Don’t sweat the punctures – I rode 1,000 miles across France but fortunately my buddies carried electric pumps like the Cycplus AS2 Pro; this is definitely $90.99 I won’t regret spending this Amazon Prime Day

A couple of weeks ago, I rode 1,000 miles across France in thirteen days with six riding buddies. Everyone, except me, it seems, was carrying an electric mini pump; the most popular choice was the Cycplus AS2 Pro, one of the best electric bike pumps.

Jutting proudly from beneath my saddlebag was a cheap, traditional mini pump. I’m all for progress, but I considered electric pumps the worst kind of fad. Had my upper body strength become so feeble, my life so empty that I needed to fill it with such a tacky gimmick? No thanks, I was more than capable of inflating my tyres, and my ego for that matter, with seven and a half inches of rigid mini pump, just like a real man.

Except, of course, I wasn’t. About 500 miles in from St Malo, which placed us very precisely in the middle of nowhere – France’s infamous ‘diagonale du vide’, aka empty diagonal – the punctures started. It was late morning but already very warm. Red weather warnings were popping up all over France and, as the mercury climbed to 38°C (100°F), our cleats began to leave impressions in the hot, soft tarmac.

Fortunately, it wasn’t me who flatted but my friend Jonathan, who was riding a tubeless setup (new Continental GP5000s on Enve wheels, so a premium rig). The tyre was quickly plugged, and my offer of a mini pump was politely brushed aside as Jonathan set to work with his AS2 Pro electric pump. Within an effortless minute, the tyre was correctly seated, inflated, and we were on our way. In just 60 seconds, my traditional pump had been rendered obsolete – thank goodness. Wrestling with a tubeless GP5000 in that heat would have been hell.

The plug in Jonathan’s tubeless tyre refused to seal the puncture effectively, so we had a few more stops over the next day or so before finally fitting a tube. Each time, the pump, on the same charge, worked faultlessly with no stress and zero sweat.

I’m now a complete convert; this solution is so much more effective than a mechanical pump or potentially troublesome CO2.

The Cycplus AS2 Pro weighs just 120g (my mini pump weighs 90g) and will inflate four 700c road/gravel tyres to 80psi in a single charge. Inflation time, to 80psi, is around a minute – which, trust me, is considerably faster than me and my mini pump – and in my experience, it seats tubeless setups effortlessly. It features a digital pressure gauge, a non-negotiable as far as I am concerned, which Cycplus says is accurate to within 1 PSI. Charging is over USB-C and takes about half an hour.

When reviewing the Cycplus AS2 Pro, our US editor Anne-Marije Rook awarded the product four out of five stars, commenting that it “delivered with its combination of portability, precision and convenience”. Spot on.

My order’s placed!