I have talked about the Exped Air Pillow being my favourite piece of camping gear. Well, let me introduce to you my favourite piece of bike gear.
During my first year at the Tour de Timor, I spent a whole afternoon offering to pump up peoples tyres for them. Some would pull out a track pump they’d lugged from the other side of the world, but I’d smile and show them the Topeak Road Morph G pump.
Why was I so excited about pumping up other folks tyres?
Well, I was struggling to comprehend how quick and easy it was to pump tyres up to their recommended maximum pressures… so I had to do it over and over. The Road Morph G is so innocently small but is capable of pumping up tyres at roughly twice the time of an ordinary track pump.
If a track pump is 10 times its size, does that make the Road Morph five times awesomer?
Price: $69 AUD
Weight: 247g
Size (LxW): 35cm x 5.7cm x 2.8cm
Pros: Most powerful hand pump I’ve come across, pumps car or presta valves, easy to use pump head, accurate pressure gauge, gets to the pressure you require without fuss.
Cons: Weight and size could be considered a downfall to this pump.
The Topeak is a really well constructed and designed pump. The magic is in the footpeg, which drops down and allows you to out your body weight into the pump action – just like a floor pump. It uses a hose which means that you will no longer snap or damage your valves.
Once you’ve pushed the head of the pump onto the valve, you quickly lift a lever and the pump securely holds onto the valve until you lift the lever back up and release. The pump head is switchable between Presta and car valves, and replacement parts are available to ensure that the head gets a good grip on your valve.
The gauge seems to be very accurate, at least against my expensive track pumps gauge. The pump is said to go to 160psi, but most of the time I’m pumping between 25-100psi.
There are other options out there, but save yourself the trouble. My Topeak Road Morph has been going for a good five years now and doesn’t want to slow down. I cannot recommend a pump more highly than this beast.
And now that I have an Airspresso, I HAVE to use the pump every day to make our coffee. What a disaster… 😉
Awesome. This pump seems to be the de facto choice for touring cyclists who can find the extra bit of space and don’t mind the extra weight (I think 247g is bugger all for a compact floor pump though). A friend of mine has something like this that he is going to lend to me, however if that falls through or isn’t up to the task I’ll be getting one of these. Do you use presta or schrader valves on your touring bike? My Vivente came with schrader valves however I am not a big fan of them as they seem to damage my current floor pump’s rubber seal. Presta valves seem easier to pump up and get a seal on.
Another thing, I’ve noticed that there’s a few different version of the Morph pumps e.g. Mountain, Road, Turbo and Mini. I am running 700×35 Schwalbe Marathon tyres at around 70 PSI on the rear and 60 PSI on the front. I gather that for these lower pressures the Mountain Morph is a better choice as it does more volume? They are all rated up to 160 PSI. The Turbo Morph pum seems to be a slightly heavier ‘deluxe’ version of the Mountain Morph pump as it has a flip out pressure gauge.
I ask this question because you seem to be running the same size tyres as I am, but you bought the Road Morph model. I assume this is because you want to also use it for your road bikes as well as your touring bike?
Cheers
I have a Topeak Mountain Morph, equally as awesome at getting some serious pressure into big tyres, quickly. Doesn’t have a gauge though.
I have tried the Road Morph and Turbo Morph and while the Turbo Morph has an easier-to-read gauge, it dies after a while, whereas my Road Morph one continued forever… or at least until I lost the pump.
The pressure gauge is neither accurate or easily readable and the foldable handle can pinch your hand. Since its to short you have to bend all the way down to the ground with each stroke witch is very uncomfortable. A proper pump like the Zefal HPX give the user a more upright position and is a lot more durable.