SKS Cycle Pump

 

After buying my first bike (in my adult life) a few years ago - the red Merida road bike - my first purchase after a pair of flat pedals was a pump. This was a solid piece of advice given by Supratim Pal, a fellow journalist and an avid biker himself. I bought a Firefox pump with a built-in gauge. Supratim asked me to make sure the pump had a gauge as this would make life easier. 

I was very happy with the pump and dearly missed my long departed father after the first use. I remember how he encouraged me to have my own pump and tyre repair kit when we got a bicycle as a gift for Deoghar, back in the 70s. He was very disappointed that the pump was pretty muh useless and would need a lot of improvisation to get it to work. He would certainly have been very happy with this pump. It just worked. 

I soon realised that such things these days all work very well. You don't need to struggle any more to get the damn air in. They all lock very well on the valve. 

Before long I got another bike - my Surly LHT. Luckily both have the same Presta valve. And I was very happy with my pump. The pump could be used for both Presta and Schrader. However, to change from one to the other you would need to open the chuck and do a few things inside. It takes time. Being naturally curious, I learnt how to do it, though I never needed it.

In the meanwhile Mezda got a pump for himself. An Ice Toolz one. This has a flickable key to change from Presta to Schrader. It's very easy. Soon that kind of pumps became the norm. I got a small portable Lezyne pump brought in from the US and it also had an easy to change system. But it was small and would take a long time to pump up a normal tyre. 

Enter the Surly Bridge Club and now I have both Presta and Schrader valves. I made do with the Lezyne to pump it and kept the Firefox for the LHT and the Red Roadie. But back of the mind I knew I would switch to a more convenient pump that can be easily used on both types of valves. 

Two weeks ago I went to Rito's Stay Tuned to get the Bridge Club tuned - this  was my first visit after getting the bike made by him. There he had stock of the SKS pump at a little more than Rs 2000. I spent no time to delay the purchase and bought it promptly. 

It's a made in Germany pump. This fact is advertised prominently on the packaging. Though that may not necessarily mean that all the parts are made in Germany, it does carry its own weight. And it was available at a price well below the Taiwanese Ice Toolz. I also loved the matty black colour. These days the Western manufacturers advertise the origin of their products rather proudly, knowing fully well that people pay a premium for it. However, made in Germany or Swiss Made etc may not necessarily mean anything much. Incidentally many of my cycling accessories are made in Germany. My Schwalbe and Continental tyres are. The Tubus racks are. The plastic mudguards are. 

The chuck of the pump has two holes side by side. One for Presta and the other for Schrader. Depending on your valve type you just clamp the correct hole on the valve. The lock is just the opposite of the Firefox. While there you had to undo the key to jam it. Here you press the key in to lock it in, which is more intuitive. 

The black barrel is a little larger than my Firefox's which means I need to pump less. The gauge, though prominent, has a small problem. It has both the metric and FPS system but the metric unit is more prominent. We are more used to PSI. It's not a major issue but just a small bit of inconvenience. 

But the most striking difference is in the way you take off the chuck from the valve. In my Firefox that was a major task and I had often injured my palm trying to do it. I once even broke the head of a valve in the Merida. In fact I used to do it with my white cotton gloves on.

The SKS is a dream to take off the valve once done. My Lezyne incidentally is a screw on type one, which I think is the best. 

So I am very happy with the SKS pump and I had to take the unfortunate decision to sell off the old Firefox, which was in perfectly working condition.

I offered it for Rs 800 on Cyclop and it found a taker in Calcutta almost immediately. An association of triathletes took it from me. I am very happy for them. I hope they use it for many years.

So this is my third item from SKS. I have their mudguard on my LHT and the chainstay cover. The pump completes my collection. 

Comments On 12th December, 2023

After using the pump for a few times I have the following observations on the pump. 

I discovered that the barrel of this pump is plastic. I should've checked it. That's what makes it so affordable. Would I buy it if I knew it was plastic? Probably not. The initial few pumps always feel a little iffy. After some very hard pressure, the dial on the gauge sets in properly and you can pump easily. Before that it feels hard. It also feels very hard after 100 psi. Not that I need anything more than 90 but one must know that it is so.

Taking the chuck off the valve is very easy, as compared to my Firefox. With that I had to struggle a lot and sometimes it would injure me too by pushing my wrist off the valve suddenly and hit my palm on the cassette. I used to use a thick pair of cotton gloves to avoid injury. I once even broke the core of a valve and ruined the tube. Here taking off is a cake walk.