Puncture repair upgraded: Lezyne Micro Floor Drive Digital HPG pump

For many, many years, I’ve run Giyo’s GP-61S mini pumps on both my bikes, Hyro and Bino. This is a cheap, plastic mini pump which has a simple, compact design, secured to the bike via a plastic cradle and Velcro strip pinned under a water bottle cage. It’s been fairly reliable when called to duty, usually to pump tires to anywhere from 65 to 85 psi. As simple as it is, it even sports a simple but reasonably accurate air pressure gauge in its dinky body.

Giyo GP-61S mini pump mounted on Bino

On one of the Manila Coffee Cycling Club’s rides in 2019, I found myself lagging behind the group, with tires that had gone a bit soft mid-ride. As I slowly caught up with the others at Corinthian Gardens in Quezon City, I dismounted from Hyro and took out the trusty Giyo to put in some more air into my tires. That was when my friend Marco Sadsad, a seasoned Metro Manila bike commuter, loaned me his Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HPG pump instead.

This long, shiny, metallic silver object was at least twice the length of the dinky GP-61S, and offered the advantage of pushing against the ground for more pressure per longer pump stroke. Tired from the heat, with sore, painful feet, I could remember my surprise in how quickly I had gotten my tires back to my riding pressure of 85 psi.

That memory had stuck with me long enough to eventually purchase one of my own. The only thing was, what I had apparently purchased wasn’t exactly the same as Marco’s chromed-out unit.

The Micro Floor Drive isn’t a new pump by any means, having been around since 2013 at least. It comes in either high-volume (HV) or high-pressure (HP) flavor, with separate variants packing in-line pressure gauges (HVG and HPG respectively). Lezyne didn’t leave well enough alone though. The company introduced two big changes to the Micro Floor Drive: it now came in black with some gold accents, and it ditched the old in-line pressure gauge for a digital unit.

But first, a better look at the Micro Floor Drive. As mentioned, it is effectively a miniature track pump or floor pump, made out of CNC-machined aluminum, good for up to 160 psi (11 bar), and weighing in at a rated 208 g. It’s got a tiny fold-out footstep for stability, while drawing the pump in and out through its remarkably long stroke. That compressed air feeds through its own rubber hose, terminating in a Presta/Schrader switchable chuck that threads onto your valve stem. By separating the actual pumping body from the valve stem, that hose helps protect it from shearing clean off its inner tube.

While the screw-on design provides security, Lezyne’s pumps are notorious for taking Presta valve cores along with their air chucks as you unscrew them off the valve, and it’s happened to me a few times. This particular gold-colored chuck has an “ABS” valve which helps bleed air pressure from within the hose. On a Presta valve, this supposedly aids removal of chuck from valve stem, and reduces the chance of unintentional valve core removal; on a Schrader valve, this can act as a manual bleed valve to let off excess air pressure. I’m guessing I will either need a bit more practice with removing the chuck from the valve, or just further tighten the valve cores I have.

This pump also includes what Lezyne calls its “speed chuck,” which is this plastic 90-degree elbow that threads onto the main chuck and transforms it into a push-fit arrangement. This solves the valve core removal issues, but it’s also just another piece that can get lost. While the Micro Floor Drive is in travel mode, there isn’t a good place to store it securely – apart from maybe separately in a saddle bag. That’s how I’ll roll for the time being.

The pump’s party trick is its much larger digital pressure gauge. I mean, just look at it. At 8 cm, it’s about as long as my palm is wide. You do have to turn it on with a separate button, which can also switch between psi and bar – much like the SKS Airchecker pressure gauge I reviewed a while back. This one doesn’t have decimal places or a backlight function, though, and it runs on a much smaller CR1220 battery.

Quite unusually, it displays the pressure reading vertically. With the large numerals though, it does the job quite well. I later noticed that this digital pressure gauge is integrated with the hose, and is actually an upgrade part you can purchase directly from Lezyne. If you have an older Micro Floor Drive pump knocking around and want the fancy gauge, upgrading to it is as simple as screwing off the old hose and threading on the new one.

