Genuine Innovations Campione track pump

The Campione track pump from Genuine Innovations certainly looks smart, a stylish maroon and cream with a ‘premium’ wood handle and brass fixings that sashays it out of the workshop and places it artfully next to the Eames Chair in the warehouse conversion.

The main body of the pump is steel while the foot is aluminium, the toes of which have a rubber covering which feels nice under socked soles pumping tyres up when between slippers and Sidis.

The hose is good and long, enough to reach a valve at the top of a wheel in a workstand bike and when not in use loops round the handle and held in place with a couple of jaws on the top of the body and a clip on the hose itself.

The brass valve connector is clamped on the end of the hose with a little jubilee-clip, old-school, but as it doesn’t have any lock-on device it relies totally on the interference fit between the rubber inside the head and the valve to seal, sometimes this can slip a bit sideways to leak air or blow off completely (ooooh, matron!), the aged-mechanic technique of one hand holding the head on while the other hand pumps the handle needs to be employed at times, it fits in with the retro feel I guess. The supplied brass Schrader adaptor thankfully screws onto the valve for security and is simply pushed tight into the end of the pump-head in use, but as there’s no chain or securing leash on the adaptor you’ll probably loose it the moment you take it out to use the pump on a Presta valve. We did. You'll find it under the fridge. The little rubber grommet around the connector has perished already and fallen off somewhere on the kitchen floor. It’s probably what caused the cat to be sick that time.

The pressure gauge sits on the foot of the pump and though Genuine Innovations say it’s large it isn’t really, and it’s a mess of lines and numbers making it hard to decipher from nearly six feet up, especially if trying to read the bar pressure written in teeny blue numbers. Luckily there’s a rotating bezel around the gauge with a red arrow on it to align to the required pressure, it’s not ideal to be honest. The dial says the pump can reach the heady pressure of 260 PSI, we know that we, and the vast majority of track-pump users, aren’t ever going to need to get to that pressure unless we take up track racing on tubs, but it’s nice to know, like the 160 MPH at the end of the car's speedo. The furthest we’ve ever pushed it is into the 120s which the Campione managed without either it or us breaking a sweat.

In spite of its minor faults its actually quite an efficient pump, the base is sturdy and it feels solid with only a bit of flex in the handle shaft, getting things up to pressure quickly and easily. But the harshest test for this pump is that for its entire working life its lived in the corner next to the existing track-pump that has a locking dual-valve head, an easily read pressure-gauge at the top of its body and is about half the cost; it’s not half as pretty though. This is the pump that was used in preference to the Genuine Innovations model every time. It’s not that there’s anything desperately wrong with the Campione, it’s just that there’s better out there, for less. And if I wanted a retro looking pump I’d probably go for a model that actually has history, such as a Silca or SKS, rather than a pastiche such as this.

Verdict

It's a shame that the Campione's performance doesn't quite live up to its good looks and brassy details, it's not a bad pump but it needs to have the niggly details sorted for this price. If you want a pump that looks good because your workshop is in the front room then this is the pump for you, if you just want a pump that works just as well or better but costs less then there's plenty out there to choose from.