Vel Air Flow Pump

The Vel Air Flow is a sturdy, well-made pump that performs well, as long as you take the precaution of tightening your valve cores first if they're removable...

• Pros: Well made, looks good, inflates well
• Cons: Attachment method

I'm a bit precious with mini pumps – one in particular that I've had for years. It's small, works remarkably well and whenever I lend it to someone I'm always asked what it is so they can get one. However, having a few bikes it's handy to have more than one as I like to frame mount them; I'm not a fan of carrying it in my pocket.

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Good then, that the Vel Air Flow comes with a frame mount. As with most, it fits securely behind a bottle mount, with two clips and a Velcro strap to hold the pump.

The pump itself is a good looking thing, the body and shaft made entirely from machined alloy and an anodised black finish with laser-etched logos. The fitment parts are steel, with a separate hose attachment hidden in the body of the main unit. Very neat and stylish.

First ride out with it and after a while I heard an unusual noise – checking around as I rode revealed that the pump had slid down in the mount and was tapping on the frame, not ideal. Putting it back up and really tightening the Velcro strap did the trick for a bit, but it would drop down again over time and road vibration because of the slick anodised finish. This was only resolved after my first ride on wet mucky lanes – the combination of grit and water keyed the two surfaces and it hasn't slipped down since – but there are visibly marks on the alloy body as a downside.

On a sunny sportive, disaster struck a friend when they hit a nasty pothole and blew their tube. Bad news for them, good news for my test of the Air Flow, as I offered to pump the tyre up when ready. Here came the other first-outing issues...

There aren't any instructions with the pump and I figured it would be pretty standard. Remove hose, screw it onto the pump, pump away.

Almost right. I didn't realise that you need to screw the hose onto the valve to lock it on – it's not immediately obvious and the hose just blew off when a bit of pressure was in the tube, despite feeling like it had 'clicked' into place. Lesson learned.

However, when I tried the pump at home in the garage, which I should have done up front in hindsight, it threw up another problem: you need to screw the hose onto the valve fairly well, otherwise the twisting from the pumping action can unscrew it, if it's only on by a thread or two. But also, the valve I was testing had a removable core and the pump unscrewed the core with it when up to pressure. Cue a massive dump of the air, a fiddle to unscrew the core from the hose, and then start again.

With cheaper, non-removable core tubes this isn't a problem. Top tip – ensure the cores are screwed down tight with either a proper metal valve tool or needle-nose pliers.

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Once beyond the learning curve, I found that the pump worked well for a small device, easily inflating mountain bike tyres, with a good few strokes, and doing a decent job on road tyres. I managed 90psi or so before my arm gave up, but that's more than good enough to get you onwards to a track pump, and for tubeless is probably more than you would need anyway.

The solid design and fairly thick shaft make the operation easier and suggest it will last for a long time, the steel and rubber parts of the pump weathering well too.

Cost-wise, it's not cheap at £34.99, but once past its foibles it is a good pump, solidly built and the detachable hose makes life a lot easier. A comparable unit, the Fabric R200, costs the same with similar features but is 20g heavier, and there's a plethora of cheaper units on the market.

If you want a good looking and solid pump then the Vel Air Flow is worth a look, but check your valve cores first. Will it replace my dependable Airace? Not until that is beyond use, but it's certainly good enough to carry with me on one of the other bikes rather than swap around.

Verdict

Solidly made and nice looking pump that does a good job – but check your valve cores