Review: Road.cc - Birzman The Pump with Helix II

The Birzman The Pump with Helix II is a high-quality product made to exacting engineering standards. The pumping action is smooth and the head swivels smoothly, though there are a couple of minor niggles on what is generally a very well-thought-out piece of kit.

Taiwan's Birzman has a design ethic angled towards minimalist, brushed silver and big numbers – and the Pump With Helix II doesn't disappoint on either of these fronts. The barrel is CNC-machined from aluminium and has a very smooth action: if you lift the handle and let it go, there's so little friction it sinks down under its own weight – not many pumps do that.

The handle is nice and wide, covered in a rubbery smooth material that's very grippy. There's a small indent in the top for the hose to sit in. The gauge is both huge and set with bold gradients, making it easy to spot your target pressure. The Bar measure is in inside the ring in green, with the PSI outside in white, marked in 5psi gradients.

The amount of friction is just enough to hold the hose and thereby the handle in place as you lift the pump. But if you sling The Pump in the back of a van, your car boot or in among other stuff in the shed, the head is inevitably going to come loose. It then becomes an untidy mess of sliding handle, flailing hose and existential woe as to why Birzman didn't design a better clip.

The Helix II isn't a universal head – you need to unscrew and rescrew it if you want to jump between Presta, Schrader or even Dunlop valves. There is an argument that universal heads are Jacks of all valves, masters of none – and most of them rely on expanding rubber washers to keep them in place. Ironic then that Birzman's own Apogee head is my reference point for how to do both types in one.

Conclusion

The Birzman The Pump with Helix II is a high-quality pump capable of easily getting to high pressures, with absolute certainty that the head will stay attached to the valve core, long or short. You need to be onboard with a threaded head rather than a lever-type head, but otherwise the hose clip is the only annoying departure from what is a great design.

Verdict

Very smooth pump stroke that shifts a lot of air easily, and with a high-quality screw-on head.