Conclusion

By their nature, mini-pumps are small in size and light in weight, but as soon as you reduce the volume of a pump, you increase the time it takes to inflate a tyre. It’s a compromise – you’re trading efficiency for convenience. One of the smallest pumps in our line-up is the Blackburn Airstik 2Stage, but it’s also one of the least effective, more so because it’s so uncomfortable to use. It isn’t the worst pump here – that award belongs to the Zefal EZ Max FC. It just doesn’t shift air quickly enough, which is really surprising because Zefal makes some truly excellent pumps.

There are quite a few pumps that didn’t quite make the cut, and that’s either because of the high price in the case of the Silca, the uncomfortable action or the inadequate volume. Chances are you’ll be mending a flat in the rain with the bike covered in mud, and what you don’t want is to be standing there with a dead arm and a soft tyre, having bashed out 400 strokes.

There were several runner-up pumps, but don’t think these are second rate – the Birzman, Crankbrothers, Park Tool and Lezyne are all excellent mini-pumps that we’d easily take in our packs. We didn’t get on that well with the Birzman Smart Head, but the company offers a range of simpler mini-pumps with this level of build quality, and if we’d tested one of those we’d have definitely upped the score a point. If you want the best small mini-pump then the Crankbrothers Gem Short takes that award – it’s the perfect grab and go pump. The Park Tool is a good solid design that we rated equal to the Birzman just on the price. The Lezyne Grip Drive HV is half a step higher than these two because the quality is better and it has a smoother action. What stopped it getting a 10 rating wasn’t really the small, stubby handle, it was the fact that the Topeak Mountain TT G is an absolute beast. It literally laid waste to every other mini-pump on test – it’s the quickest and most efficient, but it’s also comfortable and has a super-smooth action. Yes, it’s not the most compact and it is a little bit more of an investment, but you’re guaranteed to get your tyres inflated to normal riding pressure in next to no time with this one; a worthy winner.