# Recommendations for floor pump for Brompton



## ExBrit (25 Aug 2021)

I have an excellent floor pump (Topeak JoeBlow) that does not work well with a Brompton because of the narrow space between spokes. The chuck simply won't fit between them. I have a crappy floor pump with a narrow chuck that fits just fine. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good floor pump with a chuck that fits between the Brompton spokes. Or maybe I can put the good chuck on the good pump? What do people use when pumping up the Brommie at home?


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## rafiki (25 Aug 2021)

I use my electric car pump.


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## Profpointy (25 Aug 2021)

ExBrit said:


> I have an excellent floor pump (Topeak JoeBlow) that does not work well with a Brompton because of the narrow space between spokes. The chuck simply won't fit between them. I have a crappy floor pump with a narrow chuck that fits just fine. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good floor pump with a chuck that fits between the Brompton spokes. Or maybe I can put the good chuck on the good pump? What do people use when pumping up the Brommie at home?



Why don't you just swap the ends over? 

That said my Lezyne seems fine for Brompton and proper bikes and can do either valve type, though now swapped to normal valves on the Brommie


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## Tenkaykev (25 Aug 2021)

ExBrit said:


> I have an excellent floor pump (Topeak JoeBlow) that does not work well with a Brompton because of the narrow space between spokes. The chuck simply won't fit between them. I have a crappy floor pump with a narrow chuck that fits just fine. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good floor pump with a chuck that fits between the Brompton spokes. Or maybe I can put the good chuck on the good pump? What do people use when pumping up the Brommie at home?


That’s a coincidence. The people at Brilliant Bikes recently did a video about the Brompton pump on their YouTube channel. I asked the same question that you’ve just asked, their response was to say that they use a Topeak JoeBlow! 
I use a Decathlon track pump and it’s a faff getting the head between the spokes as you said.


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## cougie uk (25 Aug 2021)

It does fit but you have to be firm with it. I thought the same as you to begin.


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## Blue Hills (25 Aug 2021)

I have a brommie, yes footpumps are tight with spokes, but never found it a mega/unsolveable problem.


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## ExBrit (25 Aug 2021)

I might be able to force the Topeak chuck in if I had a big enough hammer  I'm not convinced I need so many spokes anyway.

I just found the Parks PFP-8 floor pump that appears to have a narrow chuck. Anyone have any experience with this? I've always found Parks to be very high quality.


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## u_i (25 Aug 2021)

You can put a new chuck on an old pump. Rather than buying a Lezyne pump, you can, e.g., buy a Lezyne ABS-1 Pro chuck. The best chucks are those by Hirame. They are expensive, but, if you are heavily into bikes, you begin to think like a bike shop - you want decent rather than cheap equipment. I swap my chucks using alu air couplers.


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## mitchibob (25 Aug 2021)

ExBrit said:


> I have an excellent floor pump (Topeak JoeBlow) that does not work well with a Brompton because of the narrow space between spokes. The chuck simply won't fit between them. I have a crappy floor pump with a narrow chuck that fits just fine. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good floor pump with a chuck that fits between the Brompton spokes. Or maybe I can put the good chuck on the good pump? What do people use when pumping up the Brommie at home?



Really? Which JoeBlow is it, because I've been tempted to get a JoeBlow Booster to make reseating tubeless easier, but that'd be a royal PITA if it's worse pumping for my Brommie tyres. 

I currently have a Vandorm Legend VII pump (that I had already thought who to donate it to), which was cheap and OK, although find I often whack hand against nuts or forks or discs, pulling the thing off the valves when finished. Other than that, it's fine.


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## ExBrit (25 Aug 2021)

mitchibob said:


> Really? Which JoeBlow is it, because I've been tempted to get a JoeBlow Booster to make reseating tubeless easier, but that'd be a royal PITA if it's worse pumping for my Brommie tyres.
> 
> I currently have a Vandorm Legend VII pump (that I had already thought who to donate it to), which was cheap and OK, although find I often whack hand against nuts or forks or discs, pulling the thing off the valves when finished. Other than that, it's fine.



