I’ve had the Lezyne Alloy Drive S mini pump for awhile now and here are my impressions of it so far.

This pump has been a conversation starter for one thing. With it’s update on a retro idea, it brings up some pretty cool reminiscing amongst old “greybeards” in cycling circles. But how does it actually work in the field? Well, pretty well, actually!

I thought that the only tricky thing was screwing on the hose onto the presta valve. If you haven’t toyed with the Alloy Drive S before actually pressing it into service, you may find that you lose more air than you need to while performing this attachment task. A couple of missteps and then I got the hang of it. Word to the wise: Try it at home before you try it in the field!

Otherwise the Alloy Drive S is really quite easy to use. The hose lets you twist and shout while you pump. Well, not quite, but you do not have to worry anymore about bending the tip of your presta valve off, which allows you to relax a bit more while doing the deed.

I made use of the Alloy Drive S while pumping up some low 29″er tires and found that they were no match for the Alloy Drive’s pumping volume. I easily went from sub 20 psi to 30 psi within a few minutes of pumping. No real drama here, just a pump that gets the job done. The barrel did become rather warm by the end of it all, I suppose the all metal construction transmits heat a bit better than some plastic pumps do. Otherwise, I unscrewed the hose, stowed it away, and was off.

I also had the Alloy Drive with me on a recent ride with a good friend. He rolled his tire off the bead a bit. To get it back on, he was going to have to release some air out of his tube, but he had no pump. The Lezyne to the rescue! He managed to get it screwed onto the valve head right off, showing me that I must be a bit klutzy! Anyway, after about ten strokes he stopped and said, “This is a nice pump!” He finished the job and by the time he saw how the hose stowed into the pump’s oversized piston, he was sold.

The pump is so light, and the size is small enough, that you can toss it in a jersey pocket and forget it is there. I usually used the supplied mount which screws onto a water bottle mount on your frame. The velcro attachment held the pump securely over rough terrain, but I did feel that the plastic mount felt a little flimsy. It looked like it might not survive a direct hit in a crash, but that hasn’t happened to me yet. I’ll keep an eye on that though in the future.

So far so good. I haven’t had a real flat tire as of yet, but when that happens, I’ll report back with my findings.