Inflating tires to 100 psi isn’t so hard, either. While the pump begins to fight back with resistance at 80 psi, being able to push your body weight into the ground with each pump stroke means faster inflation. You may want to keep your gloves on as you push in the narrow pump handle, though.

Finally, the pump comes with a bracket and a beefy strap to mount to your water bottle cage bolts in travel configuration. This entails pushing the pump handle all the way in and wrapping the hose around it, then folding in the footstep and screwing the chuck into the base. You then strap it onto the bracket. The larger size certainly lends it an old-school frame pump feel, but some planning and care is needed so the pump doesn’t get in the way of pedaling, or things such as a crank-mounted cadence sensor or power meter. I appreciate how the new colorway is much more incognito than the original chrome.

I understand now why Marco had his mounted on his bike for years. This thing is a bike commuter’s friend when punctures are a risk and committing to tubeless isn’t your jam. While this pump may not be able to eliminate punctures, it can sure improve your turnaround from them.

Review: Topeak Wedge Drybag S saddle bag

As insurance against a punctured tire or some other mechanical mishap while riding, I’ve always installed a saddle bag on my bikes.

I still have the very first one I bought, a Deuter Bike Bag II. It’s a simple satchel with 1 L of capacity, which is enough to carry everything I need – and that’s without expanding it to 1.4 L by opening the bottom zipper. It secures to the saddle and seat post via one Velcro strap each, which meant that it fits around saddles with rails that are very wide at the rear, such as my old Selle SMP Hell saddle.

After almost four years of riding, though, it’s looking a little beat-up and tired. While Deuter says its material offers water resistance, it wasn’t enough to prevent my KMC master links from rusting.

I got the Topeak Wedge Drybag Small to replace it.

FEATURES

• Waterproof polyurethane material, sonically welded seams
• Roll-top closure secured with side buckles
• Attaches to saddle by clicking into mounting bracket installed on saddle rails
• Fits seat posts from 25.4 mm to 34.9 mm diameter
• Rear light loop and reflective material strip
• Volume: 0.6 L
• Weight: 140 g (bag only)

IMPRESSIONS

The Wedge Drybag is made of a similar polyurethane material to my Vincita B050WP-A panniers, except here it’s given shape and stiffness by a curved plastic plate. As such, it holds its distinct shape better than the Bike Bag II.

From experience with my panniers, I’m a believer in the waterproofing provided by a roll-top bag closure. Here, though, there isn’t enough material to let riders leverage another advantage of the roll-top closure: it is tolerant of overfilling. More on that in a minute.

Since changing to the Fabric Line saddle, the use of these saddlebags with a plastic quick-disconnect bracket has been restored to me. The QuickClick bracket on the Wedge Drybag attaches with just a 3 mm hex wrench.

A look at the inside of the bag reveals slim mesh pockets on the sides, as a way of organizing the contents. They’re not exactly deep, but they’re useful enough.

At 0.6 L, this Topeak bag is rated smaller in absolute capacity than the Deuter Bike Bag II. The old bag could fit two cyclocross inner tubes, a multi-tool, tire levers, a patch kit, master links, a spare rear derailleur hanger, and had space left over for some odds and ends. The new bag…isn’t as roomy, especially when trying to stuff it with two inner tubes.

Here it is with a Topeak Hexus II multi-tool with two included tire levers and one spare cyclocross inner tube side by side. Not seen, but packed in the side mesh pockets, are a ziplock bag with some cash; a tiny plastic bag with a KMC missing link and spare rear derailleur hanger; and a Park Tool GP-2 glueless patch kit.

It will manage to fit all this, but barely – mostly because of how bulky the inner tube is. Trying to fit two of these inner tubes is possible but requires a different strategy: skipping the use of the side mesh pockets altogether.

