Jim’s Tech Talk
By Jim Langley
So that there are no misunderstandings, let me make something clear at the outset: This isn’t a standard RoadBikeRider new product review. It’s a rave about the new version of arguably one of road cycling’s most heralded products, Silca’s Pista Floor Pump.
To me, as soon as I opened the box and got my greasy paws on the new Molteni Orange Pista, it brought back so many great mechanic’s memories – from my start in a tiny Concord, New Hampshire shop in 1970, through my Vermont shops in the 80’s, and into the late 90’s wrenching here in California. Over all those years, one thing was constant – Silca’s trusty Pista was the pump of choice (Pista is Italian for “track,” as in Velodrome).
Revered By Mechanics Like Me
The reason for this was its reliable heavy-duty construction and elegantly simple design that ensured that it worked first time, every time. It had a compact size, too, which was ideal for packing with your race kit and not taking up too much space.
Maybe best, if anything ever did go wrong, you didn’t need an engineering degree to fix it. Even the newest mechanic could figure out how to disassemble the Pista pump and massage grease into the leather on the plunger that drives the air into tires – or put a new rubber grommet into the pump head if it had lost its airtight grip (and small parts have always been available).
Things like this happen when a pump gets as much use as Silca’s did. Appreciate that back in those days a lot of small shops did not have compressors. So the only way to inflate tires all day long was with the shop’s floor pump. Ditto for out at events and races. A Silca pump could see non-stop action the morning of a well-attended race, like the Tour of the Valleys Road Race that we put on for years at West Hill Shop in Putney, Vermont (Go, Putney!)
Pumping tires was satisfying, too. The simple (no levers to mess with) press-on chuck’s airtight seal on Presta valves and the nice gauge made it easy to quickly top off tires and nail the pressure. The steel barrel and plunger and a smart barrel length for mechanics of all heights and genders to push and pull made for easy inflation. Plus, the leather plunger inside the barrel and the fit between the piston and pump cap had a precision fit for smoothness and low friction.
Comeback Story
The new Silca Pista Pump was introduced last year in commemoration of Silca’s 100th birthday. The idea was for it to be a limited-edition release. Yet, it proved so popular (old roadies and mechanics like me surely helped), Silca decided to keep it in their line.
It’s not available yet on their site, but they say that they will come out with another color choice at some point, Red. Personally, I wouldn’t bother. Molteni Orange is famous for Silca pumps and Eddy Merckx’s bicycles – so as colors go, it’s cycling royalty.
The original Silca Pista debuted in 1962, according to Silca, because post World War II “Champion of Champions,” Fausto Coppi asked his mechanics to “take the best attributes of each style of pump and combine them into one.” Coppi’s team did their homework because the pumps that resulted were durable, reliable and compact to more easily fit into toolkits making them immediately popular with pro mechanics.
Fast forward to the Interbike bicycle show in Vegas a few years ago when Silca owner Josh Poertner told a small group of us the story of what lit the fire in him to bring back the Pista. He had only recently purchased the company and hadn’t yet decided which of Silca’s products to focus on re-making.
Then he attended to Tour of Qatar (last held in 2016) and was surprised to have mechanics there come up to him and ask when he was going to bring back the Pista pump, which had been discontinued years ago. When he asked why they wanted them, they told him that the Pista pump was the only pump they could keep working at the race because sand would get into all their other pumps preventing them from working. So they were buying old Silcas on eBay and using them.
A Classic Improved
Fortunately, Josh was listening. He was also already fascinated with wheels because before taking the helm at Silca, he was an engineer at Zipp. So, he was well schooled in wheels, tires, rolling resistance and inflation – in short the perfect engineer to tackle reinventing a beloved pump.
You actually have to look closely to see what’s changed from the old Pistas to new, but once you start, you like what you find. Starting from the top down, there’s the lovely lathe-turned ash wood handle – quite an upgrade from the original’s plastic handle. It retains the original’s grooves for holding and safeguarding the pump hose – of course!
Next, you’ll notice that the barrel has a metal cap now, not plastic. The old plastic ones could strip if mechanics weren’t careful during pump maintenance. Then, the barrel and plunger have self-lubricating internal guide surfaces to make the Pista smoother running and more efficient than any pump before. And the leather plunger washer hasn’t changed at all and is still made the same way by the same leather company in Italy.
