at a carboot sale for....50p :blush: :biggrin: :biggrin: But there's no mounting bracket.
Glad to hear it does the job. I hate having that big ugly black frame pump on the Bianchi.
 
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Smokin Joe

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
I'm going to have to get mine out and on the bike somehow. I brought it, brand new, still in its box at a carboot sale for....50p :blush: :biggrin: :biggrin: But there's no mounting bracket.
Glad to hear it does the job. I hate having that big ugly black frame pump on the Bianchi.
Email me your details and I'll send you mine, I won't be using it.
 

yello

Guest
It's odd, I read a few negative reviews on Wiggle that have led me to believe there must be 2 different pumps with the same name! Or a rogue batch or something. How can the same product generate such polar opposite reviews?
 
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Smokin Joe

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
It's odd, I read a few negative reviews on Wiggle that have led me to believe there must be 2 different pumps with the same name! Or a rogue batch or something. How can the same product generate such polar opposite reviews?
People's expectations differ. Some will expect a mini pump to work like a track pump and feel cheated when it doesn't. Even the highly rated Lezyene gets a slagging from some reviewers.
 

bobones

Veteran
It's odd, I read a few negative reviews on Wiggle that have led me to believe there must be 2 different pumps with the same name! Or a rogue batch or something. How can the same product generate such polar opposite reviews?
It scores 4.4/5 from 128 reviews . Only 3 of the reviews were really negative. For those who didn't like it, I'm guessing the valve stem wasn't long enough to fully engage in the pump or the pump was faulty.
 

yello

Guest
or the pump was faulty.

Yes, that was my take on it. When a pump doesn't work at all, you'd figure people would consider that too rather than just review it as a cr*p pump.

So I guess that's just a caveat you have to make when reading reviews from joe public - some of them will be cr*p reviews!
 

elephant

New Member
just bought a lezyne air drive from Wiggle, just over £10 delivered. Great pump and the quality is outstanding. well worth it
 

chrishodges

Active Member
Location
St Albans
Another thumbs up from me. I took it on my trip from Istanbul to Paris and i had no problems with it the whole way, and I had a fiar few punctures to say the least.

Would recommend to anyone!
 
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