SKS Airstep Foot Pump

The SKS Airstep footpump is a good option for inflating tyres of all types if you have issues with your arms or back and find a traditional floor pump hard or painful work. It does take about twice as long, mind.

• Pros: Large, easy-to-read bar scale, compact storage, quality materials, no upper-body pain or fatigue
• Cons: Almost invisible psi scale, takes over twice as long to inflate to given pressure as a trackpump, limited to 102psi, pricey

The Airstep is SKS's new take on the very old-school footpump, historically a wobbly, slippery affair often found languishing in the shed once your parents realised how bad they really were. Working with ergonomics expert SQlab, SKS has reimagined the footpump with broader surfaces, although it still wobbles a bit. It could possibly do with some fold-out supports, but I'm nitpicking here as my foot never slipped off the pump as it certainly has when using the traditional steel designs. It won an iF Design award in 2019.

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Made from strong, reinforced plastic and alloy, it features a five-year warranty, giving you an indication of the faith SKS places in its product. My experience of SKS customer service has been exemplary, so you have no concerns for the longevity of your purchase.

After locking down the foot lever, the neatly-coiling plastic hose disappears inside the pump wrapped around the gauge, and the head snaps into place. This gives a compact package easily stored in a cupboard, hung on a wall using the included plastic mount, or chucked in a car boot or bag.

The dual-valve head is a solid affair as you'd expect from SKS, sealing tight around valves. The action of the locking lever is smooth and positive, and it never released unintentionally. The hose is good for connecting to valves about 1.2m off the floor, so perfectly OK to use on bikes set in workstands. The dual-head automatically 'senses' the valve that's connected and routes air to it; on a couple of occasions when inflating from flat it didn't do this the first time when connected to a Presta valve, but re-seating it worked.

The pressure gauge features a large, bright-white bar scale on the outside, but annoyingly the psi scale is smaller, on the inside and in a dark grey, meaning it's unreadable when on the floor and moving about a bit as you pump. I had to pick the bar reading that approximated my psi target and aim for that. In my 35-odd years of faffing with bikes no one has ever referred to bike tyre pressure in bars, so I'm not sure of SKS's rationale here. It missed a trick not including a user-adjustable target indicator, as is often fitted to even low-cost floorpumps.

Under pressure

Inflating a 28mm tyre to 80psi took 38 pumps/33 seconds, to 100psi was 75 pumps and 1 minute 15 seconds in total.

Doing the same 28mm tyre to 100psi with a trackpump took 40 strokes and 30 seconds – but using arm/back muscles, after several repeats I could really feel the work. There's a reason cyclists use legs instead of arms to get themselves up hills, and the SKS Airstep uses the body's largest muscle groups to good effect.

> How to choose the correct tyre pressure

Other obvious uses around the home include car or caravan tyres, as well as inflating tubeless air tanks – but the 100psi limit means you're somewhat restricted there; even small tanks usually going to around 160psi to generate the inrush of air normally required to seat tubeless.

Value

At £65 it's definitely on the pricey end of the pump spectrum – for that money you can get a darn nice trackpump. So unless you do suffer from upper-body ailments and need to inflate to a maximum of 100psi using your legs, a trackpump might be a better buy.

> Buyer's Guide: 12 of the best trackpumps

As in all things cycling, it's horses for courses, and just because you're fit and able doesn't mean SKS isn't onto a winner of a product here. This is especially relevant with the boom in older generations cycling on heavier e-bikes requiring larger tyres at higher tyre pressures, who are more likely to benefit from using legs instead of arms to stay correctly inflated. This is SKS's target market for the Airstep, and if you can afford an e-bike the £65 price tag here to keep your tyres correctly inflated isn't likely to be an issue.

All in all, the SKS Airstep is a high-quality product backed by a cracking warranty, only let down by a pressure gauge optimised for obscure bar tastes.

Verdict

Well made and warrantied, it's a good choice for those with arm/back issues using a track pump