Marton Roelofs from Grave in the Netherlands got his first own RENNKOMPRESSOR in 1980 from his parents for his life, the caravan, the car and of course also for his bike. The pump accompanied him on a lot of ATB Marathons and never let him down. Here are some examples: Grand Raid, Christ Alp, Eiger Bike Challenge, Sweiss Bike Masters, Bike Festival Willingen. Now the pump can be found as a collector’s item in his store.

SKS Germany also supports the triathlon sport. The boys from the second national league triathlon team “BSV Friesen 1985 Berlin” got sponsored by SKS-Germany for their season 2015. Even in the triathlon sport it is important to have full pressure on your tyres – and in your arms and legs! Thereby RENNKOMPRESSOR helps.

At the beginning of the 90s the RENNKOMPRESSOR caught the attention of the German Army. They ordered their own version with a Thumb head and without a pressure gauge at SKS Germany. Why they left the pressure gauge off is, unfortunately, not known. The pipes were of course produced in NATO-OLIV.

Frosty has a reputation for sitting idle in one spot, looking round, white and FAT.  He clearly needs to exercise but obviously had an underinflated tire on his shiny orange fat bike.   SKS USA’s Mark Burgener took time to help Frosty the Snowman inflate his fat bike tire.  Naturally using the SKS Rennkompressor was the smart choice since it has proven to be the Grandfather of today’s floor pumps –  for over 50 years.  Hopefully with a few bike rides and new Vegan nutritional plan, Frosty will be in good shape before the Spring thaw.

Jens Fiedler’s, who was born on 15th Feburary 1970 in the Saxon Dohna, talent was discovered early and he passed through the sports promotion of the DDR in track cycling. In 1988 he already was junior world champion in track sprint, before he achieved 1991 the world champion title in the amateurs followed by the in Barcelona in 1992. After the Olympic Games he switched to the professionals. At the Olympic Games in Atlanta 1996 he achieved Gold in the singles match again, before he ended his career with his third Olympic victory 2004 in Athens with his team. How you can see on the picture, track cyclists don’t have a strong distinctive thigh musculature.

In the 60’s the successes of Eddy Merxx at Tour and Giro led to a big boom at road bike sport. During a visit to the former Belgian sales agent Maurice Slabbynck in middle of the 1960s, someone suggested the idea to make a floor pump for road bikers. SKS Germany boss Willi Blome and his manager and chief developer Walter Scheffer were excited and set to work immediately. Within a short period of time, the first models came onto the market.

The service division of SKS Germany sometimes achieves quite curious requests. So technician Winfried Geuecke got in 2013 a RENNKOMPRESSOR of the first generation for repairing. A dealer from NRW wanted to make sure that he really gets his pump back and so annotated the pump pipe with the writing »Opa seiner« (Grandpa’s one).

At the beginning and at the end of his career Gregor Braun was one of the best track cyclists in the world. At the Olympics 1976 in Montreal, which took place during his first years in professional cycling sport, he was one of the famous »Kilian-Vierer«. At these Olympics, he won Gold at the individual and team performance for Germany. After that Gregor Braun changed to the professionals and won in 1978 the one day classic »Rund um den Henninger Turm«. In 1980 he won the Tour of Germany. At the Giro D`Italia in 1981 he could wear the pink tricot, which he passed further on the next day to his teammate und captain Francesco Moser. In his only Tour de France participation he, unfortunately, gave up premature after his first stage. In 1983 he succeeded in a stage win at the Giro d`Italia. At the end of his professional career he took successfully part at a lot of six-days-races.

Ernst Ullmann still uses a RENNKOMPRESSOR of the first generation in his workshop. Besides this pump he owns further models from the last 50 years and is always happy about new limited editions. Ernst Ullmann used to be an active racing cyclist and is now the managing director of the bike shop »Radsport Ullmann« in Munich.

Even at the age of 50 years is the RENNKOMPRESSOR steadfast as anyway and ever. The slim assistant made out of steel became in the meantime a cult product and is appreciated as father (or mother) of all floor pumps. No wonder – he proves himself often as a knight in shining armour. He is an upright fighter, who also works out in hard operation and under pressure. But how has the name RENNKOMPRESSOR arisen?

Even the term »compressor« sounds like high performance, like strength and power. The perfekt workout-equipment for hard men upper arms und hard bicycle tyres. Lots of hot air and nothing behind? No way! Even women, who mostly think about tights when they hear compression, should feel a powerful and positive energy when they inflated a paddling pool. The slack term “floor pump” wouldn`t be fair for the energetic RENNKOMPRESSOR. This is much clear.

And what about the term »Rennen« (race)? Maybe they choosed this word, because you always have to look for the RENNKOMPRESSOR, when you need it. Therefore you run from your garage into the cellar and back again, to find it finally in the depths of your tool shed. Well, this is a possibility, but of course it is nonsense. The RENNKOMPRESOR is named like this as it was for the professional cycling. So that there is no misunderstanding, it was constructed for racing (»Rennen«) bicycles. At this point of time there were no mountain bikes. But there is still one question, that we still cannot answer after a half century: Is the RENNKOMPRESSOR the father or the mother of all floor pumps? Although the E.V.A.-Valve refers to a female designation, whereas DER RENNKOMPRESSOR sounds obviously male (“Der” is the male article in German language). However: The SKS-RENNKOMPRESSOR is and will ever be the original, which even in 100 years won´t run out of air. This is as sure as the next flat on your bike.

Beatrix Collins

This pump is owned by Helge Gruppe from Hessisch Oldendorf (Germany). He wrote about the pump:
»I found this pump during I cleaned up my shop. My grandfather, who worked during the winter months at the local bicycle and agricultural machine shop, used to own this pump. I assume that the pump is from this shop and landed some day at my grandfather´s home. I can darkly remember how my grandfather inflated my flat tyres when I was a child.«