More on the frame pump…

One of the blogs/web sites I read regularly is Red Kite Prayer and the pieces by the site owner/manager, Padraig. I followed his writing before RKP began when he contributed to Belgium Knee Warmers (sure would like to see Radio Freddy crank it up again). I was caught off-guard one day, a while back, when Radio Freddy sent me an e-mail telling me that he appreciated what I was posting on my blog and that he dug what I was doing with the shop. I thought that was pretty damn nice of his to take the time to send me that e-mail.

RKP is chock full of good writing and opinions on the sport and the equipment. I’m more of an equipment guy so I most appreciate their “machine” bits. The most recent piece filed under machine was on the piece of cycling equipment that is fast becoming extinct – the frame pump.

I’ve always carried a full-sized frame pump on my bike. And that’s one of the reasons why I also included pump pegs on both my road and cross frames. I may not use it much on the road (one time in the past 4 years), but when I do need it, it’s there and it’s reliable. While the classic Silca pump with Campy pump head painted to match your frame is just about the coolest, I carry a decades old Zefal HP-X pump. I use a Jandd frame pump strap to add a little extra security to avoid pump ejection while riding dirt roads. The Jandd strap is a little wider than most and has a piece of neoprene that fits between the pump and the frame to keep the pump from wearing the paint off the frame. And it keeps it all nice and quiet.

I closed last Sunday to attend Bruce Gordon’s “Another Big Stinkin’ Handbuilt Whoop-de-doo” and to also ride in the morning with guys I never get to ride with. I spent a good part of the first half of the ride in the back riding and talking with a friend I’ve never ridden with and part of the conversation was about frame pumps. There was a lot of steel bikes on this ride and plenty of frame pumps. Guys who’ve ridden a lot and know what it takes to make it back from a ride on the desolate West Marin/West Sonoma roads.

While reading RKP’s “The Frame Pump,” I happened to also notice one of the comments was from someone who was happy to discover that his Masi Gran Criterium had a pump peg. I’m pretty sure he’s referencing a new aluminum Masi and not an older steel one because I have a 1980 Gran Criterium and there’s no pump peg and I’ve had a 1973 Gran Criterium and there was no pump peg. And I do know for a fact that the new generation of aluminum Masis have pump pegs because I put them there. When I was creating the frame designs for the Masi line, the pump peg is one of the little touches I included on all frames that had space behind the head tube for a pump peg. So I was pretty stoked that cwcushman digs that fact that his bike has a pump peg.

Not all my frames have pump pegs. My old Bridgestone RB-1 doesn’t, but with the seat stay attachment, it allows me to fit the pump up with side of the left seat stay using the quick release as the peg. It’s clean and out of the way.