I remember some time ago a chappie inventing a little bike pump that was operated by some string that you pulled and made great claims about how easy it was to use. Questions: Anyone remember what it was called? Did anyone buy one? Was it any good? Can you still get them?
I bought one. It's ok - the gauge on them is excellent - the pumping action less so, I found (although I was going to 110-120psi with it) and the vibration it produced made my hands ache. It does come in a nifty pouch that attaches nicely and securely to your frame, with room for an unplanned deflation event kit in a small pouch below where the pump itself lives. I prefer the Topeak Road Morph myself. You can still get them, and the usual suspects (Wiggle, EBC etc) have them.
I find them to be a tad noisy and also quite heavy, it can be a bit of a pain to change the settings from Schrader to Presta, but they are quicker than some track pumps.
I got a Cyclaire+ It's brilliant. Being a weak & feeble girlie, I have b*gg*r all in terms of upper body strength, so if I ever get a puncture when out on the bike, using a 'normal' pump, I had great difficulty getting anywhere near any sort of reasonable pressure in the tyre. Not so with a Cycliare+. It's very noisy but a few strokes and it's hard as rock again.
The pull-cord on my Cyclaire snapped in half today, while repairing a p******e, 10 miles from home! So, crouched in a muddy ditch, I took the thing apart to salvage what was left of the pull-cord. Reattached the handle to that, and the bl**dy thing snapped again. Not a happy chappy Luckily for me I found a flat nylon shoelace in my saddle bag. Don't know how it got there. But I managed to use that as a pull-cord to get enough pressure for a slow ride home. Looking at it now, the cord is pretty badly worn. As it rubs against a 'sharp' edge of the case when you use it. And there are lots of little fragments of the cord inside the pump body. Just sent a cheeky email to cyclaire to see if I can get a free replacement (cord at least) - it's over a year old. Though I think I'll be using a more reliable and cheap-as-chips zefal pump from now.
The cyclaire must be good, because Cycling plus say it is The fact that one of the staff writers is the importer has nothing to do with it...
I use one of these: http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...1576_crumb_33980-31270_parentcategoryrn_31576 Last time I bought one it cost me £1.99. They last for years, weigh almost nothing and pump easily to a high pressure. Oh and you can suck up water and squirt the neighbour's cat.