It's the Sport III. If you look at the chuck you can see it has the lever on the side which makes it wider than the gap between spokes. I think all the Joe Blows have this chuck. But I saw a segment about the booster on GCN and it definitely does not look Brompton friendly.

PS I just swapped the chucks and I think that's going to work for me. Thanks for the suggestion folks. I'll give it a try when it's not 106F outside.


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## mitchibob (25 Aug 2021)

ExBrit said:


> It's the Sport III. If you look at the chuck you can see it has the lever on the side which makes it wider than the gap between spokes. I think all the Joe Blows have this chuck. But I saw a segment about the booster on GCN and it definitely does not look Brompton friendly.
> 
> PS I just swapped the chucks and I think that's going to work for me. Thanks for the suggestion folks. I'll give it a try when it's not 106F outside.



Thanks for the info. Really useful! I'd not even considered that!


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## ExBrit (25 Aug 2021)

mitchibob said:


> Thanks for the info. Really useful! I'd not even considered that!


Actually I was thinking the TubiHead was the Booster. I was mistaken. Booster might be OK. So many models, so few brain cells. 🧙‍♂️


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## mitchibob (25 Aug 2021)

ExBrit said:


> Actually I was thinking the TubiHead was the Booster. I was mistaken. Booster might be OK. So many models, so few brain cells. 🧙‍♂️


Doesn't matter... wasn't something I'd even considered, so will look out for it just in case (although model I'm looking at looks just like I'm going to have similar hitting hand on nuts, etc), plus know a fix for it now too if it does turn up like yours :-). Thanks all!


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## berlinonaut (26 Aug 2021)

I do use the Joe Blow Sport (the yellow one) as one of my standard pumps with the Brompton and do not have issues with it.


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## Kell (27 Aug 2021)

I got an el cheapo floor pump from either Lidl or Aldi for a fiver. But it's rubbish. Cheaply made using very hard, brittle plastics and the head keeps coming off. 

I bought it as a spare because it was just a fiver.

I'm guessing you have more trouble with the rear wheel as the spokes are crossed and there is less room, the front wheel is a lot easier as the spokes are radially laced.


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## rogerzilla (27 Aug 2021)

The radial front wheel is a problem for pump heads. I find my Joe Blow head goes in ok on one side of the wheel, but not the other.


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## ExBrit (27 Aug 2021)

Kell said:


> I got an el cheapo floor pump from either Lidl or Aldi for a fiver. But it's rubbish. Cheaply made using very hard, brittle plastics and the head keeps coming off.
> 
> I bought it as a spare because it was just a fiver.
> 
> I'm guessing you have more trouble with the rear wheel as the spokes are crossed and there is less room, the front wheel is a lot easier as the spokes are radially laced.


You are absolutely correct. I ended up taking the narrow chuck off the bad pump and putting it on the good pump. Problem solved.


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## 12boy (28 Aug 2021)

I have a lezyne pump which screws on. Works ok but its at least 10 years old and the gauge hasn't worked for years. My tool rolls also have little Lezynes and I like em.


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## yoho oy (17 Aug 2022)

Topic is old, but here is my 2 cents... Bought one today. Seems very well made for the price. Almost all metal with some plastic bits. Before I had foot pump from Aldi, but that one turned out rubbish- very hard to pump and it was taking forever to inflate the tyre. The Lidl one is on sale this week, so I would say it is worth to take a look.


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## berlinonaut (17 Aug 2022)

Who buys cheaply has to buy twice. Classic. You bought cheaply, had to buy twice and bought cheaply again. Seems you have not learned the lesson yet. Until now you spent in total 20-25€, do have one useless pump and one of unprove quality. You already spent 2/3 to 5/6 what a proven, reliable quality item would have costed (a Joe Blow is ~30€ when on offer) and are still in a bet. _If_ you need to buy a third time you'd spent more and still have dubious quality. For a product that possibly lasts a lifetime (and thus costs less than GBP1 per year of use) saving a couple quid and taking the risk of total loss or uselessness does not seem the best pattern to me.

Obviously the choice is up to you and you may make a lucky punch from time to time this way. Still personally I would not go down that route.


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## yoho oy (17 Aug 2022)

berlinonaut said:


> Who buys cheaply has to buy twice. Classic. You bought cheaply, had to buy twice and bought cheaply again. Seems you have not learned the lesson yet.


