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review
Cleaning products
Motorex Bike CleanMotorex Bike Clean

Motorex Bike Clean

7
by David Arthur @davearthur
UPDATED Thu, Oct 15, 2015 04:24

First Published Sep 14, 2013

0
£7.99

VERDICT:

7
10
Easy to apply and ideal for keeping your bike clean. No so good on stubborn oil and grease though.
Weight: 
500g
Contact: 
www.raleigh.co.uk
How we test

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Motorex Bike Clean does a good job of cutting through the grime that can attach itself to your bike when riding at this time of year, when the the roads are wet and coated in all sorts of unsavoury muck.

Yes you can use washing up liquid to clean your bike when it's dirty, but conventional wisdom says the salt content is an issue. We've not tasted it to find out, but to be safe we're going to stick with specific bike clean, designed for the purpose.

Motorex Bike Clean is a biodegradable cleaner free of nasty solvents, yet still has the necessary muscle to whip your bike back to showroom condition with a generous dousing. The spray nozzle makes it easy to direct the spray and get a good covering over the important mechanical components, spreading it evenly around.

Motorex specify you wait five minutes after application to allow it to marinade the mud and grime, before you can get scrubbing with your chosen weapon. It works reasonably effectively, restoring parts like the frame, fork and wheels to a good shine. On a sticky oily chain and drivetrain it can struggle, especially if you've left the chain to accumulate weeks or more of lube and road muck.

For such jobs you'll need a heavy duty degreaser, but for all general cleaning jobs the Motorex Bike Clean does the job. And it's kind to the environment too.

The spray bottle is only available in 500ml sizes, but you can buy fluid bottles in 1, 5 and 25 litre sizes.

Verdict

Easy to apply and ideal for keeping your bike clean. No so good on stubborn oil and grease though.

road.cc test report

Make and model: Motorex Bike Clean

Size tested: 500ml

Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

Biodegradable bicycle cleaner

Highly effective, solvent-free gel cleaner especially for very dirty bicycles. MOTOREX BIKE CLEAN quickly loosens and removes mud, soil, dust, etc. Leaves no greasy residue and does not affect brake action.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Application

Remove large clods. Spray cleaner over entire bicycle. Allow 5 minutes to penetrate, then rinse with water.

Rate the product for performance:
 
7/10

Does what it says on the bottle, easy to use and apply. Lacks oomph to bring a shine back to a very dirty drivetrain though, but for general and frequent cleaning it does the job.

Rate the product for value:
 
8/10

The 500ml bottle is well-priced and goes a long way, and larger fluid bottles are available if you love cleaning, or have a large fleet of bikes to look after.

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

Did the job well.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

Easy to apply. Brings a nice shine to the frame and fork.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

Lacks penetration on a greased up drivetrain.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes.

Would you consider buying the product? Yes.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes.

Overall rating: 7/10

About the tester

Age: 31  Height: 180  Weight: 67

I usually ride:   My best bike is:

I've been riding for: 10-20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: road racing, time trialling, cyclo cross, commuting, touring, mtb,

 

Motorex Bike Clean
David Arthur @davearthur

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes. 

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