Xtreme Airik mini pump

A pump that fits in the palm of your hand? Capable of 130psi? Excuse my cynicism but we've been here before, on many occasions, and the outcome is more often that not the same: pump doesn't deliver. That's the case here, sadly.

The nicely-constructed Airik has a smooth barrel and is genuinely tiny, at just 12cm long. It's Presta only and the first problem is that it screws onto the second, wider thread on the valve: fine if you have a second thread, a major problem if you don't. The pump simply didn't function at all on 8 out of the 10 presta wheels in the office.

Assuming you've got the right inner tube then the pump screws on nice and snug and it's time to start pumping. You can forget about cramming 130psi into your tyres though. That might be possible on the blackboard or with some kind of beefy robot arm in the lab, but by the side of the road, in the rain, 90 miles in? I limited myself to 250 strokes which is more than you'd be prepared to throw at the problem on a ride, and the result was a just-about-get-you-home 65psi. We carried on for a bit and managed to squeak 80psi before our arm muscles gave out and there was a small crater in my palm from the end of the pump.

Verdict

Not much to recommend this one I'm afraid. If it was any good then it would be great that it's so small, but that's the reason it isn't any good. Hey ho. If you want something tiny that'll blow up your tyres, get a CO2 inflator.