I actually had floor pump before Brompton. It still works, just not the best. The issue is quite high pressure required for Brompton tyres. For any other use (and for other bicycles not requiring high pressure) floor pump is fine. Lidl pump has surprisingly similar look to Joe Blow. I don't have both pumps, so can't compare height and all, but from first sight it looks quite similar. The most similar feature is the handle. It is almost identical. Gauge is much bigger on Lidl pump. Once I will get a chance I will take some closeup pictures and people with other types of pumps will be able to check for themselves.

I am actually thinking to buy another Lidl product- Crivit mini bike pump. It is probably something I would rarely use and in case of a flat my most likely action is just to fold a bike and use public transportation. On other hand one included with Brompton (that was hanging on a metal bits of a frame) is absolute bottom of the line. I guess in absolute emergency it is better than nothing, but come on...


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## berlinonaut (17 Aug 2022)

yoho oy said:


> Lidl pump has surprisingly similar look to Joe Blow.


Typically, that's the idea behind products like that. Fake iPhones follow the same strategy.  That says absolutely nothing about the quality of the pump (neither to the positive nor to the negative). But you can assume, that it not possible to build something of the same quality for 25% f the list price.
There have been various tests on discounter products over the years and while some are really a good deal (assumed you planned to buy such an item anyway and did not buy it unintendedly just because it seemed a cheap offer ) this counts only for a small amout. If I remember correctly it was aroundish 10% (may be wrong - in every case it was a suprisingly low number). In all other cases the items were not cheaper than comparable products of comparable featureset and quality (or even the same products) from other sources. Sometimes (again I do not remember the exact amount, I think it was aroundish 30%) they were even more expensive. Plus typically, in comparison to a reputable standard product, the items lack interms of either design, finish, featureset, functionality, endurance - basically everything but safety.

You cannot escape the common law of business balance:

_"There is hardly anything in the world that cannot be made a little worse and sold a little cheaper, and those who consider price alone are that man's lawful prey. It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money – that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better."_

The whole trick behind those offerings is psychology: They tell you theres an offer and through connection to their discounter image you believe that is must be cheaper than elsewhere. Then they say: There's limited supply and it is only available for a short time. So they trigger your brain that you might miss a good opportunity and through the short timebox of availability they finally create awareness to act, because else it's too late. Personally, I am very prone to that strategy  and laying out the mechanics behind it helps me not get cheated by it. 

Regarding the pump: I'd suggest trying to compare it with a genuine Joe Blow. The Joe Blow is in my eyes a "standard product" as it is of very good quality for a very reasonable price - basically a "no-brainer": If you need a good generic pump, get a Joe Blow. You can't go wrong. That does not mean that other pumps are less good or could not be even better (especially if you have non-standard needs like i.e. balloon tires), but typically comparable or better quality is more expensive, needs research and availability can be an issue.

If you compare them side by side you may find out that you did indeed find a bargain or the opposite. 


yoho oy said:


> I am actually thinking to buy another Lidl product- Crivit mini bike pump. It is probably something I would rarely use and in case of a flat my most likely action is just to fold a bike and use public transportation. On other hand one included with Brompton (that was hanging on a metal bits of a frame) is absolute bottom of the line. I guess in absolute emergency it is better than nothing, but come on...


Why spend money on a mini pump that you will hardly ever use if you already own one? This would really be burning money. The pump will clearly not be better than the stock Brompton one (which is NOT bottom line, I can guarantee you from experience with a lot of mini pumps of various price ranges) but pretty safely way worse. You would not win anything but loose money. Buying something that you don't need and does furthermore not even open new possiblities just because it's cheap is seductive but not clever.


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## yoho oy (18 Aug 2022)




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## yoho oy (18 Aug 2022)




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## yoho oy (18 Aug 2022)

I guess we can argue about everything forever. And I will not be a winner (not that it matters to me). On this forum there are plenty people from all walks of the life. Some are happy with second hand bikes from brands I never heard about it, some people strive to get the best of the best. The pump came alive trough the German discount bike brand https://www.monz-international.de/index.php/en which itself was a split from bigger company that does bike retailing - https://monz-fahrradwelten.de/ . At the end of the day it is just a pump. Relatively simple tool and it appears it is quality made especially at the price point. It is not some medical device in critical care with 24x7 operation. 

