Our focus on pumps recently has focused on trail pumps, but SKS though also dropped us a few of their floor pumps to try. We start our look with an absolute classic for the last 40 years: the SKS Rennkompressor floor pump.
Specifications
| valve: | AV, SV, DV |
| ouput max: | 16 bar / 230 PSI |
| Height: | 650 mm |
| Material: | Steel tube/metal base/wooden handle |
| Price: | €54,99 |
The Rennkompressor has been around for so long that finding a cyclist who has not seen one is probably quite difficult. However it is still worthy of a test as we would like to know how the design has faired over the last 40 years.
Going through each element of the pump leads us to think about other pumps on the market today, there is no doubt that the 40 year old design is based on functionality and necessity, no flashy parts or features here. The fact though that it can inflate to 16 bars is impressive, even today. In theory then we can use it to pump up our forks and shocks!
Using The Pump
The action of the pump is smooth and loose/easy we would say. It pumps only on the downward stroke and has a solid squish to it when you ram home the last bit of air. We really like the valve head which we could pop on and off easily all the valve types we tried over time. We would say that the gauge as well was fairly readable and seemed accurate when compared to other pumps.
We haven’t used a pump like this for a while and were very pleasantly surprised by the ability to pump on uneven surfaces easily. Normally the pumps we have come across with wide flat bases mean you need a flat surface to pump from. In this case we discovered that we could pump easily on almost all surfaces and slopes as the pump took the position of the operator easily, great for when mountain biking and parking out near the woods and needing to give a quick pressure check. The fact the foot rests fold away so easily means it was great to throw in the back of the car and not always be in the way with a big base.
We tried mounting tubeless tyres once with this pump and we found that the volume of air flow was not as fast as we would have liked to pop the tyre onto the rim, this pump seems more about pressure than volume all at once, so if the tubeless set-up is a new tight tyre with a well sealed rim, then it will work, but not as good as others we have tried in this situation.
Conclusion
The Rennkompressor is a classic pump that goes to very high pressures if needed and is solid and dependable. We would say that it feels like the Landrover of pumps. Yes other more modern pumps might be a bit more refined in certain ways but nothing beats the cool looks and pump anywhere dependability of the Rennkompressor that we have been using for the last few months. It’s the kind of pump that will be around forever in your garage and surely spares will be around forever as well, so this pump will probably never die once you have bought it.