At the base of the pump sits a new gauge that’s upgraded to within 3% accuracy and protected with an aluminum body. And, the rubber hose is 43 inches long (109cm) long. The longer the better for inflating tires when bikes are on vehicle bike racks or in repair stands. And to keep the hose safe and compact for travel, the Pista has the grooves in the handle and a nice rubber chuck holder that rides on the barrel and won’t scratch it.
Saving one of the best features for last, Silca’s new press-on alloy pump head has a bleed valve for inflation precision and unscrews to reveal the built-in screw-on head for Schrader valves (original Pistas required Schrader adapters).
The pump also has a durable brass check-valve assembly for airtight pumping and accurate gauge readings. And, it’s worth explaining the base. Notice that it’s a somewhat narrow horizontal foot, just enough to place one shoe on the pump to keep it in place as you pump. Some cyclists used to complain that when left standing the Pistas would fall over. And the new Pista will do the same thing.
But, there’s a simple solution. Don’t park them standing, lay them down. The whole point of the narrow base is to make a thin pump that’s easy to stow away and travel with. If you keep knocking yours over, stop trying to store it standing up and find a nice spot to lay it. I keep mine on my workbench at home and flat on the floor in my 1987 Westy (race vehicle) – initial plates read “BIKEFIX.”
Overall, the new Pista Pump has the feel and function of a fine bicycle tool that, no matter how much you use and abuse it over the years will earn your trust and admiration – as it has mine – by keeping pumping up your tires like a champ.
Price, Extras and Sources
The Silca Pista Floor Pump is $99 and available at bike shops or direct from Silca. For travel and storage, Silca also offers the Pista Travel Bag. While at $90, it almost costs as much as the Pista, it features a padded spot for your Pista and room and separate compartments for tubes, tools, bottles and nutrition. Silca also makes the SuperPista Ultimate, which is a cost-no-object superpump at $450!
Ride total: 9,017
My first floor pump back in the early 1980’s was a Silca, and it worked fine for years. I never did fully learn how to remove the chuck after after inflating without scraping knuckles on spokes, but I suspect that was just user ignorance. My only objection to buying this new revival is that the gauge is still at the bottom of the pump. For those of us of a certain age with a need for bifocals, reading a gauge from a distance of nearly six feet away as one stands above the gauge is impossible. My preferred pump is the Blackburn Air Tower 4, which does have a few objectionable characteristics,;nevertheless, it has a nice gauge with huge numbers situated right at the top of the barrel. If Silca produces a pump with a similarly placed gauge, I’ll be first in line.
Have you seen this??
https://silca.cc/products/superpista-digital
I used to bonk my hands on spokes too — I developed a method though! Brace your fingers on the rim, push off the valve stem chuck with your thumbs. Works great, besides having to touch a dirty rim. 🙂
Not sure I can justify replacing my 20-something year-old, well-used Pista with the new, improved version. But, if Silca were to offer the wooden handle as a retrofit for my old pump, I would have to do that!
Thanks, Fixieguy. I should have explained that the bleed valve on the head solves the issue of the chuck getting stuck on. That’s one of the reasons they added that feature and it works nice. It depressurizes the head so it comes off the Presta valve much more easily. I agree with you that the gauge is less easy to read than the ones high up on pumps. Earlier this year I reviewed Silca’s Tattico Bluetooth mini-pump https://www.roadbikerider.com/silca-tattico-bluetooth-mini-pump-and-premio-tire-levers-d3/ and that uses a cellphone app iGauge, which is a joy to use. Maybe at some point Silca will add it to their pumps like the Pista. To me that would be the ultimate – though it would mean electronics and a battery that needs replacing, which might change the durability of the pump maybe… not sure.
Thanks for the feedback!
Jim
I believe you have a typo (twice): It should be Molteni, not Moleni.
Beautiful pump.
