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La Dolce Vita: Silca SuperPista Review

La Dolce Vita: Silca SuperPista Review

These Silca pumps attract a fair amount of derision for their price and seemingly opulent construction. But due to my respect for the brand and its story, I’ve been very keen to compare the SuperPista to my seven-year-old plastic track pump.

La Dolce Vita: Silca SuperPista Review

The courier is about to pick up my SuperPista and return it to Echelon Sports — Silca’s Australian distributor — after a very brief time together. Like a clandestine sojourn with an Italian lover, it was a most enjoyable experience and I’m damn sorry to see it go.

La Dolce Vita: Silca SuperPista Review

Zak at Skunkworks Bikes told me I’d be repeatedly deflating my tires just so I could pump them up again, and it was true. There was something strangely rewarding about each encounter. Pumping up my tires no longer was a chore, but a pleasure.

La Dolce Vita: Silca SuperPista Review

What is it about a pump that retails for about AUD$250? What, apart from full aluminum construction and replaceable parts? A lifetime warranty? A gauge with 2% accuracy, full aluminum suspension fork piston with IGUS glide rings?

Or the 3.5mm-thick full-grain leather gasket, produced by the same vendor since 1946?

La Dolce Vita: Silca SuperPista Review

After enjoying the SuperPista’s super-smooth vertical action, clear face and kiln-dried beechwood handle, reverting to my wobbly old plastic track pump feels spiritless and somewhat tedious.

Worth it? Definitely. I justified it thus: If you use a pump regularly, you’ll get many years of reliable inflation from the SuperPista — or any Silca product, for that matter. Their hallmark today is quality performance, just as it was in 1917, the year it was founded.

I quote Ferris Bueller: If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

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La Dolce Vita: Silca SuperPista Review

Special thanks to Sydney’s Classic Throttle Shop for the use of their showroom as the location for our shoot.

La Dolce Vita: Silca SuperPista Review