# Shock pump for touring / remote bikepacking?



## damo010 (Dec 9, 2010)

Hi, 

What's the general vibe for the need to take a shock pump when touring with an air suspension fork?

I normally use a rigid fork but may switch back to suspension and wondered it it was a good idea to have a shock pump.

I'm a bit of a weight weenie for spare gear when touring so would rater not have one but......


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## TooTallUK (Jul 5, 2005)

Do some tests when you get the air fork. See how long it goes without losing air.

The worst that could happen if you lost air on a trip without a shock pump? You end up with a rigid fork.
There are some dual purpose tire and shock pumps out there. They seem to be a bit of a compromise for both but you might be OK with that.


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## KERKOVEJ (Jan 23, 2004)

I carry this little guy from Topeak: https://www.topeak.com/global/en/products/shock-pumps/353-microshock


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## lentamentalisk (Jul 21, 2015)

Just check your pressure before you go.

I can't imagine a situation where you're touring far enough to warrant topping off your shocks, but not so far that bringing suspension is a bad idea. Suspension needs an overhaul every 500-1000 miles anyways. If you're riding 50 miles a day, that's only 10-20 days. Your seals should hold their air for at least a month without becoming problematically low.

Modern shocks just don't need frequent pumping.


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## Geraldv9 (Aug 24, 2011)

Hey, I'm with Kerkovej, the microshock has been on a number of trips. it doesn't weigh much, you only need one per group, and it allows you to fine tune shocks when you are on the trail. Granted, for short solo trips it does not come along.
Happy Trails


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## lentamentalisk (Jul 21, 2015)

Since it doesn't have a gauge, how do you fine tune your shocks? Do you just measure sag as a proxi? I suppose on a month+ trip with no access to bike shops, that could help.


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## evdog (Mar 18, 2007)

A shock pump is something you don't need, until you need it. I've never brought one bikepacking and have never needed one, but I've come across a couple other riders who were in need and didn't have one. So I've thought hard about bringing one a couple times.

One guy I met on the Arizona trail found his fork had lost some air and it was affecting his ride. Not sure what he was thinking but he tried pumping it up with a regular pump but ended up losing most of the remaining air. He was stuck. It was late afternoon and the closest bike shop was 50mi (of mostly pavement and dirt road) away. I figured he'd have to strap the fork down and suck it up. But he stopped in at a bar and asked around, a local offered to help and was able to jerry rig something with a compressor to get it aired up enough to work. Would have saved a lot of stress having that topeak. 

I may have to get one of those. 48g is an acceptable penalty for peace of mind IMO. The regular shock pumps I have are not.


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## socal_jack (Dec 30, 2008)

84gm but has a built-in gauge
https://www.amazon.com/Birzman-BM13-TR-ZCSP03-SMC-Zacoo-Macht/dp/B00FOLNPS4/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CHFYB0X4JFW1AXDVQEFD


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## vikb (Sep 7, 2008)

I don't carry a shock pump when bikepacking with air suspension. My thought is air suspension is so reliable it's unlikely to fail/lose air and if it does it's likely a shock pump won't solve the problem. So I'd be carrying a shock pump for those really rare times when my suspension needs air, but hasn't truly failed. I've got more than 20 years on air suspension without any failures in the field.

If the issue was really on my mind...say a long remote trip...I'd just use a coil fork/shock and eliminate that whole question.


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

lentamentalisk said:


> Suspension needs an overhaul every 500-1000 miles anyways.


"Overhaul"?


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## damo010 (Dec 9, 2010)

Thanks for the replies and info.

I'm thinking go with out for now but that Topeak ones does look good, next time I'm in a bike shop I'll keep my eyes open to have a look at it.


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## trel (Aug 7, 2018)

Lezyne Digital Shock Drive 
Bit pricey but nice bit of kit. Perfect to carry in a bag on tuning runs or part of your tool kit on a long mission ride. You'd want to throw a spare battery in with it - only real down side - but they last for ages.


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## pushie (Aug 3, 2020)

lentamentalisk said:


> Suspension needs an overhaul every 500-1000 miles anyways. If you're riding 50 miles a day, that's only 10-20 days.


Usually service intervals are in hours not miles, because the distance covered is irrelvent. These quoted hours are assuming worse case scenario.

I think most people smashign out 1000 miles in 20 days probably arn't goign to be doing all those miles on gnarly downhill with all there gear on board. Even if they are (crazy mofos) I think most would wait until after the trip to service the suspension.

That said, I woudlnt want to be stuck on a trail with no air in the fork but I think in the majority of situation if this has happend, the pump might help but you might be stopping and pumping quite often! You can get combination tyre and shock pumps which I have been considering geting. Anyone got any experience with one of those?


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## lentamentalisk (Jul 21, 2015)

Fair point on the hours/miles/whatever. But I don't think it really makes a difference, if you assume reasonable speed of 5-10mph. And of course conditions play into that too. Dry and dusty sucks all the oil out of your system. Wet and gritty scratches it all to hell. Maybe there is a magical in between land that doesn't mess up your shocks, but I have yet to find it.

Oh god anything but a combo pump. I'd put my chances of getting a flat and needing to pump it back up (or worse yet, a tear that requires reseating the tire) waaaaaay higher than springing a leak in my shock. I carry a nice pump for tires since that is a relatively common failure type. I don't want to sacrifice that quality on frequent repairs for the chance of an infrequent repair.


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## HerrKaLeu (Aug 18, 2017)

lentamentalisk said:


> Oh god anything but a combo pump. I'd put my chances of getting a flat and needing to pump it back up (or worse yet, a tear that requires reseating the tire) waaaaaay higher than springing a leak in my shock. I carry a nice pump for tires since that is a relatively common failure type. I don't want to sacrifice that quality on frequent repairs for the chance of an infrequent repair.


+1 
A shock pump must be much worse than a road pump for MTB tires. 
The real difference between a low pressure (high volume) pump and a high pressure pump is piston area. Both are sized for a given human being able to pump easily at the respective design pressure. So shock pump has a tiny piston... it would take ages to pump up a high volume MTB tire. An MTB (or even road) pump has a larger piston, and it will be super-human hard to get high pressures. A pump that works acceptably for both would need some sort of of variable diameter. Maybe a mulit-piston pump. but that wouldn't save any weight over 2 pumps and probably still woudl not be perfect for each pressure range.


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