A pump is one of those annoying but essential bits of kit to carry with you on the bike... unless you're racing of course with backup or a means to get yourself back to HQ after a flat. In winter I use a powerful frame-fit pump mainly because it minimises the amount of time spent mucking about on the road in the dark and wet, but in the summer I couldn't possibly sully my road bike with such a tool... cue the mini-pump.... I've found most on the market to be pretty much useless for high pressure road tyres - they either struggle to reach pressures high enough to give an efficient ride or being flimsy have a tendency to fall apart when least convenient - 40 miles from home on a dark and wet evening no doubt. Topeak seem to be the exception, I started out with the predecessor to this one (the Master Blaster Pocket Rocket) which was ace - tiny enough to fit in a jersey pocket, tough metal construction and plenty of puff, that lasted 5 years of use. In 2006 however Topeak introduced this little jewel (well, I think it's nice). It's tiny! 16cm long and about 2.5cm in diameter, it gets lost in the bottom of my jersey pocket amongst all the energy bar crumbs and empty gel packets.... It's still metal so feels like it should last a long time, I've been using it for a year now and it's been consistently excellent. It will get your tyre to 100psi, it takes a bit of time but it'll do it without too much effort.... forget it though if you've got anything other than skinny 23c rubber, you'll be pumping all day. Granted other pumps will get you going again quicker than this one but for the confirmed weight-weenie (i.e me) it's a fair trade off. There's a carbon fibre one too, it's even lighter but I actually prefer the look and feel of the aluminium one... (OK, so I guess I'm not a true weenie....).

If there is a fault with this then it's that it ain't long enough for smacking wayward dogs with, but then my foot does a pretty good job in lieu........