Do You Take The Bike Pump With Yourself?

I want to buy a bike pump and my friend told me that is unnecessary.
how about you?

 

I ride with a group and normally one or two of us has a pump, a patching kit, and a few small repair items stashed away.
One guy even carries a spare tube, which has come in handy more than once.
We do a lot of mountain biking so we might have to do a few more repairs on the go than someone who sticks to road biking, but I still think it's a good thing to have with you as long as it's small enough to pack away.
I've gotten a pinch flat before just hopping onto the curb on my way home from work, so you never know when you're going to need to do some small repairs.

 

when I had my first flat, my spare tube was defective and I wasted 2 C02 cartridges trying to inflate it, had to get home 15 miles on one good tire...After that day I bought a frame pump and it works like a charm.











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Good point about the tubes! I always carry 2 spare tubes and one for my wife since we ride together so we always have 3 just in case.

I have a pump on the 2 bikes I ride most and one on the tandem!

Plus I ma very careful what I put and how I put things in the seat pack knowing they have cut my tubes in the past. Things like spoke wrenches and allen wrenches go in the zipper compartments away from the tubes.

 

Did my post vaporize into the ether?

Re-post:

When riding in a group, CO2 as a minimum with a tube for every rider.

When riding solo and a long way from assistance, I take a micro pump, CO2, a tube, a small patch kit with self-adhesive patches, a tire boot and 2 tire levers. Stick a few pesos in the tire bag in case you need to buy another tube, call a taxi or Uber car to get home, find a cheap hooker, etc.

The cell phone is charged and full of numbers I get a ride from in an emergency. I haven't needed to do that...yet.

 

I take a pump, tube, and patch kit. I have been stuck with a flat enough times to know better. It is no fun to be out in the boonies with a flat in bad weather.

 

Although I haven't suffered a flat for a long time, I would go with the patching kit. Since I normally bike around the village, a flat is not much of a problem considering that there is a vulcanizing shop inside our village. What worries me is when I go touring for more than 10 kilometers. A flat away from home may be difficult to handle. But when I have companions, a patching kit would be fine since I'm sure some of them has a pump. I am very thrifty when it comes to excess baggage.

 

Any ride outside easy walking distance, I carry tube, pump, self-adhesive patches, chain breaker, quick link, spare shifter + brake wire, duct tape and a few tools.
Add a CO inflator and another tube for time critical rides.

 

I'd say that it depends on how far you tend to ride on a given day. If it's going to be more than a few miles from home, then a pump and perhaps a patching kit or extra tubes can be a smart idea. They're always good to have on hand, although most of us can walk back home with the bike in tow with a flat if it's a one or two mile walk. I carry a patching kit and a pump on longer rides, but I won't bother for the shorter distances.

 

a few weeks ago I was unfortunate enough to get a puncture and had nothing with me and had to call to get a lift for me and the bike home. Then the following day after having replaced the dead inner tube I made it 2 miles further and got another. thankfully I had packed a spare inner tube and had the newly purchased topeak pocket rocket pump and my tyre leavers with me so changed it all by the side of the road and completed my ride. I wont make the mistake again of not having replacement tubes and tools and a pump with me. taken for granted when I group ride that we all have enough to help a member out in trouble. but on lone rides you need to be self sufficient. The fact that the tube and tools fit in the saddle bag easily and the pump is attached to the frame with one of my bottle holders means I take them all the time now.

 

I think this is a good reminder for me to be prepared all the time. I do have one at home and I forget to bring it with me. I always go riding with friends and they do carry all the things we might need especially for emergency cases. That is one habit that I should stop doing moving forward.

 

It's a great idea for cyclist to be self sufficient. I know of riders that didn't want to carry a pump figuring others would be willing to help them out. Of course once or twice but it gets annoying knowing a rider wants to depend on you for their repairs over and over. I had a rider that did just that and it got to the point that I had to ask him where he carried his spare tube as I noticed he didn't have a seat pack. He told me he didn't carry one because he knows I carry two spare tubes.

Uhh NO! I don't prepare myself and spend my money to support other rider's hobby because they don't want to spend a few bucks to support themselves.

I've given away several tubes to riders in need after unexpected event. Like damage during tube installation or CO2 mishap. But to provide support for riders not willing to support themselves gets very annoying.

 

I always carry around my spare bike pump in the small pouch in the back just in case I hit a flat or something. It's a bad idea not to bring one as you never know when something could go wrong really fast.

 

If you have very powerful lungs you might be able to blow the tire up that way, or if you have a cell phone and a mommy waiting on the other end to come rescue you at a moments notice then you might not need a pump.

