The Greatest Bike Pumps of 2024

Whether you ride road, gravel, mountain, or electric bikes, a good floor pump is a must-have for every cyclist. Maintaining the proper tire pressure is critical for comfort, safety, and the performance of your tires on the road or trails.

While they all perform the same basic task, there is a huge variety of pumps with literally hundreds of models to choose from. Whether for high volume, high pressure, or seating tubeless tires, there are lots of great options to keep your bike rolling smoothly, but finding the best bike pump for your needs and budget can be a challenge.

We rounded up 14 of the best pumps available today and have recommendations for all types of pumps and riders. Our diverse selection includes both high-end and budget-friendly models, high volume and high pressure, digital and analog gauges, and booster pumps for seating tubeless tires. While testing, we took notes on the type of valves they work with, the ease of attachment at the wheel, pumping efficiency, smoothness, stability, accuracy and readability of gauges, and the overall value and quality of craftsmanship.

Our top recommendations are listed below, followed by the best of the rest, which are all worthy options to consider. To see the specs of all the bike pumps we tested at a glance, check out our comparison chart. If you need help making your purchase decision, our buying advice covers important product considerations, and our FAQ section provides answers to common questions.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on our sister site BikeRumor.com. It was first published here on June 7, 2024. We also added the elegant and durable Silca Pista Plus and two of our favorite mini-pumps, the Pro Bike Tool High Pressure Mini and the Silca Tattico.

The Best Bike Pumps of 2024

Best of the Rest

Best Bike Pumps Comparison Chart

About our Testing Team

Our team of cycling testers and editors ride bikes, a lot. For work, play, training, racing, you name it — our lives revolve around bikes of all kinds. With all that riding comes a lot of tires, and we are constantly using bike pumps to install or add air to tires on our townies, road, gravel, and mountain bikes. Turns out, the lowly bike pump is one of the most frequently used and important tools any of us have. We also know that finding the right bike pump can be a challenge, and we are always in search of the best models to make our lives easier while keeping our tires at the perfect pressure for optimal performance.

For our like pumps buyer’s guide, we enlisted contributor Paul Clauss to test and compare the majority of the models in this review. Paul is an avid cyclist who lives in northern Vermont, where he spends the majority of his time on his mountain bike and his gravel bike/commuter. He enjoys technical trail riding and knows the importance and benefits of a properly inflated tire and its relation to his enjoyment and performance on the trail. A mechanical engineer by trade, Paul loves to tinker with things, scrutinize designs, and perform quantifiable tests to help him discern differences in the performance of the products he tests. In addition to bike pumps, Paul has tested dropper seatposts, the best flat pedal shoes, secure bike locks, and bike repair stands.

Contributor Bennett Shane brings additional expertise to this guide. Bennett is an avid road cyclist who has tested hundreds of pieces of cycling gear in the past year. He’s a stickler for the perfect setup and optimal pressure to ensure he gets maximum comfort and control out of his road bike tires. In addition to testing bike pumps, Bennett has tested dozens of the best road bike tires, protective road bike helmets, cycling bib shorts, and road bike pedals.

How We Tested Bike Pumps

After rounding up a diverse selection of the best bike pumps on the market in 2024, we ran each model through the same rigorous testing process to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, and performance differences. While some of these pumps have been in a staff member’s garage for years, we tested them all over the course of several weeks, rotating through them for everyday pumping needs. Each model was also used for a number of repeatable tests in search of quantifiable results. These included checking gauge accuracy at 10 psi intervals against our ToPeak SmartGauge D2X digital pressure gauge, as well as a pumping efficiency test to determine the number of strokes needed to inflate a Maxxis Minion DHR II to 30 psi. During these tests, we evaluated the ease of use and security of valve chucks/heads, stability in use, comfort of handles, smoothness of the pumping action, and readability of gauges. The more specialized pumps were tested for their intended uses of seating tubeless tires or adding air to suspension components. When testing concluded, we zeroed in on our favorites and those that excel for specific reasons compared to the rest.

Buying Advice: How to Choose the Best Bike Pump

When choosing a bike pump, there are several factors to consider that may impact your purchase decision. A major factor is the type of tires you need to inflate along with the type of pump, type of valves (and valve attachment method), the volume of air moved per stroke of the pump (the efficiency of the pump), the gauge accuracy, and the overall build quality and stability of the pump. We’ll provide more detail on each of these areas below:

Types of Bike Pumps

The review focuses on floor pumps, which are aptly named for their ability to stand up and be used on the floor in your workshop (or parking lot at a trailhead). We tested three different types: standard floor or track pumps, tubeless booster pumps, and a high-pressure shock pump. Portable options like hand pumps, frame pumps, and Co2 inflators are other common tools for adding air to tires, though they are typically reserved for use in the field.

