This Stuff Works: Velowurks: Prime Floor Pump

By TRP Staff

Perhaps the first thing one buys for their bicycle is a floor pump. The helmet, shoes, gloves, shorts and jersey is for you – the pump is for it. The first pump is usually one on sale. It works and you probably get the upgraded model with the gauge on it with numbers big enough to see while pumping. This one will last till the hose gives out, the “chuck” gets sloppy or it just dries up and starts leaking.

This time, you do it right. IF you’re going to do it right, do the Velowurks. It’s got everything design, function, quality and it just feels wonderful to use.

The functional features are easy to spot. The handle is anodized aluminum with the same color and feel as those Cinelli 64 bars you had two decades ago. It’s tall enough that you don’t have to crouch and it stands solid on three strong aluminum feet steadied and made floor friendly with rubber pads. The handle is attached to the plunger with the same mechanism that secured your Cinelli bars to the quill stem. It’s the same design as the famous Cinelli 1A. The gauge is big enough for a 60 year old man to read without cheaters and it’s calibrated in both psi and bars. The locking head documentation says it’s both Schrader and Presta but we’ll never know, will we? The real rubber hose is wrapped with woven fabric so as to prevent UV damage and the locking lever has the same nurling as Campy did, when the did that. It’s rated 250psi … or 18 bar … though we’ll never know if it makes it there, either. I’m sure it will fit my Tangente to anything they want to take.

It does not come with a “sports ball adapter.” This is a pump for bicycles and bicyclists. It has a name badge plate and it says it’s yours for life no problems.

By the way, it works and works well. For those of us who still have 4 or 6 Silca bodies stuffed away somewhere just in case frame pumps come back, this is an icon of another era. You’ll love it.

If you’ve just discovered your love of bicycles, you want this as well. It’s something you can give your son or daughter when they ride their first century or take first in the local crit – maybe your grandkids.

Many will tell you “Your bicycle is a tool”. That is to say it is simply a device through which you can do certain things. Stay healthy, divest yourself of stress, cover distances while enjoying adventure, lose calories or simply to go a bit faster than your buddy. But, we who love bicycles know that there is more than that. Bicycles are the communion of humankind. It is the engineering off a machine – the engine of which is you and it limited only by your focus, dedication and passion. Bicycles are functional art or dreams made of steel, aluminum, carbon fiber or titanium.

Whether you’re a “tool” bicyclists or an “Art” bicyclist – the Velowurks is your pump. At $129 MSRP, it’s a big pricey – But that’s really $ .12 a weekend for the next 20 years. I’m betting it will still inflate your tubulars to the exact right pressure then, as good as it does now.