Park Tool Home Mechanic Floor Pump PFP-8 review
The classic tool-maker's pump is cheap, but not the best value
GBP £30.00 RRP | USD $36.00 | AUD $80.00 Skip to view deals
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Park Tool is one of the most recognisable brands in the world of cycling tools, with its signature blue equipment a common sight at the pro tour and your local bike shop. Its snappily named PFP-8 is its current track pump, and at £30 / $36 / AU$80 is very competitively priced.
The pump feels fairly sturdy in use, but the wide yet not overly long footplates are definitely worth using because these add to the pump’s stability.
The barrel doesn’t have a massive volume, so mountain bikers might find extra pump strokes are needed to get tyres up to pressure. However, the flip-side of that is the stroke is fairly easy to push because you’re not forcing masses of air through the hose.
The pump itself doesn’t have the longest body, so tall riders might find themselves doing a lot of stooping – that said, ergonomically it gets extra points for the curved, plastic handle that’s comfortable when pushing hard, despite not being the widest out there.
The head is a simple flip-lock design with holes for Schraeder and Presta valves. It’s plastic in construction, but while it’s not fancy looking, this doesn’t affect performance. For the price, you can forgive Park for not including a bleed valve, too.
The gauge, located at the base, has a large, uncluttered look with bar and PSI readings up to 11 bar / 160psi, which should work for most riders out there.
The gauge isn’t the most accurate around, but will help guide you with pressure. That said, I found the needle jumped around a bit when pumping, which was frustrating, and the head sometimes released air on initial pumps before there was much air in the tube.
How we tested
This pump was tested as part of a grouptest of six track pumps to find out which home-workshop tyre inflator is the best and worth your hard-earned cash.
- Birzman Maha Grand Push & Twist III
- Lezyne Classic Over Drive
- Scott Syncros Vernon 2.0 HV
- SKS Air-X-Press 8.0
- Topeak Joeblow Mountain X
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Product Specifications
Product
| Price | br_price, 5, 3, Price, AUD $80.00GBP £30.00USD $36.00 |
| Brand | br_brand, 5, 10, Brand, Park tool |
Features
| Max pressure | br_maxPressure, 11, 0, Max pressure, 160psi / 11 bar |
| Pressure gauge | br_pressureGauge, 11, 0, Pressure gauge, Analogue |
| Pump type | br_pumpType, 11, 0, Pump type, Track/floor pump |
Authors
Tom Marvin is a technical editor at BikeRadar.com and MBUK magazine. He has a particular focus on mountain bikes, but spends plenty of time on gravel bikes, too. Tom has written for BikeRadar, MBUK and Cycling Plus, and was previously technical editor of What Mountain Bike magazine. He is also a regular presenter on BikeRadar’s YouTube channel and the BikeRadar podcast. With more than twenty years of mountain biking experience, and nearly a decade of testing mountain and gravel bikes, Tom has ridden and tested thousands of bikes and products, from super-light XC race bikes through to the most powerful brakes on the market. Outside of testing bikes, Tom competes in a wide range of mountain bike races, from multi-day enduros through to 24-hour races in the depths of the Scottish winter – pushing bikes, components and his legs to their limits. He’s also worked out that shaving your legs saves 8 watts, while testing aerodynamics in a wind tunnel. When not riding he can be found at the climbing wall, in his garden or cooking up culinary delights.
