27 February 2014

Review: Muc-Off Bike Care Essentials Kit

Winter rain makes keeping your bike clean essential. Find out what I thought of this kit from Muc-Off



As an all-weather, all-seasons cyclist, my bike tends to get pretty mucky, and obviously I want to keep it as clean and shiny as possible. I had been using just soap and water, but this wasn’t really up to the job. Roads in winter tend to be quite oily and it wasn’t easy to get the layer of black off my bike, especially the wheels.

The kit in full. Cleaner, protector, brush, sponge and tote
bag to keep it all together. Photo by Idoru Knits.

That’s where Muc-off’s Bike Care Essentials Kit comes in. The package includes a sponge, a wheel and component brush, a Nano Tech bike cleaner and an after-clean bike spray, which protects and shines, and it comes with a tote bag to keep it all together. This all represents the first two parts of a three-part programme; the third, lube, is sold separately, and all elements in the kit can be bought separately too.

It’s much less labour intensive than soap and water and the end result is cleaner and shinier
It’s really easy to use, especially if you have a garden hose. Just wet your bike, spray it all over with the cleaner and then leave for a few minutes. Give it a good going over with the brush and sponge and rinse it all off with the hose again. Then spray with the bike spray to get rid of excess water and help protect against grease.

It works, too. It’s much less labour intensive than soap and water and the end result is cleaner and shinier. The bike spray really does help keep your bike clean between washes. You do use an awful lot of the cleaner, though. About a quarter of the bottle each time, so just four uses until you need a replacement, costing £8.50. There are various other kits to buy, however, which might save you some money.

My only real criticism is the sponge, which after just two uses has started to fall apart, with bits coming off. This is because I used it on the wheel spokes, so possibly my own fault, but I would have expected a sponge meant for cleaning bikes to hold up when attending to the spokes.

The sponge has unfortunately already started to fall apart.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

Cost: £25
Available from: Muc-Off
Disclaimer: this product was bought and paid for by me

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