Carrying A Pump on the Rambler

it is time to address how to carry your pump on the Rambler.  The air pump for fixing flats can be a contentious issue.  Not quite as volatile as saddles an handlebars, but there are still strong feelings with regard to mini or full frame options as well as the now common CO2 cartridges.  Personally I have never fallen in love with the full frame pumps, and tend towards the hybrid mini pump with a hose.  These get me an acceptable inflation speed and are easy to use with close to zero chance of tearing off a valve stem.

10.23 Pump-1140766With my bias towards this pump as well as frame bags, the long narrow bag often seen under my top tube, I decided to omit a frame pump nub on the Rambler.  The nub will rapidly wear a hole in most frame bag materials.  That said there are still a couple of ways to get a frame pump on your Rambler.  The first is between your rear axle quick release and the seat tube weld cluster.

10.23 Pump-1140767I have used this method in the past with great success, on and off-road.  In general I would strongly recommend a velcro strap between around the pump and seat stay as a secondary bit of insurance that it does not self deploy.  The other options involve old-fashioned clamp on bits.  Either the once ubiquitous “umbrella holder”

10.23 Pump-1140768 10.23 Pump-1140769Or one of the clamp on pegs sold by Zefal.  On the 650b models there is also generally sufficient room to mount the pump on the rear side of the seat tube.

7 thoughts on “Carrying A Pump on the Rambler”

  1. I’m with you on the mini pumps with a hose. I just keep one in my front bag.
    Is that a little bottle cage attached to your fender? I like it! What do you keep in there?

    Ryan

    1. I have a habit of ripping off valve stems with full frame pumps. I have tried to love them, understand why others do, but would rather not have to think about it that hard. Once you get your head around the fact that you are running wide road tires under 60psi, it was only a small jump to realize that I could get most of the volume and speed I wanted out of a mini pump.

      The little bottle on the fender is fuel for my alcohol stove. Like the bottle opener epoxied to my top tube, it was a proof of concept that worked well and just keeps on working. Eventually I will find the time and money to add these as an accessory for the stove kits.

    1. The nubs chew holes in frame bags, and there are plenty of other options. the seat tube and seat stay positions do not require a peg if the pump is sized well either. It was also a place where I could shave a bit of cost on something I or many of my customers never intended to use. I know there are a few folks that wanted one, but there are ways to work around it missing, and the only work around for it being there is a file.

  2. Resurrected for sure, but what model and make is the seatstay mounted pump in the second picture?

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