Topeak Mountain TT Twin Turbo Pump Review

The Topeak Mountain TT Twin Turbo hand pump fills both large volume fat bike tires and higher pressure mountain tires, as well as gravel bike tires with ease. It utilizes Topeak’s Twin Turbo technology which uses both strokes of the pump to compress air to deliver a high volume and high-pressure output to save time and effort during tire inflation. The pump head can be switched between Presta and Shrader valves, and it features an integrated dust cap to keep things clean, and a thumb lock lever ensures an air-tight seal. It’s constructed with a plastic handle, a plastic head, and an aluminum shaft and barrel, and retails for $32.95.

For further information refer to topeak.com.

Features

The Mountain TT Twin Turbo has taken the Topeak’s TT Twin Turbo technology, which allows the user to pull to compress air, and then push to inflate a high amount of air volume and pressure,  with a volume per stroke of 91 cc. This design can pump up to 120 psi, and save 50% time and effort during inflation, and although I can’t vouch for that sort of high pressure and the exact time/effort saved, it was ton’s easier to pump up any of my 2.6″ and 2.8″ high volume tires.

The pump has a bit over a 5.5″ stroke, and the length and the dual chambers of the Twin Turbo technology provided ample volume and pressure when inflating a tire. The inherent girth required for the design offers excellent ergonomics when holding the pumps ends, making for an easy to hold entity. It weighs 194 grams (6.8 oz) and measures 8.7” x 2” x 1.6” (22 x 5 x 4 cm.)

Their straightforward old school pump head can fit onto Presta and Schrader. To perform a swap out, unscrew the top cap/dust cover and flip-flop the rubber gasket to change between Presta and Schrader, though I didn’t do that very often since Presta has become somewhat ubiquitous for valves. It fit pretty tightly on the valve, so it takes a bit of force to jam it on, but once it was on, it was secure and sealed well after applying the lock lever. The dust cover was sometimes stubborn to re-insert, but with a bit of finesse, it would go back in.

It comes with a plastic side carrier to hold the pump with a Velcro strap for additional security, and it attaches to the bikes water bottle bolts. The holes on the plastic mounting bracket didn’t line up with my bike water bottle holes, so I had to do some minor alteration to make it work.

The carrier has a broader and narrower diameter clamp for holding the pump; the larger one is for the head or top handle of the pump while the smaller is for the middle of the outer alloy shaft. Once the pump was snapped onto the carrier and the Velcro was wrapped around the body, the pump was held on rock solid and never bounced around or fell out, even on the gnarliest trails.

Inflation

Just push the head onto the valve and when it bottoms out flip out the thumb locking lever to seal things up. After attaching it was nice and snug and kept a tight seal without any leakage.

After connecting up the head to the valve and locking it down, you can start the double action pumping, via their Twin Turbo technology. To begin inflation you can either hold the central part of the head or wrap your hands around the top of the head by the valve, and then with your other hand grab the end of the pump with its blunt tip in your palm. Although the seemingly short stroke feels like your not doing much, the Twin Turbo technology with its dual chambers and pull to compress air and push to inflate has a significant effect, with the tire quickly inflating. Even large volume tires with 2.5″ to 3.0″ widths inflated with relative ease and a short amount of time, though it’s still not having a monster floor pump. If the tire were flat, I would likely do a quick CO2 cartridge inflation before tidying things up with this pump.

Bottom Line

The Topeak Mountain TT Twin Turbo is an excellent compact hand pump with plenty of useful features with highlights to their Twin Turbo technology with it pulls to compress air and then push to inflate, which makes the drudgery of pumping up wide and Plus sized tires easier and quicker. It works with Presta and Schrader valves, has a locking thumb lever to seal the valve during use, pumps to 120 psi of pressure, and provides a volume per stroke of 91 cubic centimeters of air for fast inflations. The ergonomic head and handle make holding onto and pumping the unit comfortable, simple, and easy. Although it’s not the lightest hand pump out there, its durability and highly functional Twin Turbo design alleviate that minor deficient in this otherwise superb device. The side loading carrier allows you to attach the pump while still being able to bring along a water bottle.