With so many options out there for choosing the right pump to take on your bikepacking trip, working out which one is right for you can be difficult. We’ve taken a look at the most popular options among bikepackers, and gathered their thoughts on the most important factors and features to help you choose the right one for you.
The Lezyne Carbon Drive Lite Mini Pump was the most popular bikepacking pump in our survey of regular bikepackers. This pump has many of the features you would look for, such as a compact size, lightweight design, and external hose to help pump up your tires.
While the Lezyne Carbon Drive Lite Mini Pump was the most popular option among the bikepackers we surveyed, there were many different options used by the people we spoke to. After talking to them, it appears that the actual pump itself is less important than its weight, size, and cost.
Table of Contents
What types of pump do people use for bikepacking?
Obviously, when it comes to bikepacking, you can’t take your regular floor pump. This leaves most bikepackers choosing between Frame pumps, Medium-sized pumps, and Mini Pumps. Generally, the larger the pump, the more air that can be pushed into the tire with each push. This means that smaller pumps (such as mini pumps) are less capable of quickly pumping up a tire.
While most cyclists and bikepackers focus heavily on how efficient a bike pump is at pumping up a tire, we feel that this should be less of an important factor. We’d personally rather have a more lightweight or compact pump, even if it takes an extra minute or two to pump up your tire. Especially on longer bikepacking trips where you might carry your pump with you for hundreds of miles at a time.
Frame Pumps
Frame pumps are the largest pump type that bikepackers might take with them. These are spring-loaded to fit nicely into your bike frame, often with rounded edges to sit flush to the curves of your bike. As these pumps are larger, they can pump more efficiently and are typically more comfortable to use.
Frame pumps tend to have the most extra features of the pumps on this list, such as pressure gauges or external hoses, that can make pumping up your bike easier.
On the other hand, their larger size makes them more difficult to pack, and you won’t be able to store them on your frame if you use a frame bag (which you almost always will). Due to their larger size, they are often heavier than the other options on this list.
Medium-Size Pumps
Medium-Size pumps are scaled-down versions of a frame pump. These pumps often retain some of the extra features that frame pumps have (such as pressure readers and external hoses), in a more compact and lightweight form factor.
Medium-sized pumps are often seen as a compromise between frame pumps and the smaller “mini pumps” that we’ll look at next.
Mini Pumps
Mini Pumps are the smallest pump type available. These are also the most lightweight option on the list (with some weighing as little as 65 grams). Mini-pumps can easily fit into a pocket or small bag.
To make up for their small size, these pumps sometimes have to forego features such as pressure gauges or a flexible external pump hose.
How much should a bikepacking pump weigh?
As with all gear in the cycling world, the weight of a pump will be one of the first things cyclists think about when choosing which one to get. As we’ve already established, the type of pump you choose will be a very important factor in the weight of the pump. Frame pumps will naturally weigh more than mini-pumps given their extra size, pumping power, and features.
Of the most commonly mentioned bikepacking pumps in our survey, the lightest options weighed as little at 65g while the heaviest weighed more than 200g.
| Pump | Size/Weight Score (The lower the better) |
|---|---|
| Crankbrothers KLIC HP Gauge and CO2 Mini Pump | 4.4 |
| Lezyne Carbon Drive Lite Mini Pump | 1.4 |
| Lezyne Grip Drive HV Long | 3.3 |
| Lezyne Digital Road Drive Mini Pump | 3.7 |
| Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HV | 6.8 |
| IPUMP Twist Mini | 0.3 |
| Toppeak Mini Morph G | 7.7 |
| Toppeak Mountain DA G | 4.4 |
| OneUp EDC 100cc | 4.6 |
A table showing the size/weight score of each of the most popular bikepacking pumps
Here you can see the size and weight of the most common pumps mentioned in our survey being ranked. It’s interesting to note that the Lezyne Carbon Drive Lite Mini Pump, which came out as the most popular pump among our bikepackers, is on the higher end of the spectrum for both height and weight.
As you can see, the OneUp EDC 100cc and the Lezyne Digital Road Drive Mini Pump are both great options if you want the largest pump at a lower weight.
How much should a bikepacking pump cost?
The best bikepacking pumps come in at a range of different price points, from £27.99 all the way up to £79.99. However, paying more does not necessarily lead to a better pump. As you can see below, the Toppeak Mini-Morph G, while the cheapest pump on the list, made it into the top 3 most suggested pumps by our bikepackers. The most popular option on our list was the Lezyne Carbon Drive Lite Mini Pump, which while obviously recommended by many of our users, came in as the second most expensive pump at £64.99.
Extra Features
Apart from the obvious factors such as size, weight, and cost, our bikepackers noted 2 key features that were important to them for a bikepacking pump.
Firstly they preferred a pump that came with a pressure gauge. This allowed them to accurately measure the pressure of their tires, and adjust them more accurately for a certain section of their journey (for example lowering the pressure for more difficult terrain or where they needed more grip).
The other feature that all our bikepackers preferred was an external bike pump hose. This makes pumping up your tires more comfortable and also helps to reduce the risk of bending the valve on your inner tube, especially on cold days when your hands might be cold and less dextrous.
| Pump | Pressure Gauge | External Hose |
|---|---|---|
| Crankbrothers KLIC HP Gauge and CO2 Mini Pump | No | Yes |
| Lezyne Carbon Drive Lite Mini Pump | No | Yes |
| Lezyne Grip Drive HV Long | No | Yes |
| Lezyne Digital Road Drive Mini Pump | Yes | Yes |
| Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HV | No | Yes |
| IPUMP Twist Mini | No | Yes |
| Toppeak Mini Morph G | No | Yes |
| Toppeak Mountain DA G | Yes | Yes |
| OneUp EDC 100cc | No | No |
A table reviewing the extra features of the most popular bikepacking pumps
As you can see, the majority of pumps used by our bikepackers were “Mini-pumps”, and so did not come with a pressure gauge to monitor tire pressure. Only the Toppeak Mountain DA G and Lezyne Digital Road Drive Mini Pump came with both an external hose as well as a pressure gauge.
Overall
As you can see, there are plenty of factors when it comes to picking the right bike packing pump. While the most popular option among bikepackers was the Lezyne Carbon Drive Lite Mini Pump, the Toppeak Mini-Morph G comes in as our favorite, with an external hose, lower weight, and more compact size, especially as it also reached the top 3 most suggested pumps by our bikepackers.
