Review: SILCA Terra Floor Pump

 Note: Guitar Ted purchased a SILCA Terra Floor Pump with his own money to test and review on Guitar Ted Productions. SILCA has had no prior knowledge of this review and has neither paid nor bribed Guitar Ted for these posts. 

SILCA is an icon of cycling known best for their ubiquitous floor pumps. The best known of those being the Pista, the original portable floor pump. Made in Italy for decades the company now is owned by Josh Poertner who purchased the SILCA from the original family owners of the brand. 

I've had the pleasure of owning several SILCA pumps and I have reviewed the Pista Plus before. That pump became my 'go-to' pump since that review and I have used it consistently with excellent results. 

So, when it "disappeared" recently and I could not find it I was distraught, to the degree that anyone should be distraught over a floor pump. Which is probably less than you should be upset about anything, most likely, but perhaps mechanics out there will understand what it is like to misplace a favorite tool. It was like that for myself. 

So, after deciding that the Pista Plus was gone for good I hopped online and searched SILCA\s site for what they had available. I landed on the Terra Floor Pump since it is optimized for the lower end of the pressure scale and because it has a big dial with larger numerals that old eyes can see more easily. Hey! It's a thing!

Of course, the day after I ordered the Terra I found my Pista Plus pump.......(sigh!)

But whatever! I am here with a new pump and thought I would share my experience with it. Now that I have the Pista Plus back in my hands I can actually compare and contrast the two pumps, so all is not lost.

What It Is: the Terra Floor Pump is SILCA's rebooting of the Terra concept from the late 80's with new non-linear gauge scale technoilogy. What that means is that the pump is optimized to read more accurately up to 30psi, the range where most people woul be using MTB tires, fat bike tires, and even larger volume gravel tires. 

Note how half the gauge's needle sweep is dedicated to the range below 30psi. SILCA claims that this lower range has a 0.5 psi accuracy while at 120 psi the pump has an accuracy of 2.0psi. 

The pump is made with an aluminum shaft, base, and an ash handle. The pump has a gauge face diameter of approximately 75mm, so it is fairly easy to read the scale. The pump head uses SILCA's award winning Tattico locking pump head design with a reversible head to switch from Schrader to Presta valve use. 

It is notable that the Terra Floor Pump utilizes an all-metal construction with the exception of the wooden handle. 

The pump is approximately 26" from the base to the top of the amber tinted ash handle. The pump has a muted light flat sage colored green shaft and darker flat green accents on the pump head and base. It is a handsome, light weight floor pump. The price is $145.00 USD. You can check out the Terra Floor Pump on SILCA's site HERE.

First Impressions: The Terra pump looks classy and I like the flat green two-tone look. I am most interested in the gauge and low-end pressure accuracy of this pump. I almost never pump anything I have here for a bike over 40psi, and most of the time I am using something between 30psi and 40psi for gravel. My larger sized tires, such as the Gryphon Mk3, with the 29" X 2.8" tires, I run at around 20psi. Fat bikes, of course, are even lower psi than that. 

The hose is a nice length. Not too short but not ridiculously long either. The Tattico pump head I am somewhat familiar with having tested a Tattico mini pump before. The locking mechanism on the head has a pretty aggressive ratio for the cam action and it is a bit difficult to activate, in my opinion. The pump head is easily reversible for switching from Presta to Schrader and back again. No extra parts to fiddle with there.

The Terra has a slightly longer barrel and pushes a bit more air than the Pista Plus. This makes sense as the Terra is aimed at high-volume, lower pressure tires. My first time using the Terra showed me that it is super-easy to get to your desired pressure and that big gauge with easy to read numerals makes seeing what you are doing an enjoyable effort versus my squinting to make out the much smaller gauge on the Pista Plus. 

The Tattico pump head may seem like a trifle to you, but if you think this way it is almost guaranteed that you have not used one. The interface with a valve is positive and precise. No wiggling or any big outlet of pressure as you place the pump head on the valve. As stated, the locking lever takes a bit more effort to cam over, but it is solid and feels very positive versus many other pump heads I have had the displeasure of using. In short, choosing the Tattico pump head was a wise choice by SILCA for the Terra Floor Pump. 

So Far... My initial impressions are very favorable at this time. I still don't know how well the Terra will do with a tubeless set up, and I want to explore daily usage before I say anything more. I will also be doing a side-by-side comparison with the Pista Plus from SILCA in the future. 

My guess is that the Terra Floor Pump will end up displacing my favor for the Pista Plus, but let's wait out the review process here and make sure.