You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I know that anything cycling related usually has a bit of a "bike tax" applied to it but noticed an add today for Muc-Off copper anti-seize compound.
They want £27 for a 450g tub. I can get a 500g tin from ECP for £9.29. That makes Muc-Off over three times more expensive, that's just mental !
https://muc-off.com/products/anti-seize-copper-compound
https://www.eurocarparts.com/p/triple-qx-copper-grease-500g-antisieze-526770130
Why would you buy muc-off? There's so many good products out there, why settle for the cleaning and lubrication equivalent of Katie Price?
Muc-Off even price gouge their own products against each other. Their bike cleaner is very expensive for a litre but they do exactly the same product in 5l bottles but labelled up as motorcycle cleaner and it can be diluted down 1:10 and still work perfectly. I wait for it to go on offer on eBay or Amazon and it costs me well over 10x less per bike wash. I think the last 5l bottle cost me £14 and when diluted down it's 28p a litre and that does two washes. Much better than £7-10 for a single bottle.
They have to cover the cost of all those promotional stands in shops somehow 🙄
Actually visited some bricks and mortar shops last week looking for sealant, first two only had Muc-off which seems to get universally bad reviews. They seemed confused when I politely declined...
Why would you buy muc-off? There’s so many good products out there, why settle for the cleaning and lubrication equivalent of Katie Price?
I think that's being very unfair to Katie Price...
Muc-off's lubricants are the worst performing ever tested by Zero Friction Cycling, so bad they don't even finish the standard test suite as the chains are too worn for the chain wear tool to measure!
I've got a 25l drum of truck wash I got off Freecycle.
Diluted 10:1 it'll still strip the black gunk off a cassette just left to soak and hosed off. Diluted 100:1 it's still enough to loosen and soak off most dirt from a bike before rinsing (or a propper wash).
"Bike cleaner" in general is hugely expensive. I doubt it's high margin though. Shipping a small box of heavy stuff to shops isn't cheap, and I doubt it's a particularly quick seller in shops? Plus it's all marketing which costs money.
I'm surprised shops don't offer a "packaging free" own brand, just dilute some truck wash ~50:1 and charge £1 each time you fill up an old flash kitchen degreaser bottle. The margin probably isn't that far off the pink stuff.
The only time I use muckoff is because people buy the gift boxes of cleaner, and various sprays from the "gifts for cyclists under £10" sections on Amazon.
I thought shops only have muc-off because the shops which sell muc-off aren't allowed to sell anybody elses competing products.
They’ve been advertising an absorbent mat for workshop use on my Facebook page. 50 quid. Doesn’t look a lot different to the Finish Line one I paid ten quid for, and I felt that was a rip off.
They are basically a marketing company selling tat.
Good marketing though and I'm sure it works for LBses who stock their tat.
Most customers ride so few miles that sticking grinding paste on the chain instead of lube, won't make much difference...
I thought shops only have muc-off because the shops which sell muc-off aren’t allowed to sell anybody elses competing products.
I thought we had competition laws to stop that sort of thing...
They screwed LBSs over a few years back when they decided to offer deals to Halfords and the like. Pisspoor product selling a brand now.
I wish Guy Martin pushed his cleaner more, why we ship water for a bike cleaning product is beyond me.
why we ship water for a bike cleaning product is beyond me.
Same argument as SMOL: https://smolproducts.com/pages/sprays
They ship kitchen surface cleaner in tablet form...
I thought shops only have muc-off because the shops which sell muc-off aren’t allowed to sell anybody elses competing products.
I was in Sigma the other day and they had multiple brands on the shelf, including muc-off
@footflaps I'm already on the Smol band wagon, though they make me feel guilty that I don't clean enough as I never need a refill when the subscription comes round.
Also I'm back to soap and shampoo bars.
Squash in tablet form is next to try and find 😀
I’ve got a 25l drum of truck wash I got off Freecycle.
I do something similar. Used neat on a toothbrush it's a great chain cleaner.
It's the same with all this stuff, the smaller the vehicle the more the products cost. I use motorbike fork oil in my lowers - costs a lot less.
This thread has reminded me that I have eco-friendly motorbike filter cleaner for getting the filter oil off sitting in the shed. That stuff would be a pretty powerful degreaser too.
I thought shops only have muc-off because the shops which sell muc-off aren’t allowed to sell anybody elses competing products.
Not true but they will offer good deals to retail buyers who are often bonused on profit made per category, the sort of deal that makes other brands less appealing to sell. Nothing wrong with that, it's how you get space in retailers and the same for many retail products. That and large POS units, etc.
I was watching a YouTube video last night, one of those slightly opinionated lists of 10 things ... hate, (a bike mechanic in this case). He said that Muc-off lubes are awful, and leave a residue that's almost impossible to remove, even in a parts cleaner.
I also like Guy Martin's power approach, but I've found that it gums up the spray triggers and knackers them. I even went with pouring it out of the disolvable pouch before mixing and that didn't really help. Cycling UK recommended Screwfix degreaser diluted for cleaning, neat for chains and drivetrain in the last mag. Think I'll try that next.
I also like Guy Martin’s power approach, but I’ve found that it gums up the spray triggers and knackers them. I even went with pouring it out of the disolvable pouch before mixing and that didn’t really help. Cycling UK recommended Screwfix degreaser diluted for cleaning, neat for chains and drivetrain in the last mag. Think I’ll try that next.
What's the ratio they recommend?
and leave a residue that’s almost impossible to remove, even in a parts cleaner.
