“What do you make of this, then?

So quipped good friend John White as he stopped by my son’s stand at the January Kempton Park autojumble, thrusting a tyre pump clip into my hand. At first glance it looked like any other such clip for mounting in pairs to veteran or vintage machines’ top frame rail saddle tubes, or the saddle down tube. Spaced appropriately, the cycle type hand pump is compressed to fit between its pair of mounting clips (or welded on items) and held in place by pump spring pressure.

Those of us who ride such machines regularly know to stow pumps in our backpack, because on hitting bumps, the pumps leap out of their clips and are lost forever, or run over by passing vehicles. The maker of this clip had taken the design a stage further. Not only is it spring loaded, but it is adjustable, thus the pump is compressed to fit between pump clips, then the clip’s spring loaded plunger is tightened and locked in position. No way errant pumps could escape from this jailer’s hold, even on the roughest of my Fen roads with most (but not all…) potholes marked in fading yellow paint. And, yes, on occasions the authorities repaint the yellow rings marking the holes, rather than fill them in…

This 1909 Ariel, below, has its pump fixed to the top tube, meaning the rider can see it as it leaps free… This, above, is perhaps the answer! A springloaded catch to hold it in place.