A few months ago, Muc-Off sent us their “Ultimate Bicycle Care Kit”, which is do it all kit for the cleaning and lubricating side of bicycle care, and then some…The included items are laid out below in full, but in short, it includes a swathe of brushes, cleaners, protectant, chain lubes and more, all in a tidy little toolbox. For a couple of dry months as well as a couple of wetter ones, we’ve been using these bits to look after our bikes. Here’s how the kit has worked out.
The kit comes with Muc-Off’s standard cleaner, which is quite popular, and for good reason. We found that more so than other cleaners, Muc-Off gets a bit deeper and rinses away without leaving water stains. For some reason, when we let our bikes air dry, they ended up with a nicer sheen compared to other cleaners. Their drivetrain cleaner (green) worked quite nicely at removing buildup, particularly if you take into account the fact that it’s biodegradable and less noxious than some cleaners. As for the protectant, we had no complaints about it, but it will be difficult to pry Maxima’s SC-41 from our hands. There’s just something about its smell!
The brushes are where Muc-Off truly killed it. Each of the four brushes vary in design and intended usage. The big, soft bristled brush is great for 80% of the bike and the two pronged brush is nice for cleaning rotors. With that in mind it’s best to keep it stored away from the other brushes as grease could transfer over and contaminate your rotors/pads. The small brush was perfect for cleaning derailleur pulleys and the odd shaped one at the bottom was amazing for cleaning cassettes. It has a pick and a set of long stiff bristles for getting in hard to reach places. The sponge didn’t see all that much use, except for the occasional wipe down of our rims.
After trying all 3 lubes, we found each to be very good under their intended conditions. We mainly used the Ceramic lube in the dry months, but since it started raining we’ve been using the wet lube and have found it to be excellent and keeping things running smooth without attracting too much dirt and detritus. They are the first lubes that we’ve come across in some time that we’ve found on par with Dumonde Tech. In all honesty, we didn’t use the dry lube on the chain that much, but rather for cables, derailleur pivots and other moving parts where we’d normally apply Tri-Flow. That brings us to a bit of a side note. We loved the thin, pointy applicators and their screw tops – the vessels are better executed than other chain lubes we’ve used. However, for lubing cables and some of the hard to reach places, a long tiny straw is nice. We never actually used the LED, but it’s certainly nice to have in the toolbox and it will surely come in handy at some point.
Last, but certainly not least, the finishing cloth is great. It’s the kind of item that most people would probably never spend money on, because you can always scrounge a ratty old tee shirt or a shop cloth, but it’s absolutely superior to both. It’s ultra absorbent and lint free, so it leaves your bike glowing. We’ve used it a bunch and washed it a handful of times…It’s still good as new.
For just over a hundred bucks, Muc-Off has curated an excellent assortment of bits to keep your bike running nicely. It seems odd to have an extra toolbox to carry everything in, but it is nice to have everything all in one place and separate from your tools. The brushes are a big highlight, and the pink Nano-Tech cleaner is the best we’ve used to date, but goes fast. You can buy 5 liter refills for about $40 though. If we had to be mega nit picky, it would be nice to see the two ceramic and wet chain lubes as is, but see the dry lube in a vessel with a straw. All in all, this is a perfect one stop shop kit at a pretty darn good price.
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