That's just down to the choice of solvent, an ultrasonic cleaner doesn't really do much in terms of cleaning, it just moves solvent around.
I use White Spirit, which seems to strip everything off.
What’s the ratio they recommend?
1:1. Link below for the full article, which has quite a lot of good suggestions for economical alternatives to pricy cycling kit.
I use the Fenwicks stuff, have done for a few years and its great.
Cheaper for 11 litres than 1 litre of Mucoff (Which I have never liked since it took the anodising off something a few years ago)
In my research about chain waxing I watched a video by Victor Campenaerts where he shows how he cleans his bike and he just uses washing up liquid. I'm in two minds about how to interpret it - 1) a pro should know how to clean his bike, or 2) if a pro ruins his bike with inappropriate products his sponsor will just give him a new one.
1) a pro should know how to clean his bike,
Being a pro just means he's a genetic freak who likes cycling. Doesn't mean he know anything about bike maintenance...
Plus they just get a new bike every year and don't need to maximise drive chain life etc.
why settle for the cleaning and lubrication equivalent of Katie Price?
Actual LOL.
I watched a video by Victor Campenaerts where he shows how he cleans his bike and he just uses washing up liquid. I’m in two minds about how to interpret it – 1) a pro should know how to clean his bike, or 2) if a pro ruins his bike with inappropriate products
I've just been using washing up liquid for the last five or 10 years and my bikes have remained un-ruined.
Reagarding Muc Off pricing in general: I bet Amaury & Myriam don't come cheap.
I’m in two minds about how to interpret it
I've been using fairy liquid to wash my bikes for 30 years, I've yet to open the shed door to find a pile of rust and salt debris where my bike used to be.
why we ship water for a bike cleaning product is beyond me.
I buy cleaning concentrate then dilute it with Evian.
Well they're doing better with maintenance stuff than they did with components, got to give them that.
They want £27 for a 450g tub. I can get a 500g tin from ECP for £9.29. That makes Muc-Off over three times more expensive, that’s just mental !
I got sworn at and blocked for pointing out that the very expensive bike branded anti seize a well known facebook mechanic was using, and trying to sell through his webshop, was exactly the same as the or so very much cheaper off the shelf stuff from many auto suppliers.
To be told that the it's not the same stuff, it's a special formulation that they make themselves.
Except the actual manufacturer of the stuff occasionally gives away small tubes as samples with the bike branding still on them... Because it's a handy size for a sample, and no one else much asks for such small packages.
I don't mind the performance of muc-off stuff (beyond the cleaner never seeming to be much cop and the wet lube atrocious for catching catching dirt) but also approach it like Planet X. Don't buy unless there's a sale on, because there will be one soon enough.
Yeah, their chamois cream is awesome TBF - but I only buy it 50% off.
Just on the topic of bike stuff being other stuff but expensive - carbon assembly paste? Or lapping paste? Because it looks a lot like lapping paste to me!
chakaping
Yeah, their chamois cream is awesome TBF – but I only buy it 50% off.
If you do have to do full price just do one cheek
Diesel works better on chains. I use about 50ml to clean a whole chain.
I was bought a can of MucOff chain cleaner. It was shite and I used the whole can to clean one chain
I’ve just been using washing up liquid for the last five or 10 years and my bikes have remained un-ruined.
Every so often I'll find a bike part that washing-up liquid hates. The last bit was an anodised fork top-cap which didn't stay anodised for very long. I tend to use clean water for the frame and degreaser for the greasy bits these days.
He said that Muc-off lubes are awful, and leave a residue that’s almost impossible to remove, even in a parts cleaner.
That's my experience this winter, after I thought 'how poor can Muc-Off lube be?'
I hope who ever muc-off employ as head of marketing is getting paid well. They do seem to be all marketing and no substance. Been given their lubes and cleaning products before but I'd never buy them myself - it seems they invent one product to remove another, and repeat.
I gave up on the brand after finding the Muc-off Glue and Sealant remover wouldn't shift the adhesive residue left behind by the Muc-off tubeless tape... which itself wouldn't seal properly.
I gave up on the brand after finding the Muc-off Glue and Sealant remover wouldn’t shift the adhesive residue left behind by the Muc-off tubeless tape… which itself wouldn’t seal properly.
Funny enough I found their sealant didn't seal even the smallest punctures either!
I've had mixed results with Muc-off products.
Luckily I've never had to pay for it or pay much for it.
The rim tape I thought was good, although I agree with voodoo-rich, the gunk remover (or whatever it's called) was awful at removing residue of the tape or even their own sealent.
Tubeless vavles were okay and did the job, came with some handy spares.
Sealent has been OK, I don't like how thick it is as it makes it messy but it's done its job in sealing some punctures. And has gone up and inflated easy enough with my tyre/rim combo but it's by no mean been amazing, has some frustrating time where I've needed to use plugs or a tube for a hole that seems like an easy one to seal, but that can happen with any sealent. I have found Stans the best and is what I use now.
Lubes are god awful though, dry lube last about 45 seconds I'm sure and the wet lube just attracts all the crap.
MO94 is just expensive GT85?
The cleaner is ok enough, but I do like the shine the bike protect stuff leaves.
but I do like the shine the bike protect stuff leaves.
The cheapest, non-beeswax, furniture polish will do the same job. Anything that's full of silicones. Or waterless cleaner/fast detailer from a car shop if you want something slightly overpriced and a bit runnier.
I keep meaning to give actual car wax a go, that or alloy wheel sealent should both do a fair job?