Nestled in the Taiwanese hall of this year’s Eurobike was this genuinely innovative pump from Genuine Innovations.
Genuine Innovations have been specialising in getting air in to tyres for more than 23 years and had a range of products on show at Eurobike – but one caught our eye in particular. The Genuine Innovations Mountain Pipe hand pump gives the rider the option of both inflating the tyre by hand or by using a CO2 cartridge.
When you’re out on the trail you are susceptible, of course, to more than one puncture and with most CO2 cartridges giving only one refill the “what’s the point in having one?” argument is enough to put some riders off. The main reason for having one is, for the racers among us at least, that time lost changing a tube will affect your finishing position and carrying an inflator can save potentially minutes, and perhaps a podium position. It’s less important when out riding the trails at the weekend and using some good old fashioned elbow grease is usually all that’s required.
But this Genuine Innovations pumps allows you to have both, all wrapped up in one system. With the Mountain Pipe you can use the cartridge by mounting it at the valve end of the pump and controlling the air output simply by twisting the cartridge. Towards the end of inflation the cartridge itself will drop to a low temperature so it’s consider wearing gloves.
If you have emptied the cartridge, screw into the top end of the pump and you can now operate it by hand. After a quick test on the stand, it was easy to use and inflated the tire at a decent rate.
The pump comes with a bottle cage mount, but there’s also a seatpost mount available to buy separately and the shape and size of the pump lends itself to fitting this position nicely. Able to inflate both Presta and Schrader valves with a quick change of the adapter, there’s also a container within the pump to keep extra patches or coins for the post-ride beer.
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