While one advantage of the roll-top closure is that it can tolerate some overfill, there just isn’t enough spare material for it. As it is, the roll-top closure folds over just once before the buckles come in to cinch the opening shut.

Moving all the small bits into the depths of the bag and covering them over with the two inner tubes jammed into the main cavity side by side proved the way to go. That left the multi-tool. I made it fit by making it sit sideways, and used whatever overfill capacity the bag had to cinch everything down shut.

…Like so.

Even stuffed to the gills, it’s much sleeker than the droopy Bike Bag II was. This is best illustrated by the Cat Eye Reflex Auto rear light I hung on its safety light loop. The Reflex Auto sits just a bit higher up, at a better angle, and it does this on its own.

Deuter Bike Bag II hung under Selle SMP Hell. Note the droop and angle of the Cat Eye Reflex Auto rear light.

On the Bike Bag II, I had to wrestle the saddle rail Velcro straps to combat the natural droopage of the material that conspired to make the Reflex Auto point downward.

There’s a finger-wide strip of reflective print, too, but I’m not sure how helpful it is given that it tends to face downward when the bag is mounted on the saddle.

Despite biting off more than it can swallow with my two fat tubes, the Wedge Drybag has done a pretty good job of ferrying my tools and spares around. The Velcro strap for the seat post isn’t strictly necessary for security, either. You could skip wrapping it if you regularly remove the saddle bag on and off the bike, since undoing it from the bag’s loop is more obtrusive than it should be. Riders who detest the thought of saddle bag straps catching on their bibshorts will welcome the option.

Overall, this is another good release from Topeak. If the Medium size was available, I’d opt for that, though.

This is why you should regularly inspect your chain

Not too long ago, my chain broke just as I was beginning my ride. The outer plates on one of the links had given up, bending outward in dramatic fashion.

This was a first for me.

Driving a joining pin into a Shimano CN-HG54 10-speed chain using a multi-tool’s chain breaker.

These days, there are many, many resources online that can help you with chain repair and get you going, assuming you have the right tools and supplies on hand. Specifically, you’ll need a multi-tool with a chain breaker, plus either a spare joining pin (for Shimano or Campagnolo chains) or a master link (for SRAM, KMC, Taya and Wippermann chains).

I carry these in my saddlebag, and I know how to use them, so the only inconvenience for me was leaving about ten minutes later than planned…plus dirty, greasy fingers from handling the chain. My KMC 10-speed master links had some rust on them, but were still very usable, and so I replaced the busted outer plates with one of the master links and made it to my destination safely.

That should have been the end of it. Or was it?

My trusty Park Tool CC-3.2 chain checker, here indicating that the chain has not yet worn down 0.75%. A cheap, must-have tool.

A few days later, I took out my Park Tool CC-3.2 chain checker and used it on the chain. The 0.5% end fell straight through the links, indicating 0.5% wear. The 0.75% end didn’t, though. Okay, I told myself, I should stay on the conservative side and look for a replacement chain, but no hurries.

I took a closer look at the chain though and found this.

Apparently there were more links on my chain with broken outer plates. These were ticking time bombs. There’s no way of telling when these outer plates would finally let go and lead to another chain failure event.

I replaced the chain straight away.

A pair of outer plates and chain rivets from my KMC X10EL chain. Note the broken outer plate. There were more of these.

Park Tool recently released a few videos on its YouTube channel on chains, sizing, repair, and replacement procedures. It stressed that in case of chain breakage, you could always repair it the same way I did. However, that broken chain must be replaced as soon as possible.

Well, the broken outer plates all over my repaired chain are one possible reason why. Even at 0.5% wear, which for 10-speed chains indicates a bit of life left, my chain clearly shouldn’t be ridden any longer. These broken links are what you should take particular notice of on your chain – we all know what they say about it only being as strong as its weakest link.

Always keep a spare chain at home to match your drivetrain, at least as long as your current chain’s length. As long as the packaging is unopened, you won’t need to worry about it rusting or corroding, as it comes coated from the factory in a grease-like lubricant for storage.