Airwave Motion

Length: 29.5cm  
Weight: 168g

The Airwave Motion has the look of a pump designed by a committee. Or by a clever engineer in a shed full of spare parts. That’s not to say it’s not a good pump, but there are a lot of ‘Why did they do this?’ aspects to it.

The pump itself is made up of a slim-looking pair of barrels which, while compact, looks ungainly on its bottle-boss mount, so it’s been mostly kept in a pack. To step in and save the day (or at least the puncture), the pump first hinges to reveal the main, alloy barrel with fold-out stirrup and folding T-handle. The second part is a rigid, plastic barrel that hinges out in two possible directions. At the end of this is a pop-out 20cm flexible hose with a regular, reversible lever chuck on the end. This lets you stand comfortably away from the wheel while pumping furiously.

The stroke is a short 140mm and the barrel is slim, yet the ergonomics are very good and allow enough frenzied pumping to get even a 2.5in tyre hard within minutes. I can’t for the life of me work out what the rigid, plastic barrel adds to the functionality apart from adding a very vulnerable-looking hinge at the base of the pump. For the moment, though, it’s working perfectly and despite the odd looks, is staying in my pack.

An oddball design that works a lot better than it looks. Oh, and it’s excellently cheap.