For decades, punctures were the bane of the life of a cyclist and so everyone carried at least one butyl rubber inner tube, perhaps a puncture mending kit too and also of course, a pump. Many bike pumps were impressively inefficient and took enormous amount of elbow grease (or time) to reinflate the tyre. Now we’re fortunate enough to have an array of puncture-resistant tyres, a plethora of tubeless sealants and a choice of ways to reinflate a punctured tube or tubeless tyre, including the latest arrival on the scene - portable electric mini-pumps. Read on to find out why you should consider adding one to your jersey pocket or seat pack…..

Electric mini pumps have become more and more common over the last couple of years and offer a viable alternative to CO2 cannisters or a traditional hand pump. Trek’s Air Rush Mini Electric Pump is one of the newest on the market and offers some pretty impressive features compressed into a tiny package. Weighing in at just 138g (including the Presta valve adaptor) and measuring a diminutive 80 x 45 x 32 mm, the Air Rush mini pump certainly won’t take up much room in your jersey pocket or seatpack. Why bother though – isn’t it just something else that needs charging or will go wrong at an inopportune moment?

For years most of us were perfectly happy with either a hand pump or a CO2 inflator, but there were some definite downsides – some pumps (Lezyne – we’re looking at you) had a tendency to remove the valve core after you had finished inflating the repaired tyre/tube; hand pumps can also be pretty slow and although it might sound supremely lazy, it could also be hard work reinflating a tyre (particularly large volume MTB tyres). CO2 cartridges whilst fast, could freeze your hand if you weren’t careful and the gas doesn’t play nicely with some tubeless sealants – causing them to separate  and so stop functioning properly. Surely there must be downsides to electric inflators too? The obvious one is cost – prices are generally around £70-£100 which is more than double what even the best hand pump would cost. There’s the environmental cost too – batteries require metals such as Lithium and Cobalt in their composition and the mining of resources for this is often an ecological disaster. To a lesser extent, the same could be argued for CO2 cannisters – they’re a one-hit-wonder and require mined resources to produce them. 

If you have decided to invest in a mini electric pump, why should you consider the Trek model? Trek have launched their electric mini pump around two years after competitor models were first available and it seems like they’ve learned from the mistakes of their predecessors – features like having a plastic body which doesn’t heat up (or require a silicon sleeve) which some of their competitors do; being able to set the desired pressure in advance; and having a built-in to light to help illuminate the valve area during winter/nighttime puncture mending sessions are all features which helps make it stand out.

Trek list the following features:

• Easy button for tyre inflation - Just set your desired tyre pressure and inflate – let Air Rush do all the work. With enough power to inflate mountain, gravel, city or road tyres, Air rush is the easy button for on-the-bike tyre inflation.
• Full colour display - Keep an eye on tyre pressure and see current battery charge level on Air Rush's full-colour display. You can even use Air Rush as a digital pressure gauge to ensure that your tyres are dialled in properly.
• Inflate most tyres - Air Rush is compatible with Presta and Shrader valves, and comes with a hose to make topping up between tight spokes a cinch. Want to inflate something else? The included needle makes it easy to fill footballs, basketballs and more.
• Power for high-pressure and high-volume - Air Rush has plenty of power for filling both high-volume MTB and high-pressure road tyres. Easily inflate multiple tyres from flat, and have some juice left to top up your tyres mid-ride.
• USB-C rechargeable - Easily recharge Air Rush's powerful battery in under an hour with the included USB-C cable.
• Compact and portable - Air rush is there when you need it. Stash it in your in-frame storage or back pocket for a mid-ride boost, keep it in the car for trailhead top-offs or use it at home for easy tyre swaps anywhere.
• Integrated light - A super-efficient LED light automatically activates while inflating, so you can see what you're doing. Perfect for early morning top-ups before group rides, daily commutes or race day.
• Air Rush inflation capacity for common tyres - Air Rush is the go-to tool for fast and frequent fill-ups. Quickly inflate multiple road, city, gravel or MTB tyres up to seven times per charge in as fast as one minute.

Interestingly, Trek don’t list the fact you can view pressures in PSI, BAR or kPa as a feature – perhaps this is just ‘a given’ for mini electric pumps? It seems like a useful function for anyone with a mix of British/Euro/American friends though.

Trek claims that the Air Rush can inflate seven 700c x 45 mm tyres to 35 PSI from flat or four 29 x 2.4”  tyres to 30 PSI from flat on one charge. In testing, it took less than a minute to inflate a 700x50mm gravel tyre from flat to our usual 20 PSI. Not as fast as a CO2 cartridge and also significantly noisier (around 95-100 decibels apparently), but no worries about the gas cylinder not working properly or our puny little cyclist arms getting tired from using a hand pump. Plus of course, the pump includes an accurate digital gauge so you can get your tyre pressures ‘just so’. A USB charge cable is included, as well as adaptors for Presta and Schrader, plus a flexible hose for awkward to reach valves and what looks like a needle valve for a football. We’re not sure whether that would be all that useful on the trail, so we’re going to be leaving it at home. You also get a little storage bag to fit everything in. The unit can be charged in around an hour. 

The Trek Air Rush Mini Electric Pump is available direct from Trek or from Trek dealers and costs £79.99/$US99.99