The old orange Silca floor pumps were much better than the new ones.
I have a Japanese made Maeda (Suntour ???) floor pump that I bought in the early 70s. It has a chrome plated cylinder and a red enamel air reservoir with a pressure gage.
I bought one of the large Silca chucks when I got the Maeda pump. The Silca chuck had a gum rubber grommet that was the best I've ever used. I replaced the hose several times and the gum grommet once. The next time the gum grommet need replacement I couldn't get one anymore so had I to settle for the newer black rubber style. It never worked as well as the original gum rubber grommets.
The gum grommets worked at any angle. You just slid the chuck over the Presta valve and started pumping. The black grommets require the stem to be deeply inserted and the chuck centered over the valve otherwise they leak.
In my supernumerary state, bending over the old Maeda pump was getting a little hard on the back so several years ago I bought a tall Silca floor pump. Two things that I don't like about it are the stiff rubber hose and the hard rubber grommet.
The wheel needs to be rotated so that the valve is near the ground and the chuck has to be sitting straight over the deeply inserted valve. The hose is so stiff that it will pull the chuck to one side impeding the flow of air.
I disliked the Silca floor pump so much that I went out and bought a Topeak Joe Blow Sprint Floor Pump. It has a lot of interesting features plus the pressure gage is at the top of the pump cylinder making it easy to read. The dual presta/schraeder air chuck is a bit of a PIA at times but otherwise I happy with this pump.
Chas. Colerich Oakland, CA
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