Pennine CO2 (and other) pumps

The Pennine CO2 pump was quite high-tech when it was introduced in the early 50’s (first catalogued in Holdsworth’s Aids between 1949 and 1952) compared with the celluloid pumps and rubber connectors on offer at the time. It was designed and manufactured by Geoff Wood who later became a partner in Whitaker and Mapplebeck in 1952 when Geoff Whitaker moved to Bristol. Gradually the W & M name was phased out and the company became Pennine Cycles although Johnnie Mapplebeck was still a partner and involved in the business in Bradford for many years.

“Medium height, balding, steel-framed specs, and an unexpectedly high Bradford voice. Nothing about Geoff looked heroic, but he was more than useful on a bike. For his ‘Pennine Accessories’ team, as it was in those BLRC days, he employed the seriously-good Manchester Independents Bevis Wood and Trevor Fenwick for stage races, and completed the team himself. Geoff wasn’t their equal, but he was no make-weight either”, says James Shaw who knew many of the cyclists in the Bradford area.

“Geoff had been apprenticed to Parkinson’s engineers in Shipley. They were a self-contained medium-sized family manufacturer of vices and machine tools, with their own foundry, so he was able to learn engineering from A-Z, which he clearly did.

Later, Geoff started making various accessories in a small workshop down an alley off Manningham Lane, Bradford, the main road to Keighley. How he ferreted out such places I don’t know. I can remember the aluminium bodies and levers of the CO2 pumps, and tools to speed their production. He employed an off-duty milkman and a pupil from nearby Belle Vue school who brought along a mate or two, all on an ‘informal’ basis. Someone talked, because the taxman paid a visit. How or where production continued after that I do not recall. The tie-up with Whitaker & Mapplebeck came later.” (Thanks to James Shaw for these memories of Geoff Wood – much more in Reminiscences).

Below are details of the CO2 pump showing the way it was mounted when fitted to a frame with the special brazed-on ‘boss’. This is in 1963.  Some riders carried the pump in their pocket and others used a Terry’s spring steel clip – often fitting the pump near the bottom of the down tube. A case of fashion over sense as the pump was right in line with any mud, water or dirt thrown up by the front wheel. The earlier pumps had a milled area on the body for grip and were threaded to screw onto the valve. The later ones had two plastic ‘anti-slip’ bands and they were pushed onto the valve with a rubber washer inside the pump providing the seal.

The rubber ‘handle’ on the pump is very inclined to perish as can be seen from some of the images above. It is possible to replace this with a piece of 5mm plastic piping used, amongst other things, for aquariums. It is available at model shops, some hardware stores, and garden centres which have an aquatic centre. The piping will be a very tight fit so try squirting the handle end with hairspray and then forcing the piping on before it sets. This has been done to the pump on the Carpenter although you are only looking at the end.

Milremo, one of the trading names of Ron Kitching, also produced a compressed air pump which was sold with a steel ‘cradle’ and longer than the Pennine at 23cm (9″). It was filled with nitrogen and had to be sent back to Kitching to be refilled (as did the Edco pump below). Here it is seen fitted below the down tube of a road racing frame owned by John Spooner. This was the positioning used by a lot of the road racing fraternity although the Pennine bosses were more often behind the seat tube, near to the top. This higher position, of course, kept the pump out of the mud, water and grit which would be thrown up by the front wheel.

Here, is the Edco pump in an Edco cradle, mentioned above, fitted to one of Mark Stevens’ Gillotts. It can be seen that the Milremo was ‘badge-engineered’ from this pump ,which in this case is mounted behind the seat tube just below the seat cluster. On the right  is another of Mark’s Gillotts with twin ‘Pennine’ braze-on bosses mounted under the down tube near the bottom bracket (this position, along with behind the seat tube just below the seat cluster were the favourites). Although these are Pennine bosses they are obviously intended for use with a longer Milremo or Edco pump.