New stuff to stuff with stuff

Those of you lacking a decent amount of long term memory as a result of drug abuse or watching too much commercial TV as a child may have forgotten that I was expecting a special package from Genuine Innovations before I left for PMBAR. Of course as my luck would have it the package arrived while I was out in the woods dragging Thad's broken down ass all over the place. When I got home on Sunday and stopped crying over my disappointing 11th place finish I was able to muster up a little bike geek enthusiasm and open the package.

Now I'm normally very prepared to take untested equipment into the woods with me to have to figure out how it works once I need it, but since I had some down time last night I decided to give my new Mountain Pipe a proper shakedown.

I decided to give the Mountain Pipe a fair test, and to kill another bird with my new stone, I used it to mount up one of the WTB Prowlers I won at PMBAR on a spare rim to get the bead all unwrinkly for proper tubeless use.

The plan was to inflate the tube slightly with my mouth, mount up the tube/tire on the rim, and count how many strokes it takes to get the tire up to a rideable pressure. What started out as a semi-legitimate test ended in failure though as I was watching TV at the same time, and I lost count during my second set of fifty strokes. I did manage to pump until exhaustion set in before putting my digital pressure gauge on the valve. I ended up in the 26-27PSI range after what seemed like a million strokes, but was probably more like 100-150 strokes. I would say this is somewhere in the range of normal for a mini pump since any time I've ever used one I've always ended up with just enough pressure just before I totally lost interest in trying any harder.

Action was smooth throughout the pumping process. The pump never released from the valve until I was ready, and the stroking was smooth enough that I didn't have to jerk the pump all over the place and risk ripping the valve off (something I've done in the past with slightly more stubborn mini-pumps).

One of the more interesting features of the Mountain Pipe other than the all alloy construction with brass valve internals was the magnet lock feature which keeps the barrel locked and closed securely when the pump is not in use. From the geeky POV it's just neat. Magnets... whoddathunkit? The Mountain Pipe is also a CO2 inflator, and the pump is way more handy to use when you have a CO2 stored in the handle for a comfy grip.

The most interesting feature of the pump happens to be the one that has me stymied at the moment. Genuine Innovations built a hidden "stash container" into the handle of the pump. I have been trying to think of something useful to stick inside this dandy hideaway, but my efforts have proven fruitless. This has been quite a sticking point for me, and the main reason I have to give the Mountain Pipe my...

SEAL OF SEMI-APPROVAL

The most useful small item I can think of that I would want to carry on the trail would be Peanut M&M's. Try as I might to fit a dinner sized portion of the tasty treats into the handle I could only "stash" five M&M's inside the tiny compartment.

This hardly seemed worth all the effort, so it looks like I'm gonna have to find some other useful item that would fit in the "stash container". If it were a "stache container" perhaps I would ask the moustache what it would like to see tucked inside the handle, but unless I get an unexpected visit from Letterman I am just gonna have to figure this one out on my own.

Don't forget... the Dicky's Death March T-Shirt, which will be a limited edition T-Shirt of the Month on the Twin Six site, goes on sale at 9:00AM CST TODAY!! You don't have to suffer like a dog as Thad did this last Saturday just to be part of the Death March. All you have to do is buy the T-Shirt and save yourself a load of pain, suffering, and sub-par karaoke quality Jefferson Starship tunes.