Mike PLUMPATIRE - a wood-handled Floor Pump

A high volume floor pump for tires 38mm and fatter. It'll fill a 50mm/20inch tire from pancake flat to 25psi in sixteen strokes.

BEST PUMPING TECHNIQUE, TO MAKE PUMPING EASY: Pushing more air volume requires more force. SO: Lock your arms as early in the stoke as you can. If you're tall, this may be with the handle all the way up. If you're short, it may be partway down the stroke. In either case, once your arms are locked, bend at the knees to lower your massive torso weight on the downstroke. In other words, pump more or less how you'd pump if your arms were locked-out straight.  Otherwise, you might get more exercise.

This is the most pleasant pump I've ever used. The name may have something to do with that.

It is customized for us with a wooden handle, because we’ve broken too many German plastic handles.  That was the extent of our input. It's best to let people who make only pumps make the calls on everything else. 

Mike PLUMPATIRE is :

• NOT all metal. But the barrel and plunger are. 

• NOT made in the U.S., Germany, or Japan, or Switzerland.  It hails from Taiwan, scourge of China.

• NOT our original, start-from-scratch, connoisseur-select pump with all the classy heirloom-style collectability that you’ve come to expect from the Rivendell snobs.

---------

Its double-head fits presta and schrader valves, no opening it up and reversing washers. There’s more plastic on on Mike's foot, gauge, and cap than we’d LIKE, but it’s used in places that don't get a lot of stress. “In normal use,” Mike may last a decade, or two, or three. And it's only $50. 

We stock the parts on Mike that may wear out over time. You cannot buy spares, you can buy replacements. Mike's maker says the head gaskets are the only thing that'll wear out, and that they should last seven years, but we have in reserve every part that's user-replaceable.

All tires lose air over time, so don't think you'll use it only when you get a flat.