Silca Pista Centennial Edition Floor Pump

About Silca

Few brands have been more intimately connected to the last 100 years of cycling than Silca. The Italian-born brand's legacy of legendary quality has seen company's pumps being passed down through generations of professional mechanics and cycling enthusiasts - riders who value the experience of bike maintenance and understand its performance value. Now based in the US, Silca's heirloom quality pumps have been joined by a growing selection of thoughtfully designed and stylish accessories.

The pista story

Since 1917 SILCA has been the global leader in high performance pumps for cycling. Starting first with the ultra-light frame pumps, we then went on innovating to create the first pumps with gauges and followed up with the first truly high-pressure capable pumps in the 1920's. SILCA pumps have inflated more Grand Tour, Classics, Olympic and World Championship victories than any other in the category.

At the request of Fausto Coppi's mechanics in the late 1950's, the team at SILCA set out to design a pump that would take the best attributes of each style of pump and combine them into one. The result, launched in 1962, was a design so elegant and timeless that it came to define the entire category of 'Track Pumps' ('Pista' is Italian for 'track' after all.) The original Pista paired a steel barrel with a 3mm thick leather piston washer, solid brass internal valves and the now iconic oval handle with two grooves for holding the hose that allowed the pump to lay flat in a travel bag or in the trunk of a car. These pumps were prized by professional mechanics around he world for their durability, dependability and accuracy.

With the launch of the new Pista, we have tried to capture the magic of the original while continuing to improve function and durability. This Pista upgrades the original Celluloid handle to a more classic lathe turned Ash wood and upgrades the chuck assembly to include Presta and Schrader compatibility plus a new bleed button to make chuck removal easier. We've also upgraded to a 3% accurate gauge fully protected in an aluminum base housing. Additionally, we've added self-lubricating internal guide surfaces to make it smoother running and more efficient than any pump before.

What hasn't changed are the critical components that make SILCA pumps so durable and dependable. This Pista uses a 3mm thick leather piston washer and solid brass internal valve assembly which have been produced in the same factories in Milan, Italy since 1947. These critical components are the heart of the pump and have demonstrated more than 70 years of flawless performance under the harshest conditions so it only seems fitting that we continue to use them.

The modern Pista preserves the beautiful aesthetics of the original, but improves on the design in some very important ways. The gauge has been updated to a much higher precision +/-3% accuracy (compared to the original +/-5%) while adding reinforcement to the base which protects the gauge from damage and impact. The modern Pista handle is a near reincarnation of the original 1962 Bakelite handle with the two hose grooves that allowed the pump to lay as flat as possible in the trunk of a car or in a drawer. For this handle, the team at SILCA has specified Ash for it’s incredible strength and stability, which allows the wood to be CNC machined to even tighter tolerances. Full metal construction ensures a lifetime of flawless performance and reliability. The steel barrel and piston shaft are upgrades in quality and durability from the previous Pista designs adding linear glide busings for ultimate smoothness; while the slightly enlarged foot guarantees improved stability without sacrificing portability.

Pump Features:

• Durable, high strength Steel barrel
• Compact Ash wood handle with hose guides
• High efficiency SILCA leather plunger piston design
• Brass check-valve assembly
• Long filler hose with integrated Schrader chuck
• Push on alloy Presta chuck with bleeder valve
• Rated to 220psi