Standard Floor Pumps or Track Pumps

Standard floor pumps, also known as track pumps, transfer air directly from the pump to the tire through the valve. If you’ve ever used a bicycle pump, chances are you’ve used a standard floor pump. They can be used with all types of tires and wheels, and while standard floor pumps are not as effective for mounting tubeless tires as an air compressor or reservoir-style pump (in theory), they can often get the job done, especially if the tire has a relatively snug fit on the rim, or you have prior experience and good technique. We like to keep our in a very easy-to-access location, preferably near our favorite chain lube and a rag for the pre-ride bike check.

Standard floor pumps are often optimized to work better for high-volume/low-pressure or high-pressure/low-volume applications. High-volume pumps typically move more air per pump, making them well-suited to inflating the larger volume of lower-pressure mountain bike tires. High-pressure pumps generally move less air per pump but are better suited to inflating lower-volume tires, like those on road bikes, to higher pressures. Either style of pump still works for all types of tires. Some pumps are capable of performing both tasks and are equipped with switches to change between high-volume and high-pressure pump settings, like the Bontrager Dual Charger.

Tubeless Booster Pumps

Tubeless booster pumps are very similar to standard floor pumps but include a reservoir that can be pumped up to a high pressure and then quickly released. Tubeless pumps strive to act as small manual air compressors to make tubeless setup easy. Quickly releasing high air volumes helps “snap” the bead of tubeless tires to seat them on the rim. They also function as regular pumps for everyday use, making them a versatile addition to the home workshop for those who change their tubeless tires frequently. The Bontrager TLR Flash Charger and the ToPeak Joe Blow Booster are the two models of this style that we tested, although there are a few other options on the market as well.

As tubeless tires have grown in popularity and are now widely used not only on mountain bikes but also gravel and road, tubeless pumps are becoming increasingly common. While the models we tested certainly helped make tubeless setup easier, it isn’t always necessary to use one for tubeless tire installation. Some tubeless tires can easily be installed with a standard pump, depending on the tire brand/model and the rim combination. Other tubeless tires can be more stubborn, and that’s where the Booster pumps come in handy. It is worth noting that pumping the reservoirs on these pumps up to 160 psi can be somewhat challenging, especially when you get above 120 psi.

Mini-Pumps

When you’re out on the road or trail, it’s always a great idea to carry a quality bike multi-tool and have some sort of way to help inflate your tires if you get a flat. Mini-pumps, also called hand pumps or frame pumps, are a great option that can usually be attached to your bike or stashed in a hydration pack or jersey pocket to take along with you. Their portability requires smaller bodies, which means far less volume per pump than floor pumps, making it longer to fill a tire than a floor pump. Even though it takes longer, they are still an indispensable tool to have with you when the need arises.

When referring to mini-pumps, the speed of inflation depends largely on how easy it is to use. Look for a mini-pump with a solid grip, as your hands will be doing most of the work. A mini-pump with textured handles or knurling machined onto the grip will work well to maintain a solid hold.

Guaranteeing a tight seal between the hose and valve is also a factor. A good screw-on hose head can minimize the loss of air when you pump. This lowers the number of pumps (and the time) that it takes to fill your tire. We feature two mini-pump models in our list above, the Silca Tattico and the Pro Bike Tool High Pressure Mini, both of which are fine options to bring along on your rides.

Shock Pumps

Shock pumps are more of a niche product for those who work on or adjust their mountain bike suspension components regularly. The air chambers of suspension forks and rear shocks are quite small, and they generally need to be inflated to significantly higher pressures than tires. For this reason, shock pumps move smaller volumes of air but are typically capable of reaching much higher pressures. A great example of a shock pump is the Specialized Air Tool UHP, which has a threaded Schrader head that attaches to shocks and forks and has a max psi of 350.

While most people use small hand-held shock pumps at home or on the trail, a standing model like the Specialized Air Tool makes adding air to suspension components much quicker and easier. These are most common in bike shops, but those who tinker with or service their own suspension at home can benefit from them as well.

Types of Valves

Bike tube/tire valves will almost always be either Presta or Schrader. There is a third valve type, known as Dunlop valves, though they are fairly uncommon in this day and age. Schrader valves are like those found on your vehicle, and they are larger in diameter and generally found on more value-oriented or electric commuter bikes. Presta valves are most common among higher-end road/mountain bikes. Most tubeless valves are Presta valves, though there are some Schrader options available. Both types of valves have been around for quite a while, and every pump we tested has configurations that work with both Presta and Schrader valves. 

Valve Chucks/Connections/Heads

While all the pumps in our test group accommodate both Presta and Schrader valves, they do so in different ways. Some pumps have heads that thread onto the valve while others have lever-lock style heads that tighten on the valve when the lever is flipped. Many pumps use an all-in-one head style, which easily connects to either Presta or Schrader valves but tends to be more sensitive to angular changes and can leak a bit more when being put on or taken off. Other pumps, like the Silca SuperPista Digital, use a removable chuck for Presta valves that threads onto a Schrader connection directly on the hose. Others, like the Blackburn Core 3 and the Lezyne Classic Floor Drive, use a reversible threaded tip on the pump head – which enables a tighter fit for each valve type but needs to be set up appropriately whenever a new type of valve is used. All of these are good options but, as riders who generally find ourselves using Presta valves, we were most impressed with the easy operation and lack of air leaks when using the Silca SuperPista Digital Hiro chuck.