PS tried to post this in one message but it said that the message is too long...


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## berlinonaut (18 Aug 2022)

yoho oy said:


> I guess we can argue about everything forever.


I would not call it arguing, rather discussing. And - at least for me - it is not at all about "winning".



yoho oy said:


> The pump came alive trough the German discount bike brand https://www.monz-international.de/index.php/en



That's interesting. I stumbled about Monz years ago when I bought my first trailer. It was sold via a surplus/overstock-dealer on Amazon and was labeled as a Monz product. A little research showed that it was in fact a "Monkii" from Taiwanese brand "freeparable". It even won a design award a couple of years earlier. The list price was insane, the discounted price from the surplus-dealer _very_ attractive (~25% of the list price if I remember correctly) and the trailer seemed to fit my needs, so I went for it. Turned out I was in error - there was nothing spectacularly wrong with it designwise (apart from the hitch), but it was in every single thinkable aspect just far away enough from my needs that I ended up not using it. In the meantime I own a veritable herd of trailers that I regularly use for different purposes and the Monkii one is still unused. Maybe I should give it a go.

So at least back then Monz seemed to be an importer and distributor for brands from Asia. And I mean "brands", not randomly labeled stuff. This is actually a good sign for your pump. Doesn't necessarily need to be good, let alone perfect, but also not necessarily bad. They might however have changed/scaled their business model somewhat to the negative - don't know. My experience is more or less a decade old and sometimes they seem to rebrand stuff to "Monz" or maybe need to do that in the process of importing.

Still it would now be even more interesting to do a side-by-side comparison with something like the Joe Blow.


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## yoho oy (18 Aug 2022)

The pump has Lidl owned "Crivit" logo molded in the handle. So it is a bit more effort from Monz. Also when on Monz website https://www.monz-international.de/images/sortimente/fahrrad/pumpen-02.jpg they have very similar pump with tiny difference (like the color of gauge), so I assume perhaps they sell the same pump with different retailers? As far as Lidl goes with their own brands... Over the years I had many products from them and some of them were really great at decent price. 

I also don't say that this pump is better than Joe Blow. Joe Blow sells some spare parts for their pumps, so might be it is more sustainable in a long run. Also Topeak is genuine bicycle brand, so perhaps customer service is better. Everything comes at a price. On other hand money paid for a product is not always point to the quality. Back in a day I was a fan of electronics with fruit logo. Spend a lot of money with them. On other hand their customer service was not that great even under warranty. Parts/repair cost were astronomical. Were they quality made? Perhaps- some of the stuff still work decade later (although with little use on daily basis over the years), but good luck with faulty products. Plenty of their stuff were denied repairs and customers were ridiculed until class action lawsuits. Nowadays I am on a my own assembled PC rig running Linux that turned out an absolute bargain (parts bought before pandemic went up in price 2-3x) and 3 year old discount netbook is running great as it was made by reputable brand with great components. It is enough for my personal needs.


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## berlinonaut (18 Aug 2022)

yoho oy said:


> The pump has Lidl owned "Crivit" logo molded in the handle. So it is a bit more effort from Monz. Also when on Monz website https://www.monz-international.de/images/sortimente/fahrrad/pumpen-02.jpg they have very similar pump with tiny difference (like the color of gauge), so I assume perhaps they sell the same pump with different retailers? As far as Lidl goes with their own brands... Over the years I had many products from them and some of them were really great at decent price.


It really depends. Lidl, Aldi etc. obviously do not produce the stuff they sell but buy it from producers in big batches (which can lead to an interesting offer pricewise). Sometimes they sell overstock and somtimes there's a reason why there is overstock in the first place. Sometimes they get products that look like the normal ones but are customized and often have a more limited feature set. And sometimes they have things branded with their own brand and specially produced (like most of the medion stuff Aldi sells) - some of them may be good, some of them not so much. But in general the products are produced to target a low price - so sometimes got get astonishing value for the money, sometimes it turns out that they cut corners. You never know in beforehand.



yoho oy said:


> On other hand money paid for a product is not always point to the quality.


