Pumps might not be the most glamorous things in mountain biking, but the Topeak Mountain Morph is certainly one of the best available.
It’s certainly not small, or light in the grand scheme of air movers for your bike, but if you value the speed and ease of inflating a tyre, the Topeak Mountain Morph should be on your list.
Key features:
- Butted aluminium barrel
- T-type dual density polymer handle
- Plastic thumb lock
- Fold-out foot pad
- Flexible hose
- Rated to 160psi / 11 bar
- 101cc per stroke
- Fits Presta, Schraeder and Dunlop valves
- 35 x 5.8 x 3 cm
- 250g
- £34.99 RRP
- Topeak.com
When it comes to bike pumps, you’ve essentially three options, Micro/Mini, pumps like the Mountain Morph and track pumps. I’m not all that sure what you’d call this other than a regular pump. More size and weight than a mini, with track pump style fittings, moves more air but fits in a pack unlike a track pump.
Compared to my favourite mini pump, the Syncros Boundary 1.5HV, the Mountain Morph is 160g heavier (250g vs 90g), longer (176mm vs 350mm) but shifts almost double the air (60cc vs 101cc) to 100psi more. I paid for previous versions of the Mountain Morphs and found them to be excellent, even having spares available for when the rubber seal on the head went.
The main elements of the Mountain Morph are butted aluminium, with polymer and plastic fittings. You can still get the pump in the ‘classic’ brushed aluminium barrel too. A dual-density T-type (as in the letter T, not SRAM T-type) handle keeps things comfy, a plastic thumb lock keeps the head secure and is connected by a flexible hose.
At home, the Mountain Morph has seated some burly tyres onto carbon rims without the need for sealant. 101cc might not sound like much, but it’s plenty. The folding foot peg and handle mean that you’re not looking like you’re furiously polishing cutlery either. It does, however mean you’ve to be bent double whilst inflating though.
In the wilds, the pump slides into a backpack conveniently, slotting down one side of what will need to be a full size pack. Don’t expect this to go in a hip pack any time soon. Possibly my only grumble with the Mountain Morph is that on the Presta head, the recess is a little too shallow to get to the valve beyond the core, meaning you have to keep the head at the right handle to not just return the air to the atmosphere. Usually not a problem but it can be frustrating in a rush.
Durability-wise, the Mountain Morph hasn’t put a foot wrong, even after spending months in my riding pack it still looks box-fresh and keeps shifting air on the rare occasion that I need it to. In all honesty, I have used full size track pumps that struggled to match the Mountain Morph both in survivability and pumping prowess.
You can check out the Topeak Mountain Morph pump over on their website here.