Pumping Efficiency

Pumping efficiency is a function of how much air is pushed through the pump into the tire during each stroke, and its importance will vary somewhat depending on whether you need high volume or high pressure or both. All of the pumps we tested will fill your tires relatively quickly (with the exception of the suspension-focused Specialized Air Tool UHP), and regular top-offs will typically only require a few pumps.

We tested pumping efficiency by counting how many strokes it took to fill a Maxxis Minion DHRII to 30 psi five times and then taking the average. Across all the pumps we tested, the average number of strokes to 30 psi was 36, with the Bontrager Dual Charger leading at 22 pumps (on high volume mode) and the Topeak Joe Blow Booster requiring the most at 47. Having used many pumps over the years, none of the pumps we tested felt super slow – but a more efficient pump will always save time and effort and may be worth consideration if you are frequently filling tires.

Types of Gauges

The pumps we tested come with either analog gauges/dials or battery-powered digital displays. Both types work relatively well, although their location and size can make some more easy to read than others. In general, digital displays are considered to be more precise as they can show the pressure readings in smaller increments than can be read on most analog dials. That said, a digital gauge generally adds to the cost of a bike pump and will require you to change a battery at some point in its lifespan. Many brands make pumps with both types of gauges, so you have options to suit your preference.

Gauge Accuracy

Most gauges are fairly accurate and will get you within a few psi of your desired pressure. We measured the accuracy of both analog and digital gauges by pumping up tires by 10 psi at a time, checking the gauge pressure at each interval against the pressure read by our Topeak SmartGauge D2X digital pressure gauge, and taking the average difference percentage from pump gauge pressures at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 psi. On average, pump gauges showed pressures 2.45% higher than the D2X digital gauge, with the most accurate pump (the Bontrager TLR Flash Charger) averaging readings 1% lower than the digital gauge and the least accurate pump (the Bontrager Dual Charger) averaging 6.6% higher readings than the Topeak gauge.

But how important is gauge accuracy? If you usually use the same pump to inflate your tires, it may be slightly annoying that it isn’t perfect, but it should be easy to work with. Finding the optimal pressure for your tires, rims, terrain, and riding style requires experimentation, and if you are using the same pump every time, you can feel pressure changes by using any baseline reading from the pump. You may find that your tires feel great at 28 psi on your pump dial, which might read 24 psi on a digital pressure gauge. But you know that using your pump, you like the feel of 28 psi on that gauge, so you can compensate for the difference.

Since changes in tire pressure can have a relatively large effect on the feel and performance of your tires on road, mountain, and gravel bikes, having a separate pressure gauge is always a good idea for those looking to get the most from their tires. This will help ensure consistency and accuracy, and most feature an air release button for fine-tuning pressure. We used the ToPeak SmartGauge D2X, which, while somewhat expensive, we found to work very well.

Stability

While it isn’t the most important aspect of a bike pump’s performance, stability in use is definitely a consideration, and they are not all created equal in this regard. In general, the more stable, the better, so you’re not constantly knocking it over in your workspace or having to constantly stabilize it with your feet while pumping. We found that we preferred pumps with wide, three-legged feet for multi-directional stability, and we also appreciated pumps like the Silca Superpista Digital and Blackburn Core 3 for their rubber padding on the bottom of the foot, which helped avoid slippage and floor scratches. 

Durability

Quality bike pumps can be shockingly durable and last for decades if treated with a reasonable amount of care. Most mid to high-end models are made with steel or alloy bodies and feet, and many can be repaired if they are damaged. Plastic tends to be cheaper but much less durable, so typically, spending a little more on a pump will get you a longer-lasting product. We recommend buying from recognizable name brands like Silca, Bontrager, Specialized, ToPeak, Blackburn, and Lezyne, as they are most likely to stand behind their products with warranties, and many have replacement parts to keep your pump running smoothly should it ever get damaged.

Price/Value

In the grand scheme of things, bike pumps are relatively affordable tools that usually last for many years. You definitely don’t need to break the bank to get a great pump that covers your needs, and we found the sweet spot to be around $75 to $100. In fact, our favorite pump of the test was the Bontrager Dual Charger, which retails for $75. Of course, you can spend less, and the super affordable AerGun X-1000 will get the job done for less frequent users or those on a tighter budget.

Pumps with special features, like tubeless booster pumps, require more materials and engineering, and they typically command a higher price as a result. Still, even at $160, the Bontrager TLR Flash Charger could be worth its weight in gold if you frequently install tubeless tires at home. At the highest end of the price spectrum, the $349 Silca SuperPista Digital won’t be for everyone, but it is an impressively well-made bike pump that’s sure to please anyone who is willing and able to spend that much.

Frequently Asked Questions About Bike Pumps