Absolutely true. Still the already cited common law of business balance is unavoidable.


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## rogerzilla (20 Aug 2022)

FWIW, I also had an SKS Rennkompressor. It was hopeless. The stupid thing won't stand up as the folding feet are too small. The supplied EVA head didn't work at all (read the reviews; they rarely function). Replaced with dual head. Sort of worked, although the pressure trapped in the hose is unnerving when removing it from the valve. Then the gauge just fell apart. I threw it away and repaired my old Joe Blow instead.


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## u_i (20 Aug 2022)

Sorry to hear that . I love the Rennkompressor and it goes through N'th life in my hands. It has 3 or 4 heads right now, I can't remember - a real dragon .


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## berlinonaut (21 Aug 2022)

yoho oy said:


> View attachment 657773



BTW: One downside/limitation of the Lidl pump you bought can be seen in the technical data: The nominal pressure is 7 bar / 100 PSI, the max allowable pressure 8 bar / 116 PSI. On can fairly assume that with most pumps the max. pressure is way beyond the level what's comfortable to pump with them and even the "nominal" pressure can be challenging. The Brompton is using high pressure tires. If we look at the pressures they require we see i.e.:
Kojak in Brompton size: 8 bar https://www.schwalbe.com/en/tour-reader/kojak
Marathon: 7,5 bar https://www.schwalbe.com/en/tour-reader/marathon
Marathon+: 7,5 bar https://www.schwalbe.com/en/tour-reader/marathon-plus
Continental Urban: 8 bar https://www.bike-components.de/de/Continental/Contact-Urban-16-Drahtreifen-p81029/
Schwalbe One: 7 bar https://www.brompton.com/shop/parts/schwalbe-one-tanwall-tyre#specs
Schwalbe Marathon Racer: 7,5 bar https://www.brompton.com/shop/parts/schwalbe-marathon-racer-tyre-reflective-strip#specs

So if you'd like to pump up your tires on the Brompton to or close to the max pressure recommended by the manufacturer (which I'd recommend at least for the rear wheel to gain better rolling resistance and even more, if you are a heavier rider) you are with your new pump at or above the limit what this pump can deliver. Which is a bit of a bummer given that you bought it for one single reason: To pump higher pressures easily as your former Aldi pump failed to achieve that.

In comparison, a Toppeak Joe Blow Sport is specified to 11 bar / 160 PSI which makes it easy and comfy to reach Brompton pressures, as tey are well in the middle of what it is able to deliver. The SKS Rennkompressor is even specified for 16 bar/230 psi, so to achieve Brompton pressures are a snap with it.

In the UK, the Joe Blow is available from GBP33 at the moment, in Germany from below 30€.

It seems like you possibly did a little of a suboptimal investement and made you life harder instead of your tire (as the intention was).


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## berlinonaut (21 Aug 2022)

rogerzilla said:


> FWIW, I also had an SKS Rennkompressor. It was hopeless. The stupid thing won't stand up as the folding feet are too small. The supplied EVA head didn't work at all (read the reviews; they rarely function). Replaced with dual head. Sort of worked, although the pressure trapped in the hose is unnerving when removing it from the valve. Then the gauge just fell apart. I threw it away and repaired my old Joe Blow instead.



Just realized that they brought out a newer version of the Rennkompressor, the Rennkompressor NX. Seems as if it deals with most of the criticisms on the original like tipping over and being a bit of low height. But obviously it is not yet a classic. And still has the debatable SKS pump heads: https://www.sks-germany.com/en/products/rennkompressor-nxt/
Regarding the heads: The SKS multivalve heads require the the valve being at the 12 o'clock position of the wheel to work properly, thus having the pump head upside down. A bit annoying when the bike is in a work stand due to more lenght of the pump tube needed. Following that clearly enhances reliability of the head, still other heads work better in my opinion.


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## 12boy (21 Aug 2022)

I bought an electric pump to keep my car tires up when the tires register low because of temp drops. There is no free air at gas stations anymore, and it is very convenient to be able to do this at home. I have both a Park and a Lezyne floor pump but the electric one is so much easier.


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