Seriously, if you ride a bike carry a damn pump regardless if others have one, what if you go riding without your buds? The two best pumps to get, in my opinion of course is the Lezyne Road Drive large version, they come in 3 sizes, small, medium, and large, the larger pump will assure that you get to 110 or so PSI with less strokes and less effort, the smaller ones will take more strokes and more muscle power and even then doubtful, especially the small one, if you'll get a tire past 70 psi regardless that the manufacture says they'll reach 160 psi. The other good pump is the Topeak Race Rocket HP, this one can also get to 110 psi but with slightly more effort than the Lezyne. Both pumps are reliable, both have an internal hose that you unscrew out of the barrel of the pump then screw the hose onto the presta valve then screw the pump onto the hose. I own both of these and they are the only mini pumps I've ever bought that will go north of 75 psi besides the original SKS Raceday Carbon (all the newer crop of SKS mini pumps are pure trash). I own the above mentioned pumps, I like the Lezyne the best of all of them but all of them do the job so if you decide to buy one of those simply find whichever one has the best sale price.

CO2 inflators I don't like personally because for one I'm not racing so I don't need instant air; two, I don't like the idea of having to buy air when I can get it for free; three, the hassle of discarding the carts and buying more; four, you carry a limited amount of air, have more flats than carts and you're calling your mommy; five, CO2 air molecules are a lot smaller than regular air thus CO2 air will bleed entirely out of your tube in about 24 hours so you have to go home after using CO2, drain the air and refill, I don't like wasting time like that, in fact I lost more time draining and refilling my tire then I would have I had not used CO2! Now if some of those negatives don't bother you and you're gung ho on CO2 you can buy a hybrid pump, this pump combines a CO2 inflator with a pump so at least if you run out of CO2 air you still have a pump; Lezyne makes one called the Pressure Drive CFH.

If size of pump doesn't bother you and you want the easiest hand pump to use Topeak has the Road Morph G, but this pump is not a mini, its more of a half frame pump and it looks ungainly, it has a fold out foot peg and a fold out handle which enables it to be used like a mini floor pump, and it will quickly, in about 2/3rds less strokes than any of the above mentioned mini's, get to whatever pressure you want. The G at the end stands for gauge because it has a built in psi gauge, it's not the most accurate gauge in the world but it will get you to within 5 psi of your target, you can always verify the accuracy of the gauge with a known accurate gauge then you know exactly where the line needs to be for your psi; mine reads just 3 psi off.

 

I don't take a bike pump with me but I do get a little paranoid that there will be a time that I need one when I am aways from home.

Most of the time though I keep a check on how my tyres are every weekend and if need be pump them up a little.

 

You can only blow air into a Presta tube (unless your tongue can depress the valve spring of a Schrader tube), and to get one to a rideable psi, you'd need the lungs of the Big Bad Wolf.

Just in case someone missed Froze's humor.

I carry CO2. And a small pump. There are very few mini-pumps that can get a tube anywhere close to 110 psi. Riding with 80 or less invites a pinch flat. It will also affect handling on a corner.The pump gives the tube some shape for inserting in the tire, and getting the inflation after mounting started. CO2 gets it to where I can ride it confidently.

I carry my debit card, driver's license, and health insurance card. Just in case. Along with a cell phone. American paper currency makes a decent emergency tire boot.

 

Being a cyclist isn't about what bike you ride, it's about riding. If you can ride because you're at the side of the road waiting for mommy, then you ain't a cyclist.

I always take two spare tubes, tire levers, patch kit, and a small section of an old tire that's been cut out into a 4x1 rectangle and a micro pump. I only flat about once a year but when I do it's typically many many miles from home.

 

Problem with a lot of the modern generation is that they can fix a computer and program all sorts of stuff and operate what I think are complicated I phones, but they can't fix anything mechanical, and this is huge problem because in the automotive world they're not getting enough people wanting to be mechanics, they want to be computer techs. So this lack of mechanical knowhow translates into not even knowing how to fix the simplest of all cycling problems...a flat. But that problem goes beyond that, they don't want to know how to fix it and feel they don't have to as long as the phone is in their seat bag.

I too ride a long ways from home, if I had to call my wife to come get me I could be stranded for an hour; also in some areas I ride into there is no cell service so then what would I do? I'm also the kind of person who doesn't treat my wife as my mommy, she doesn't need another kid she had 2 of them. And if I'm taking up a hobby like cycling then I shouldn't have to rely on her to rescue me, this is my hobby and thus I'm responsible for taking care of myself when I'm out riding.

There are a lot of You Tube videos and websites that will take you step by step on how to fix a flat, then simply practice and practice a lot till you know you got it.

I carry 1 tube but I also carry 6 to 12 glueless patches (I prefer glueless but that's a different subject), along with tire levers, QuikStik (which can take tires off and back on very fast), boot patch (in case of a major cut in a tire), multi tool, small folding pliers, about $60 in cash, along with some other odds and ends. I use to carry a spare tire, yup, a spare tire, a habit held over from the days of tubulars, but this last year I finally ditched the spare tire since tires today are built better and I haven't had any issues with tires having a major problem; if I was going on a over 100 mile trip I would repack the tire, I carry a spare tire when I tour.

 

Yep, a tube and a pump of course.

 

Thank so much for your suggestions, I will go online to find one