Lezyne Micro Floor Drive Digital HPG

The Lezyne Micro Floor Drive Digital HPG is beautifully made and impressively effective, though unless you're travelling a lot and space is seriously at a premium, there are cheaper and/or lighter ways to get the job done.

You can frame mount this with the included bracket, though unless you just hate mini-pumps like they once turned your favourite puppy against you, I'm not sure why you'd want to. At 30cm long, around 6.5cm wide and 224g, it's considerably bigger and bulkier than a typical mini-pump.

The recently reviewed Velochampion Professional Bike Pump, for instance, is lighter at 146g, shorter at 22cm and still has a reversible chuck and a pressure gauge (it's analogue in this case, though).

The Lezyne isn't an especially quick pump to set up either, as you've got to unscrew the chuck (reversible to fit either Presta or Schrader) from the foot and then hold the very stiff gauge button for around four seconds to turn it on. It takes another long press to switch it off, though there's a fairly rapid auto-off if you forget. It's not a problem per se, just not ideal for emergency use in a rush, or in the rain...

The units can be switched between psi and bar, and it remembers your setting each time. The claimed maximum is 160psi, so it could also work for suspension tuning.

For my money, if you're not planning to fit this on the bike (or regularly pumping your tyres to 160psi), you're better off buying a normal track pump and benefiting from the extra volume and more easily used size... unless, of course, you're travelling with your bike. A lot. Especially if you're flying there.

The Micro Floor Drive comes into its own at that point, shifting lots of air quickly, giving you a live pressure readout and proving far, far easier to use – even from flat to high pressures – than a mini-pump, while not really being much larger than one as far as packing is concerned.

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Up to around 45psi this easily adds 1psi per second to a 28mm road tyre, and it's really only at 50psi that resistance starts to rise. It generally took me another 75 seconds to add a second 45psi. So, two minutes overall from flat to 90psi.

Partly that's down to the extra resistance, but that's not especially bad – mostly it's down to having to find a comfortable hand position as you start working harder. The smooth, rounded handle is fine in itself, but the gold alloy tube can get uncomfortable between your fingers as you start to grip harder.

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I struggled to find a non-painful position for pushing down that would actually let me grip the tiny handle well enough to pull it back up. It can be fiddly. Eventually I found that using the heel of one hand to push, and one finger from the other wrapped underneath to pull, worked best for me.

The other end of the pump, with its fold-down steel footpeg, is at least completely faff-free and very secure, and you're not heating up your hand from compressing air because that's all occurring under your shoe. The height does mean it's easiest to use this while sitting down, mind you.

Value

Really, the only major, rather than niggling, issue with this pump is the price. Lezyne's own normal-sized Macro Floor Drive Digital Pump is usefully cheaper at £60, for instance.

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At £89.99 it's up there with the Topeak JoeBlow Sport 2Stage, and that's a premium full-size design that can do both high pressures and high volumes (read our review here).

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Vel's version of this – the AR Flow Travel Pump – is very similar for £40, although to be fair that does lack a gauge. Also, our tester Stu found the handle a bit uncomfortable.

Overall

This is a very well made and effective pump that's ideal for travel use. The handle could be better designed, though – and it's a pretty expensive way of solving a probably not very frequent problem.

Verdict

Very well made and efficient mini track pump that's ideal for travelling abroad