After every ride, I like to give the bike a wash. Exceptions, of course, are during the summer months when there’s a thin coat of dry dust. For those rides, the chain gets a wipe and things carry on. It’s not dusty at the minute though. And it’s certainly not dry. So, the bike is getting a wash after every ride.
That means that I get through my fair share of cleaning stuff. The last few sets have been a bit lacklustre – particularly on the degreasing side of things. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve reduced the amount of crud left on the drivetrain but they’ve not got rid of enough. At least, not in my opinion. So, it was time to start looking for something different. Of all the different cleaning products on the market, it seems that the people around me are mostly using Peaty’s stuff and they’ve all got good things to say about it. The sceptic in me though that it was probably just because they respect Steve as a racer and get behind his brand because they like him. Turns out, that’s not the case… or it might be. I don’t know. The stuff is good though. Really.
The ‘Loam Foam’ is the bike cleaner. Honestly, it just works. Is it better than other cleaners I’ve used? Well, no. Is it worse? No. It gets muck off bike and leaves it looking fresh. It’s a bike cleaner and I image the water I’m spraying at the bike is probably doing most of the work anyway. What is different is the amount of the cleaner that sticks, and stays stuck, to the bike. The spray fluffs up nicely through the nozzle cap and then rests on the bike. It was clearly staying right where it was and didn’t do the usual running all over the frame. That helped with me being able to see where I’d hit and where I hadn’t. It didn’t make the bike any cleaner than other products I’ve used, but I can imagine that it would help those even more picky than I am when it comes to cleaning. No missed spots. A quick wriggle of the brush and a rinse and the bike looked fresh and new. Verified it with a repeat of that with a mates bike and it’s safe to say that the Peaty’s cleaner, well… cleans.
The real winner was the degreaser though. Much like the loam foam, this bubbles up and clings nicely to the bike. What really was beautiful was it’s ability to stick, continue foaming and somehow change colour when I back pedalled after applying it to the cassette. It went from white foam to a dirty brown – black colour. That’s some magic trickery in my mind, and also quite alarming to see how much gunk gets onto a chain during a ride; or, more likely, how much I hadn’t got rid of over the last few outings. I gave the drivetrain two coats and two rinses, with a little scrub in-between, and it’s only ever been cleaner the day I bought the bike. Once satisfied with the first use, and with a decently clean drive chain, I went for another spin to see whether it could get the cassette and chain back into shape in one coating. It did. Turns out that my last degreaser just didn’t cut the mustard. I’m a convert and I’m really happy that something water-based is so good at what it does – and biodegradable too.
So, along with almost everyone else I talk to, I’m now a bit of a Peaty’s convert. I’ll still be buying the odd bottle of other stuff here and there to try out but I’ve found a good product which does the job well. Not just a legendary racer, also a magician of foam. Well done, sir.