Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HP Mini Pump

Lezyne herald the Micro Floor Drive as “Floor pump power brought to an on-the-bike package”, with a bold claim like this, it has a lot to live up to.

There are two variants of the Micro Floor Drive, the HV and the HP, both available with or without an inbuilt pressure gauge.

The HV is the high volume model; it has a wider barrel to enable more air to be moved per stroke, but reaches a lower ultimate pressure, suited to mountain bike tyres.

The model tested here was the HP without a pressure gauge; this is the road specific high pressure variant. The slimmer barrel means less air is moved per stroke, but allows a higher pressure to be achieved due to the increased mechanical advantage – Lezyne quote an incredible 160psi!

Visually, as ever with products from Lezyne, the pump looks beautifully engineered; the barrel, handle and adapter are superbly finished in polished aluminium, with a long rubber extension pipe that connects to the base, wraps up and over the top of the handle via two locating grooves, and attaches by screw thread back into the base on the opposite side for safe storage. There is also a flip down wire foot to help keep the unit stable on the ground when pumping.

The Floor Drive comes with a frame mounting bracket, which you will need as, at 11.5 inches long it is too large for a jersey, but still small enough to not look incongruous when bike mounted. The bracket fits via the water bottle cage bolts; I found it best to fit this to the down tube mounted cage bolts, as there was a tendency for the pump to foul the cranks if mounted on the seat tube location. The bracket has a foam rubber insert on one of its four locating clips to stop the pump sliding down when clipped in, along with a neoprene lined Velcro strap for securing it tightly in place.

So how did it perform?

The short answer is – very well. So often mini pumps claim the ability to reach high pressures, allowing you continue a ride, rather than just limp home, but my experience has shown that previously, very few actually achieve this.

To use, you unscrew the adapter (or air chuck as Lezyne call it) from its storage position on the foot of the pump, which releases the extension pipe. The pipe is a very useful 24 inches long, meaning it is easy to connect it to a wheel when re-inflating a tyre at the roadside.

Presta or Shrader connection is selected by means of a reversible aluminium screw in valve adapter. The adapter is laser etched with Presta at one end and Shrader the other, for easy identification. Once the correct option is selected, the adapter can then be screwed onto the valve stem, rather than the usual push fit, which makes a very secure and airtight connection.

The flip down wire foot helps to keep the pump in position, it’s a little bit flimsy, but enough to keep the pump upright at least.

As the pump only stands 11.5 inches high, you do have to stoop quite a bit to pump it, but this is a necessary evil in order for it to achieve its compact size. The T-bar handle at only 1.5 inches wide, can put a bit of pressure on your palm when pumping at high pressures, but again, this is the trade off for keeping the unit small.

I was very sceptical of the claims of 160psi, my big workshop pump doesn’t achieve much more than this, and previous experience with mini pumps has proven that anything much over 80psi is very rare.

I initially inflated a 700c x 23 Conti GP4000 as hard as I thought I dare, whilst still feeling there was more on offer from the Floor Drive; I tested the pressure with my workshop track pump, to discover I had achieved 140psi – I quickly let some air out as I was well over max pressure for that tyre!

I then tried it on my track wheels, but being clinchers, they are only recommended to 150psi, which I again reached with the feeling I could have got more if I really wanted. I was left in no doubt that if I had a tyre that could take 160psi, this pump would get me there.

I found that holding the T-bar in one hand and then wrapping the other hand over that one, you could exert a lot of force on the pump; the quality of build and materials means you at no point feel this is liable to break it, and the exceptionally good seals mean that each stroke seems to get all the air into the tyre, with no leakage anywhere in the air path. You have to be prepared to put in quite a bit of effort to achieve such high pressures, but a more usual 100psi was easy to reach.

Verdict

Carrying this pump is liable to make you very popular on club runs and group rides, as it exposes the traditional mini pump as an under-achiever. It is easily capable of achieving your optimum road tyre pressures at the roadside, with a minimum of fuss or effort.