Non main brand cleaning products

Kieran_Burns

I've a mate whose bike I sorted yesterday (cleaned and lubed the chain, sorted the brakes), and now he's seen the light about getting the right products to maintain the bike properly.

I did a search on PTFE spray and had a real eye opening moment.

Screwfix do 400ml PTFE spray:

PTFE_Spray for £2.88

Then you look at the Muc Off brand stuff:

Muc_Off 500ml for £6.99 :shock:

Did I miss something here? These are both basically the same stuiff right?

When I've finished cleaning the bike, I spray everything (not the wheels / brakes :P )with ptfe to lube and protect the bike. I can't believe how much money I've been wasting.

cee

yip...same stuff.

PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) is of course the generic name for Teflon (branded by Dupont)....

Works nicely sprayed onto a cloth, then rubbed all over the frame, makes it much easier to keep clean....

I prefer a drip bottle rather than a spray for lubing the chain though....but again...non-main brand stuff is more or less identical.

Kieran_Burns

Is there a non main brand equivalent to the Muc Off Cleaner then? (although Halfords have a nice offer on at the moment)

davmaggs

It's market segmentation. e.g. sell the same thing to different market groups and they are willing to pay different amounts of cash for the same thing.

Other items like degreaser are the same.

PS I'm fed up with the small bottles of the dry bike chain lube. Any ideas on an equivalent from screwfix or some other non-bicycle business?

Kieran_Burns

I think I may have started something here.....

notsoblue

More of this kind of stuff please

EKE_38BPM

If only there was a generic name for these Non main brand cleaning products!

hatbeard

Acme!

mudcow007

i spray my bikes in GT85 which has that slippery PTFE stuff in aswell, leave it a few mins then wipe over it both keeps the bike cleaner by not letting mud stick aswell and smells great

essex-commuter

mudcow007 wrote:

i spray my bikes in GT85 .....and smells great

Mmm GT85, love that smell!

hatbeard

I recently found out that I didn't need to use bottled evian water to clean my bike, I have a number of taps in my flat and apparently they all dispense what is for all intents and purposes exactly the same thing. I was shocked.

SimonAH

Or, of course, you could go belt. Then you may use a napkin.

*hides behind sofa from enraged masses with greasy filthy chains*

lost_in_thought

hatbeard wrote:

I recently found out that I didn't need to use bottled evian water to clean my bike, I have a number of taps in my flat and apparently they all dispense what is for all intents and purposes exactly the same thing. I was shocked.

walkingbootweather

I've just started putting this stuff called air in my tyres. It doesn't come neatly packaged like CO2, and I'm sure doesn't make my bike ligher (like helium), but appears to keep my tyres reasonably well inflated. Amazing.

davmaggs

walkingbootweather wrote:

I've just started putting this stuff called air in my tyres. It doesn't come neatly packaged like CO2, and I'm sure doesn't make my bike ligher (like helium), but appears to keep my tyres reasonably well inflated. Amazing.

Does it contain the right type of carbon?

on-oneplus26

We've (Mucky Nutz) have got 60L of Organic degreaser / cleaner sat in our shed waiting for us to get round to printing the lables and putting the stuff in bottles. An email to sales might get you an unbranded sample as a sencible price!!!

Si

on-oneplus26

My own personal tip for cleaning products are Kitchen wipes. Work well to remove general grime but they sort out dirty and so squeeky disc rotors a treat.

Make sure your you don't use baby 'wet wipes' though as they have all sorts moisturisers in 'em which does NOT help improve braking!

paulus69

I think weldite sell something similar, although Mrs Paulus bought a bottle (exactly the same size/type of bottle) from the local pound shop and its excellent. Unfortunately they had sold out when I went to get some more!

greg66_tri_v2.0

Clit Bang beats all.

Barry Scott is a God.

paulus69

Do you mean cillit bang or is there a product called clit bang?

walkingbootweather

on-oneplus26 wrote:

Make sure your you don't use baby 'wet wipes' though as they have all sorts moisturisers in 'em which does NOT help improve braking!

True. Conversely Muc Off is pretty effective at cleaning babies, but does tend to leave a rather nasty rash I have found.

Jay dubbleU

Lemon juice - organic degreaser - works a treat

Kieran_Burns

Greg66 wrote:

Clit Bang beats all.

Barry Scott is a God.

Oh Lord. I do NOT wish to know what you were thinking about when you wrote that :shock:


Wrong forum maybe?

barney69

Anyone know where I can buy citrus degreaser from?

hatbeard

how on earth did you manage to get grease on your citruses?

Kieran_Burns

I want to know how to squeeze a lemon on a bike? Do you use the rear cassette?

hatbeard

the method is salt (road), tequila (pub), lime (weekend clean)

thelawnet

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I want to know how to squeeze a lemon on a bike? Do you use the rear cassette?

I did this the other day, just squeezed the lemon over the chain and cassette. simples.

walkingbootweather

I can concur that a little lemon juice on the cassette cleans beautifully and smells lovely too. The sugar and pancake mixture however was rather less successful. :oops:

hatbeard

did you remember to flip it over halfway through?

cee

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Is there a non main brand equivalent to the Muc Off Cleaner then? (although Halfords have a nice offer on at the moment)

this guy: http://cycleninjas.com/

dont let the look of his site put you off.....the product is actually really good.

posted a free trial offer in the MTB section a while back.....

I got in on it and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was......he still offers a double money back offer if you are not happy with it....but from my experience...it works really well, and is much cheaper than muc-off etc......it is concentrate, so comes in a very small bottle and you have to dilute it yourself, but depending on how much water you put in...it either becomes a degreaser, or a a cleaner. He even supplied a spray nozzle to use with most plastic bottles (i use an old muc off bottle....)

still using the same first bottle after about 6 months!