Thanks, Paul, yes, definitely Molteni. Sorry for the typos, not sure how I didn’t catch those. To ease the pain of typos, here’s a nice webpage with some lovely photos of a replica Molteni Merckx: http://www.raydobbins.com/molteni_replica/molteni_replica.htm
G’day from Downunder Jim…I too used the Silca during the time-frames you did and always found it to be reliable. However I didn’t like the handle shape – and still don’t. It’s too small and the wrong shape with the curved ends – for larger hands, and I frequently used to pinch a finger if not careful. It is an example of function not following form…the only flaw in an otherwise perfect product. I still have a fondness for the pump however…Cheers Colin
Thanks for bringing up the limitations of the handle shape, Colin. I have large hands, too and just adapted to the Silca’s elongated-football shape handle by holding it carefully with both hands. But, over time I started pumping with one hand and using the other to hold the head on the valve. Sometimes on smooth valves, it would slip, or on too short valves holding it would stop air leaking. Since I’m right-handed, I stand on the pump foot with my right foot and pump with my right hand pushing straight down. It doesn’t take too much effort and the handle is perfect for pumping like this. I know the pump was designed for compactness and think the narrow handle might be to keep the pump small. But, I agree that you have to get used to it. Someone else suggested that Silca should offer different size handles – good idea I think.
Thanks again,
Jim
Hi Jim,
Greetings from Brattleboro! Nice to hear from a WHS alum! When I was 8 or 9 (’69 or ’70) my dad took my younger brother and I to buy real 10 speed bikes (to replace Schwinn stingrays) from Neil Quinn at the original WHS up past Putney School ON West Hill! We both got Gitane Boys’ Racers! (mine was orange!). That was a magic place, one of the walls was plexiglass with a fully visual/operational bee hive that you could watch!
I have an original Silca pista, do you think it could be refitted with a wood handle and a new (more accurate)gage? Thanks.
Confused about the references to the old Silca Pista with a plastic handle and plastic pump top. Mine is around 25 years old with a wooden handle and a steel pump top. Perhaps it was the Super Pista back then?
Thanks for asking that, Kerry. As best as I can determine from your comment and some pictures I found, Silca must have been making both wood and plastic parts on the Pista over the years. I was going by my circa 1980’s Pista, which has the plastic parts. But, it’s not hard to find photos of old Silca pumps with wood handles if you search online. Maybe they first had wood handles and all metal construction and then switched to the plastic later. In which case, there might have been old inventory still on the market and some lucky buyers like you could have got the older model rather than the one with the plastic parts. I don’t know if the name Super Pista was used before Silca’s newest pump. Maybe a true Silca historian will chime in and share their knowledge.
I still have my 80’s vintage Pista and can relate to the comments above. It used to get passed around before a race and has pumped countless tires in its time.
It recently underwent an unintended makeover in conjunction with a bike rebuild. I had it at the bike shop for an overhaul and it came back painted the same colour as the bike. Sadly the patina is gone but on the other hand it looks as good as it works and should be good to go for decades to come.
Just to clarify in regards to the presta bleed valve, if I was to say pump my tires to 120psi could I used the bleed valve to lower the pressure to 100psi without having to remove the chuck? Or does the bleed valve only remove the extra air from within the hose so you can remove the chuck easily? As I have a habit of over Inflating so being able reduce the psi in the tires without removing the chuck would be a huge win for me.
That’s a good question, Paul. The Silca Pista’s bleed valve is only for releasing the pressure inside the pump head so that it’s easier to remove the pump head from the valve. It does not let you fine-tune the pressure inside the tire. With today’s wide variety of road tires and pressures, it can be very handy to be able to get your pressure exactly where you like it. I’ll do some research and see what I can find for tools that let you do this, and I’ll write more in an upcoming Jim’s Tech Talk. So, please watch for that,
Jim
I read the review here and got one of these Silca pumps. But I am disappointed.
I have to do a lot of futzing around after getting the chuck on the stem the first time. To get the thing working takes a couple of tries, consistently, removing then re-engaging the chuck. My Joe Blow Sport pump engages more easily for a lot less money.
The Silca gauge is very accurate, tho.
Hi,
Thanks for the article. Just to be clear on color, however: The one pictured multiple times in the article is actually “Pista Red” not “Molteni Orange”. As far as I can tell, the Molteni Orange one was limited edition, as the Pista Red version is the only one currently listed on the Silca website.
Let me know if I’ve missed something.
NOT very convinced of the SILCA floor pump’s quality. Got one a few weeks back and hardly been used yet just noticed cracks forming on the gauge cover despite it being stored safely. Very careful when using the floor pump due to the fact it topples easily and also never been dropped or have anything hit it before. Poor after sales service too.