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Bike shops used to seem to sell white lightning, rock'n'roll, purple extreme, finish line, pedros and an endless supply of other wax/teflon/dark magic lubes... now every single shop (high end, low end, mid end, chain, independant) seems to stock ONLY Muc Off and perhaps the old green finish line as an alternative?
How on earth did they manage to rig that? I was rather partial to some of the rock'n'roll lubes and thought purple extreme was fab once you managed to get your chian and drive grease free enough.
Thoughts?
Dunno, I know they sell in Tesco, where I tend to get mine.
No longer though, I've had it with Wet lube, it's horrible, messy, dirty crap.
I've just ordered some Smoove and hopefully won't look back.
How on earth did they manage to rig that?
You go into the bike shop and offer them a full display rack if they take everything from you and a good price on it all, it's one order from one supplier. Bike shop stocks one set of stuff and has less long drawn out conversations about which brand of lube for....
Great, innit? The Wet Lube is brilliant and I can find it almost anywhere now.
Usually less about the quality of product and more about how easy they can make things for bike shops.
The best performing lube in the world won't make it into many shops if the distributor is a pain in the arse to deal with.
Dry lube is quite messy too - you get a thick waxy dirty deposit. I prefer wet lube, oil the roller only, and wipe off any excess.
Maybe they done a walkers crisps and paid the shops not to stock their main rivals (golden wonder in walkers case). Instant overnight success!
Halfords do the Pure stuff, which I prefer.
But yeah, also Muc Off.
Tell your bike shop.
This actually isn’t new, Fenwicks pulled off much the same trick via Madison a few years ago and drove me away from almost every LBS in the area as the products I wanted were now available only online or out of the area.
If MucOff lubes were actually any good it wouldn’t be so bad, but my experience of them is that they exist only to destroy drive trains and drive sales of cleaning products. YMMV.
Everytime someone recommends Muc Off Wetlube I begin to suspect that some merry prankster had swapped the contents of the bottle I bought with some kind of epoxy. It can be the only explanation for the foul rubbish I ended up with.
That’s pretty much the exactly my experience.
Very worst chain lube I have ever used.
Maybe it works better on Road bikes that don’t get dragged around off road? I assume it must work for someone.
Dry lube is quite messy too – you get a thick waxy dirty deposit.
Yes but at least it stays on unlike other dry lubes.
I've never used Muc Off wet though. Shimano wet for me.
Joe If you liked "purple extreme" try Juice lubes "Viking Juice" great stuff, use all year round road & MTB.
They offered to buy all of the current lube a shop stocked and offered a good deal on a fully stocked muc off display stand iirc. The distributor has changed since then so not sure what current offers are available. We stock Juice Lubes and are happy with it.
"Yes but at least it stays on unlike other dry lubes."
If you only ride 20-30k perhaps. It's shit compared to the whitelightening dry lube I used to use which worked for a few rides before reapllication.i find the mucoff wants reapplying at least every ride if not mid ride on longer rides.wont be buying again
I even find the old "cycle oil" to be longer lasting than muc off dry lube.
Their wet lubes ok when compared to their dry lube but compared to most other wetlubes it's poor.
Lasted 300k of dry dusty riding though.
I think, if you want Muc-Off, you can't sell anyone else's competing products. They buy it all off the shop to 'dispose' of the competition
I have been told by a "reliable source", that being a pro dealer gets you great point of sale, great terms and great margins. All on the condition that you don't stock any other premium brands.
If true, it feels a bit unsportsmanlike, but don't suppose it's any more dodgy than that.
Interesting if true and if you trust your local bike shop to bring you the best kit.
My view is that if their products are that good, they shouldn't need to do it.
They obviously aren't that good and my very small experience of their lube makes me tend to agree with that.
Interesting if true and if you trust your local bike shop to bring you the best kit.
As a mate who was in the trade put it lube is low down on the list of stuff most people care about, those who do will complain you don't have the one "They" think is the best and order it online, others will go, you have lube great I'll get some as the bottle I got 6 months ago is empty.
If you can find something in bricks and mortar LBS that you can make a decent margin on then crack on. It might mean you are there for the other stuff.
They spent a few years selling pink Traffic Film Remover at 1,000,000% markup.
This enabled them to start doing other products at a more competitive trade price than the competition.
Maybe ? 👍
Vincieup - that was Zyro. Madison have never sold Fenwicks.
Decent margin, distributor is easy to deal with, free carriage once a day so easy to keep stock levels, sales reps are pushing it hard.
Its a reasonable business decision.
Generally pandering to everyone's lube tastes becomes a waste of money as you have a huge range with little margin and pay carriage to re stock.
I stock muc off cleaner as people ask for it so it would be silly not to. I dont stock their lube, just bulk buy what I use on my own bike. People buying lube seem to either not care, or want whatever their favourite unicorn juice is, so beyond stocking a reasonable lube it becomes a waste of money. Old school shop it was worth having lots of weird stuff if people would then shop with you and you would make money on other products, now people will generally just buy stuff online, hence no fork stock, wheel stock etc etc.
(in my opinion)
A lot of bike shops are running a lot leaner in order to survive. I think the ones which adapt to the current market will stay, old school shops are dying.
Part of stock decisions can just be looking at an accounting sheet and floor area then making a decision. I think there is a danger of becoming "not a real bike shop", but if you are making money? No point is being a "real" shop, knocking your pan in for very little
Am I right in thinking that Muc Off came from the ashes of X-Lite? Vague memory of the component side of things being wound down to focus on the lub market.
The ceramic wet stuff on bogof is quite good.
If you only ride 20-30k perhaps. It’s shit compared to the whitelightening dry lube I used to use which worked for a few rides before reapllication.
