It’s brilliant, the Mini Foot Pump features a nicely accurate pressure gauge, and better yet a check valve for “zero air loss”. Two major points in its favor which are a boon to those with air charged forks that require low pressures hard to achieve with a regular pump and gauge combination.

The filling of the forks is a problem of an almost quantum physical nature. You fill the fork with a best guess, removing the pump from the fork valve, which loses air in the process, then you check the pressure and in the process lose more air – it becomes a frustrating and iterative process by which merely observing the pressure keeps you from reaching your target 8psi. All this is no longer an issue with the mini foot pump.

And should you over fill your forks or tires? Well, a handy pressure release gauge sorts that out with no fuss without removing the pump from valve-stem. All this control had Photographer/Editor Kevin giggling in Luddite-tech delight as he was finally able to achieve proper fork pressures on the Magna.

Of course it also worked on tires, and quite well. A high volume tube handles the heavy work of filling larger spaces, while higher pressure tires, such as those found on, gasp, actual pedal bikes are served by a high-pressure tube.

The use of the pump was straightforward, but there were a couple snags. The markings on the gauge are small and hard read from above when standing and using the pump via foot. Which is fine because you require a refined sense of balance to use this as a foot pump, in the end I had mentally re-dubbed it the “mini-hand-pump” which offered the bonus of making the “mini-gauge” with it’s “mini-markings” easier to read.

In the event that all this “mini” business was getting to you the pump lives up to the term. It’s small, “folded” and in it’s tidy carrying case it’s a mere 3.5×3.5×6.5 inches and around 17oz. Which puts it in the “bring it on tour category”, and on some bikes it may even fit under seat with a bit of wedging.

Sigh, I miss it already, but alas our beloved mini foot pump was not built of titanium, the plunger for the tube that handles the volume work snapped after about four months of sporadic use by our wobbly 6’2″ editor. A flaw that sadly may take a trick product and condemn it to the trash… unless the warranty covers the breakage… aaahh, I called the company and they happily replaced the unit under warranty… excellent!

Our replacement arrived quickly without fuss and has stood up to my balance issues without further incident. It now accompanies us on all of our long trips. Trick!

Web:   http://www.minifootpump.com
MSRP:  $49.95 USD