The smallest bike pump (a design project)

I wanted to show off a personal project I spent many months on (designing, testing, building).

After some extremely long rides into remote areas, such as my 14 hour ride from Denver to the top of Mt Evans/Blue Sky and back, I wanted to create a bike pump that was infinitely reliable (all metal/overbuilt design/no plastic/batteries) and also would fit in a tiny seat post bag. It would also be small enough to pair with CO2 cartridges as a last resort if the CO2 ran out.

I settled on a design that would fit directly onto a presta valve stem- no rubber tubes or attachments to add weight or potentially fail or add complexity.

I created the computer aided design (CAD) in Fusion 360 and added drawings and tolerances for important components (I'm a mechanical engineer with 15 years of designing >100 products for tool/defense/medical companies. This is my first solo build of a product for myself).

I ran finite element analysis in Fusion 360 to ensure that everything was overbuilt (A casing that was laughably designed to hold many thousands of PSI, for example, when it would only see about 100 psi). This would ensure it would survive drops, impacts, crashes, etc (I did take a 35mph, worst crash of my life, with this pump, and it obviously did not suffer ill effects, like I did)

My initial 3D print and then metal prototype build had a tiny handle that was extremely uncomfortable, and gave me blisters, so I added a large, thick, and comfortable aluminum handle that gave it a "flash bang" aesthetic. Then, I added neodymium magnets for quick latching and a sort of fidget mechanic.

I purchased a simple reciprocating jig and tested the O-rings, lubricants, and seals to a million cycles at 130F and running high pressures.

For my final build, I sent out the drawings and CAD to a CNC shop for the parts to be manufactured. I received enough parts for about 300 pumps (it's much more cost effective per unit to order a lot of parts than even just a few). When these parts arrived, I assembled them by hand and give them a mirror polish.

Overall, I'm very happy with the results and carry it everywhere for my bikes and even my car (God forbid).

It takes about 2 minutes to add a few psi and about 10 minutes for a completely flat tire. My rationale for this is: Flat tires are rare with tubeless, at most, one per year. It can be combined with CO2 or electric as a final last resort pump, if you get frequent flats (CO2 and electric being less reliable/limited). I would rather carry a very small/light pump for two thousand plus miles a year and spend ten minutes on the side of the road once per year, than carrying a large pump all year for this rare occasion (but this is just my experience and opinion). I have not yet tested my 2.6" tire, but I will have this data shortly (I did take it up on my Mount Antero ride this year, one of the worst mt bike rides I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing).

I've posted this project on Etsy and I sell about 1 per month, so I plan to break even on my expenditure in like 2030 (haha) (It's been a passion project). I named it the Featherforged: nanotap (seemed like a fitting name for an ultralight/full-metal project). I would like to design more all-metal/ultralight tools in the future.

I wanted to share this design and hear some thoughts and opinions on this project.