Good grief. The white lightening stuff lasted about half an hour with me before the noise of metal on metal became unbearable! Whereas Muc Off dry lasts about 4-6 hours. And yes, I read the instructions and yes I followed them.
Unless White Lightening has changed in the last seven or eight years I've no idea what you're talking about 🙂
Unless White Lightening has changed in the last seven or eight years I’ve no idea what you’re talking about
and with all of this I have no idea why any shop would stock more than 1 brand.... seems to be a little polarising doesn't it
Meh my experience of using both products for silly long rides.
I ended up carrying the muc off bottle with me in the end as it is so poor at working and I'd not got round to buying more lube I recall sticking it on my chain at least 4 times i remember maybe more during the Cairngorm loop 300 a couple weeks ago just to stop the squeeling of a dry chain.
Whitelightening wet heavy lube is my winter lube of choice though . Just noticed you can still get it online even if my local shops have stopped selling it . That stuff is rock solid dependable hard to shift even with solvents. Just atrCts all manor of dirt and no good if your bikes a show pony as it looks shit in photos. But by god it works in the depths of winter .
That said I also had issues with the much loved on here squirt which was pretty gash if you rode your bike in the rain ime. Didn't get dirty ...but then I found that was mostly because by the time you got to trails it had gone from the chain if it was wet (and I did follow the instructions and let it dry etc)
I wouldn't use it for silly long rides, no. But I still like it for normal ones. Also you need to leave it dry to get it to coat the metal properly and turn waxy - it doesn't last anywhere near as long if you don't do this as you wouldn't be able to on a long ride. And it also stays sticky. It does dry to wax eventually, just takes a lot longer than White Lightening.
Shimano wet lube is runny and light, however it has some magic that sticks to metal because like you say with the WL wet (never used it myself) if I use cleaner and jetwash the chain it's still oily to the touch. But being light doesn't turn to thick black goo everywhere.
Although just had a thought - my LBS stocks WL stuff and aren't there two dry lube variants now?
We don't stock muc-off, smoove & fenwicks here
We used to sell muc-off and other brands
Having worked in the trade most of my life and always using whatever lube happened to be lying in the workshop, I can't say I ever noticed much difference between brands. True there's a difference between wet/dry/wax, but if using wet lube in dry conditions I just put less on. Riding though winter in deep mud/rain nothing is gonna work a miracle, and the grit being constantly thrown onto the chain will make any lube almost worthless anyway.
In answer to the above yes I believe Xlite did stop machining components when they realised that some marketing and a bottle of pink jizz was a much easier way to make a profit. Fair enough. Small quanities of coloured liquid in bottles is where the money is.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Agree with it being pointless stocking all the different brands to try and have everyone's favourite, I'm not in a shop any more but I guess muc off have just made the decision easier for the LBS. </span>
The wet lube is rubbish, everything clings to it. Either Viking or purple extreme
Maybe x-lite became muc-off when they realised there's less outcry when a bottle of lube fails to do its job, compared to a bar-end.
Didn't like the wet (blue top) but really liking the dry (yellow top). Find it lasts just fine. Good on fat bike as it doesn't attract much sand and also easy to clean up with normal chain cleaner.
On special for Aldi bike week as well next week. I'll be getting my winter supply in.
Never used a muc off product. But i can't stand shopping in bike shops. There's never decent choice in anything in bike shops.
Great, innit? The Wet Lube is brilliant and I can find it almost anywhere now.
This. Pink stuff has been the best lube I've found for dealing with our sand/chalk combination in winter. Happily turn out 70 odd miles coated in winter grinding paste. Any others I've found that can do that run much dirtier.
The green stuff does need a little care with application- if the chain has run really dry I find a couple of coats to get the life back up.
The yellow stuff is useless though.
I have been told by a “reliable source”, that being a pro dealer gets you great point of sale, great terms and great margins. All on the condition that you don’t stock any other premium brands.
If true, it feels a bit unsportsmanlike, but don’t suppose it’s any more dodgy than that
It is. It's an illegal and anti competitive practice both under English and EU law.
Rock'n'Roll Blue is the shit. End of.
It is. It’s an illegal and anti competitive practice both under English and EU law.
Is it illegal to offer better terms if you go for exclusivity? Genuine question there?
Just get a big bottle of Scottoiler online and be done with it.
I like their yellow dry lube (the non ceramic one) on road and mtb most of the year. I tried the wet line and it just made my drivetrain really messy. I recently had a £10 voucher for Halfords when I bought a kids balance bike so thought I’d try the muck off ceramic wet line to see if that’s any better. Probably wouldn’t have tried it if it wasn’t free though. The weather is still ok enough for the dry lube at the moment though.
“Viking Juice" sounds like my kinda thang. Ordered.
rOcKeTdOg
We don’t stock muc-off, smoove & fenwicks here
Where's "here"? I need to find a Fenwicks supplier.
Went in Cycle Surgery yesterday to collect something and right opposite the counter is a huge, brightly coloured Muc Off display cabinet. They do make a lot of different fings now don't they. Very magpie attracting packaging too. I didn't buy any though.
Big fan of Smoove here. Have previously used MucOff wet and while it seems to work, it's utterly filthy on the bike.
Use White Lightning "extreme" wet ride lube for wet conditions, but otherwise Smoove all the way.
Arghhhh bollox! I only gone & bought some ceramic dry lube not long ago before all this heatwave. It’s alright but more needs to be applied regularly & seems to be fine but early days and all that...
back to Finishline wet soon anyway 🙄
i like squirt lube as its so clean. But i recently went back to one of those cans of wd40 spray lube.
Quieter chain, better shifting especially under load. but bloody messy.
unsure what to use now.
back to Finishline wet soon anyway
You're having a laugh! 90s lube of choice 😆