Rock Hard

I hate gadgets, and I'm tight, so the likelihood of me splashing out on a flashy gold designer bicycle pump is NIL. Especially one that sounds like it's named after Mexican royalty. But that's just what's happened...

Steaming down the local highstreet, I could feel that the tyres on my Moulton were on the squiggly side, making the handling even more squirrely than usual. So I pulled into the nearest bicycle shop to blow them up. Factory rated at 100psi, but I rarely achieve that hardness with my own crappy old column pump. I didn't pay attention to the particular brand / model of pump at the shop, but did take special note of the blingy Snap-It™ valve, which made the the process easy and scientifically successful. Rock hard in just a few effortless pumps. Hmm. I keep a miniature donut ring of BluTac on my Presta valves, so as to maintain an airtight seal, but the two-piece (revolvable) screw-on + rubber o-ring of this baby, means none of the usual hissing of air escaping its vocation. And the airline is long enough that you don't need to park right next to it.

Once you've bought a snazzy bike, there is a whole industry dedicated to trying to get you to spend wedge on the latest fad. The next ridiculous size up of MTB wheel, some new outer space developed lycra wear, or an over engineered titanium tool of debatable usefulness (going on a diet will save you much more weight and money). The Birzman Zacoo Maha IV sounds like a serious contender in such a field. But after a boring evening researching column pumps on the internet, many fingers pointed to his royal highness Birz' IV. It turns out he/she is actually of Taiwanese descent. None of my four pumps - at least one of them manufactured by a reputable brand, do what they are meant to do. And the local garage now charges for the use of its airline, so I thought what the hell, lets go crazy. The Snap-It™ is also Schrader valve compatible, so it should be able to pump up my motorbike tyres too.

Evans Cylces have a great deal on at the moment. The Birz' IV is £24 inc delivery - not a stupid amount of money when its RRP is £37.

The pressure gauge goes all the way up to an eye watering 160psi - what vehicles have tyres that hard?! So my only gripe would be that the dial is not set with more increments lower down the scale, which would be really useful for a flat track motorcycle where you are around the 20psi mark, and a few poofs either way are critical. The Snap-It™ does have a blow-off button for deflating (without having to remove it from the tyre), but you would still need to take it off to use a proper tyre gauge for more accurate low readings.

Birzman Zacoo Maha IV had absolutely no problem of making short work of my flat CCM tyre. Or the saggy Space Hopper in the garden (theres a screw-on adaptor for that and footballs included). I might have go out and pump up the tyres of all the cars parked on my street. Just for fun. BP