CrankPump

by Andrew · 22/08/2014

CrankPump

Andrew Crimp

CrankPump, the invisible bike pump

If you find bike pumps annoying, are fed up of clipping one to your bike where it gets covered in muck and spoils the beautiful, aero lines of your pride and joy, or perhaps detest having to cram a pump in the back pocket of your jersey, then the CrankPump, a CO2 pump that lives in the hollow axle of cranks, might be exactly what you have been waiting for…

Bicycles often have a hollow axle between the cranks which the makers think is just the perfect size for a bike pump, albeit a CO2 pump. At present CrankPump is designed for use with Shimano Hollowtech cranks. To fit it, you simply unscrew the existing plastic cap, screw in your CrankPump and can then ‘forget about it until you need it’.

When you do need it, you unscrew and remove the CrankPump, and then employ the integrated tyre levers that we are told ‘work in a patent-pending new way to “unzip” your tyre from the rim’, though it’s hard to judge just how easy they are to use form the video. Having fixed your puncture or popped in a new tube, you then inflate as with any other canister. It works for schraeder and presta valves and has no moving parts apart from screwing in the gas canister in order to pierce it. It inflates to 90psi, “enough to get you home”. The CrankPump is made from CNC machined, anodised aluminium with a tempered steel cartridge piercer.