Lezyne has a habit of making tools and pumps strangely appealing in a way that we’ve never experienced with accessories before, while making jobs like adjusting your saddle or pumping your tyres a little easier. And that’s the case with the new Alloy Drive CFH pump.
We first saw it at Eurobike last year, and we knew instantly this was a product to get excited about. For endurance mountain biking, be it a 24-hour race, a stage race or just an all-day epic in the hills, CO2 canisters are ideal for saving a whole heap of time in the event of a puncture. But anyone who has experienced a failure with a CO2 canister (it can happen) will appreciate that it’s necessary to carry a pump too, just in case. And if you get more punctures than you have canisters, then you’re stuck. You still need to carry a pump.
But carrying both can be a faffle, if you’re racing or trying to pack light. Fine if you don’t mind stuffing everthing in your hydration pack, but what if you prefer mounting your mini pump to the frame? Many do. Here the Alloy Drive CFH from Lezyne neatly solves this problem.
A pump and two gas canisters can be affixed to the frame using a water bottle mount, which will fit underneath the bottle cage (if you still use a bottle cage?). The pump, and the mount, is built to Lezyne’s usual exacting standards, with a beautifully machined aluminium barrel and handle that made pumping tyres a walk in the park, using the company’s tried and tested Flex Hose attachment.
Due to the high pressures CO2 gas canisters exert they require a special nozzle but here is Lezyne’s masterstroke; they developed a steel braided flex hose specially designed to handle the extreme high pressures, but still works with the mini pump.
If you puncture during a race, or you just want to get on your way quickly again, the CO2 canisters can be your first port of call, and get you back up and running in a couple of seconds. The hose works exceptionally, and you can control the flow as you would with a typical canister nozzle. The only downside is if you only use half the gas canister, removing the hose obviously means a waste of the unused gas.
Using the mini pump is just like any other Lezyne pump. The lack of flexbility in the hose however, a result of the steel braiding to handle the high pressures of the gas canister, does make it a little more tricky to screw onto the valve with the pump attached.
We’ve been using this setup for a while now, and have found it a real benefit on several occasions have easy access to both the gas canisters and mini pump. The whole assembly is light, just 126g. For long rides or enduro races, it’s super handy have both available, and even on rides where we carry a hydration pack, having both attached to the downtube certainly saved some time and faffing.
Gas canisters aren’t cheap though, and are better saved for races or times when you really want to get going in a hurry. For most punctures on the trail side the pump, with its large barrel, made inflating tyres as easy as we’ve become used to with the previous pumps from Lezyne that we’ve tested. And the whole assembly only weighs 126g too.
Verdict
For anyone who wants the ultimate solution to a flat tyre, the Lezyne Alloy Drive CFH pump is the smartest we’ve seen.
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