Test: The bike accessories manufacturer Blackburn is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. In this country, the Americans are extremely successful, especially with their pumps and their wheel lights. Does the Blackburn Airstik SL tested here reflect the decades of experience? We find: Yes!
The Blackburn Airstik SL – key data
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Length, 160mm
Weight.58g
Valves,Presta valve
Maximum pressure.11 bars
application,Street
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The size of the Airstik SL is extremely comfortable. At 160mm, it is a bit longer than many comparable pumps from the competition, but the Airstik is very thin and above all one thing: Extremely light. At 58g, it is one of the lightest micro pumps on the market and is not too bulky in the jersey pocket - if the worst comes to the worst, you have to clarify whether the 16cm long pump fits in the jersey of your choice. If you prefer to attach it to the frame, you will also find a corresponding bracket in the scope of delivery.
The processing of the Blackburn pump is excellent. Despite its extremely low weight, the Airstik SL is mainly made of aluminium, with plastic only being used on the pump head. The latter is only suitable for Presta valves - but hardly any other types of valves are used in the target group in the road bike sector. The Airstik SL has neither a clamping mechanism nor a way to screw the head onto the valve - it is simply pressed firmly onto the valve and seals itself.
When pumping, the Airstik SL shows two different faces: For a hand pump specially designed for racing bikes, it generates a relatively high pumping volume of 30cm³. This proves to be extremely helpful with our wide test tire and we already have it under pressure after less than 300 strokes - that's record-breaking. But here we already get a foretaste of what we can expect from the narrow tire: From a pressure of 3 bar, the necessary manual strength increases extremely. When we then got to the 23mm wide road bike tire, we only get 6 bar in the tires with great difficulty - how the maximum 11 bar should be achieved according to the manufacturer's information is a bit of a mystery to us. Nevertheless: It is a small effort, but with 6 bar in the tires you are definitely fit for the road again.
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