Alright, I thought I was pretty competent with bike floor pumps. Until last night. It was
rather embarrassing, really. My Blackburn pump has served me well for the better part of a decade but it’s a 1,000 miles away from me right now. So, a new pump was in order.
The Specialized HP floor pump looked to fit the bill. It is almost all aluminum construction, so it looks like it will last. And the parts are replaceable. Good enough. And Hoback Sports in Jackson Hole was having their 15% off sale, so I couldn’t resist. The pump head is supposed to support both Presta and Schrader valves without any selection, adjustment or fiddling with adapters. Great!
Except when I went to pump up a tire and nearly flattened it trying to connect the pump to the Presta valve on my Specialized Allez Elite. And, this was at 10:30pm at night. As an engineer, leaving a problem unsolved is an anathema to me.
So, I web surfed madly and found only this page describing the procedure for attaching the pump. Immediately I tried reconnecting the pump and, surprise, it worked as advertised. It was merely a matter of being too tentative attaching the Schrader valve to the Switch Hitter II pump head.
As it seems other people run into the same problem or complain about the complete lack of instructions for these floor pumps, I decided to make a short video explaining how to use the Specialized HP floor pump. As I’m a cinematographer, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?
After a morning of shooting, foley work, color grading, and editing, I now have a video that will (hopefully) help others in the future. I certainly didn’t want to return to Hoback Sports and ask how to use this $50 pump. Death before the embarrassment of admitting ignorance in this case.
The video does not show screwing back down the nut on the Presta valve nor replacing the dust cap. Make sure to do this!
This video was a life-saver and totally saved the day. Thank you!
You’re welcome – glad I could help!