How to choose a portable pump for gravel bike

How to choose a portable pump for each tire type

For tubed tires

If you are running a gravel bike with tubed tires, you can use the same portable pump as a regular road bike without any problem.

However, if you are running larger gravel tires, such as 38C or 40C, the air volume is much higher than with 25C or 28C road tires, so you will need to pump the bike quite a few times with a road portable pump.

If you have larger gravel tires, a portable pump for MTB is recommended, as MTB tires are larger and the portable pump is designed to pump more air per push, so you can pump more air into your gravel tires with fewer pumps.

Also, although it will add bulk to your luggage, it is better to choose a full-scale portable pump that is a smaller version of a floor pump, so that pumping is smooth and you can easily inflate a large volume of air.

Among them, we recommend a model like LEZYNE’s MICRO FLOOR DRIVE HV, which has a foot to hold the pump in place and a T-shaped handle to push.

For tubeless and tubeless ready tires

In the case of tubeless and tubeless ready tires, although they still require less air than tubed tires, they still require more air to fill than road tires, so it is better to have a high-capacity portable pump.

Also, depending on the tubeless tire and tubeless rim you are using, if you get a flat tire on the road and the bead falls off the rim, it may be difficult to raise the bead with a portable pump.

It is safer to carry a CO2 cylinder in case the bead falls off.

Checkpoints for portable pumps for gravel bikes

Let’s focus on “ease of inflating rather than portability” for gravel bikes.

If you have ever inflated gravel tires by yourself, you may have noticed that the thicker tires on gravel bikes are more difficult to inflate than those on road bikes.

On a road bike, you can push the tire as often as you like, “Is it almost the correct pressure?” but gravel tires are often only half inflated.

Gravel bikes are often used for adventure riding on forest trails, and there may not be a bicycle shop nearby. It is better to choose a pump that is “easy to inflate” so that it can be inflated reliably and securely in an emergency.

“Easy to fill” portable pumps for gravel tires

A portable pump that is “easy to fill” for gravel tires is a product that has the following three features

1. Able to pump a lot with a single push
2. easy to push even on unstable surfaces
3. lightweight to push

Some portable pumps have “HV: High Volume” or “HP: High Pressure” in the product name, but for gravel bikes, the “HV: High Volume” model with a foot on the pump is the best choice.

Also, the longer the cylinder of the pump, the more volume can be delivered with one push, and the thinner the pump, the easier to hold, so a “thin, long, HV-compatible portable pump” would be best for gravel bikes.

In this sense, the LEZYNE MICRO FLOOR DRIVE HV introduced earlier is the best portable pump for gravel bikes because it is large in size but not too expensive.

If you are looking for a pump that is as small and light as possible, the Pocket Drive HV, also by LEZYNE, is lightweight and delivers a high volume of air.

If you ride both road and gravel bikes, we recommend the BMP-N21AGF portable pump from Japanese manufacturer Panaracer.

The BMP-N21AGF is equipped with a pedestal and gauge, and can switch between “capacity priority” and “pressure priority” modes. The disadvantage of the BMP-N21AGF is that it is slightly larger than the LEZYNE MICRO FLOOR DRIVE HV, with an overall length of 335 mm and a weight of 200 g.