Birzman The Pump with Flick-It

Known rather dramatically as Birzman The Pump with Flick-It, this well-made device blows up tyres very effectively. The big dial is typically very easy to read and the price is reasonable – overall it's solidly good, if not outstanding.

Our best track pumps buyer's guide rounds up our favourite inflators from less than 30 quid to… nearly £300!

This is a good track pump, if not quite perfect; both the valve chuck and the dial could be improved a little.

I'll start with the dial as it's the simplest; the needle would be easier to see (especially in dingy sheds) if it were brightly painted in a contrasting colour. As it is, the shiny silver can get lost against the white and limey yellow markings. In good light it's fine, but when it's dull (like in summer...) it's not always clear. That's a shame, because otherwise the large face is very easy to read.

My second issue is with the Flick-It head, which neatly accepts either Presta or Schrader valves without any alterations, but otherwise works like an awful lot of other heads. That's to say you push it on and lift the lever to lock it.

I had enough issues getting a good connection on my tubeless road tyres that I ended up checking online to see if I was starting with the lever in the right place (I was), and with one inner tube I ended up trying a different pump to see if it the valve was broken (it wasn't). I eventually learnt that you just really need to crush the chuck waaay onto the valve and hold it there while you lift the lever.

Doing this seems to really need three hands, as it always does with chucks of this shape, and there certainly wasn't any jaunty 'flick it' action going on.

To be clear, once I'd figured it out and the connection was good, it all worked very well. The aluminium chamber is not the wide, high-volume kind, but the stroke is long and it pushes a decent amount of air (at full stretch the whole thing is over 4ft tall). It also keeps its silvery smooth (if not quite solid gold) easy action up to the highest pressures you're likely to use in a tyre. By that I'm assuming around 120psi, and no, I use nowhere near.

It took 38 strokes to take a 28mm tyre on a 21mm ID rim from flat to 100psi, and the only real effort was the repetition. For comparison, my regular pump (an old Topeak Joe Blow Max HP) only took 26 strokes to reach 100psi, but it also gets noticeably stiffer from somewhere around 70psi. That's probably why I use 75psi.

It's no surprise the bigger-volume Topeak pump tops out at 120psi, while this Birzman goes all the way up to 160.

Quite who's using track pumps instead of high-pressure pumps to get to 160psi I don't know (I suppose it could be track cyclists... if only there was a clue), but if you're not, at least you know you're operating well within the Birzman's limits, rather than stressing both it and yourself each time.

Its three-footed base is very stable, the handle is wide and comfortable, and the whole thing both looks and feels sturdy.

At the base of the hose there's a neat little holder stocked with adaptors to fit, let's say, soccergoal balls, liferings and transatlantic dirigibles. I'm never quite sure what those are for. But you know the ones.

Note there's a The Pump With Flick-It II available as well, and it's more at £69.99. Birzman doesn't trumpet the differences and it looks extremely similar, but at minimum it gains a steel-reinforced base and a new handle that's tapered and padded. Unless you're regularly cranking into triple-digit pressures, however, I don't think you'll miss either feature.

Value

This pump's £56.99 tag seems fair. The Cannondale Precise Floor Pump that John reviewed is a serious competitor at £55, as its long stroke, wide bore and huge dial combined to earn it a coveted 'road.cc recommends' award. And when I say it's a 'competitor,' I mean it's cheaper and better.

The Truflo Easitrax 4 Floor Pump is still cheaper at £34.99, and while Sam didn't think it was as nicely designed, the head still deals easily with either type of valve, it also runs to 160psi, and it'll still blow your tyres up.

At the other end of the scale there's the Silca Terra Floor at £180, to which you may well say ah ha ha ha ha ha what? Iwein found it fantastically good at everything though: high pressures, high volumes and either style of valve. And naturally it's beautifully made. If you just want the nicest, most cultured air in your tyres, this is the one.

Overall

The Birzman is well made and, the odd niggle aside, does a very good job. Despite the quality though, it's not really doing much to stand out in a sea of strong alternatives.

Verdict

Well made and largely very effective, if not quite perfect