I do not cycle as much as I used to, so a spontaneous decision to resurrect the old bikes in the garage the other week proved to me a mammoth task and then we were faced with the typical procedure of a slightly flat tyre. How do they go flat when they are done up? I guess years of not using them contributes to this!

Alongside our regular footpump which we have, one member of our household (who is an avid biker, as part of his weightwatching scheme) had one of these pumps for me to borrow. It looked impressive enough and had been quite a while since I used a conventional bike pump. The memories of the cylindrical tube and hours of pumping away came rushing back to me! This pump was the standard size and had apparently cost but a few pounds from Argos. Well, a pump is a pump I though, so gave it a whirl.

It was easy enough to attach to the guage, though you do need to choose your nagle right otherwise you will be faffing around with an arched back. The idea then is to move the pump back and forth and inject the air into the tyre. Or not! When I administered a manly pumping action, I could not really hear that glorious whoosh of air that you get when using a pump. To me it sounded hollow and creaky and it appeared I was working the pump and getting minimal results.

I have a pressure guage, as a separate instrument, but not sure if they work on bike tyres, so decided to test using the squeeze method. After a couple of minutes of minutes of pumping I noticed not much change in tyre pressure. It was only after five to ten minutes that I noticed an increase in tyre pressure. Overall, a lot of hard work was needed to get the tyre even slightly inflated again, so I think you would be better off plumping for a better pump. This does kind of work but it takes a very long time to achieve satisfactory results.