Crankalicious Kwipe Gumchained Remedy Chain Cleaner sachet

The Crankalicious Kwipe (Quick Wipe) Gumchained Remedy Chain Cleaner sachets are, as their name suggests, pocket sized wipes impregnated with solvent. They could be used around the workshop – if you had money to burn – but they're primarily intended for cleaning chains and other drivetrain components mid tour or during an endurance ride.

Like most convenience products, they're not the cheapest option and not something I'd use for general transmission cleaning. However, they're easy to use and will cheer up a dirty drivetrain with minimal effort.

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Each sachet contains a single surprisingly sturdy mesh wipe, which is generously saturated in 15ml of Gumchained Remedy. This is a petrochemical-based degreaser designed to soak deep into the links, stripping lube and contaminant.

Crankalicious declined to reveal specifics, but tells me they cook up their products in house using raw chemical ingredients. Ideally, you'd be able to wash your hands after use, but this isn't always an option on the road.

In the interests of investigative journalism, I used one to clean my hands, following a tube-killing rear wheel puncture, and then purged the chain, jockey wheels and mech of congealed wet lube.

The wipes did leave my hands feeling parched, so packing a pair of latex gloves is shrewd, especially if you have sensitive skin, minor cuts, or are prone to dermatitis. Avoid contact with your eyes until you've washed hands thoroughly. Dispose of the spent wipe and wrapper carefully too, since ingredients are hazardous to aquatic life – no worse than other petrochemical derived products, mind.

Performance

Public safety broadcast done with, these really couldn't be simpler to use. Tear off the top, pull out the wipe and wrap it around your chain, while turning the cranks backwards. Give derailleur jockey wheels, cages and cassette a quick cat-lick while you're there.

The wipes make short work of most lubes, although to some extent, ingrained contaminant can stunt their virility.

Traditional three-seasons blends such as Btwin lubricant and its more tenacious synthetic cousin were consumed in pretty much one hit, albeit with a quick secondary chasing of outer plates and jockey wheels.

The perforated fabric is surprisingly durable too, resisting some fairly intense scrubbing without wearing through, or ripping. I've managed two moderately spoiled chains, jockey wheels and cassettes using a single wipe.

Space age ceramics and really colicky chains needed a more thorough scrub, but we're still talking two minutes, start to finish.

Crankalicious recommends wiping the chain with a rag afterwards, but during typical summer temperatures the solvent evaporates within a few minutes. Then, so long as your chosen chain juice doesn't have a curing time, apply and scoot off. There wasn't any dilution of freshly applied chain lubes, regardless of their type/origin.

From the comfort of home, tending my relatively clean Univega, a single wipe stripped the chain, cassette, cassette body, rear mech and Green Oil eco-grease from the pedal threads.

Although, obviously, I'd start at the chain first, the fibres absorb and also seemed to retain the lubricant, so cross contamination was, to my surprise, minimal.

Value

At 85p each, five for £4, or a box of 20 for £15, on paper at least they're relatively expensive. Syphoning some white spirit into an empty 50ml hand sanitiser type bottle with screw top lid and carrying a scrap of rag is an obvious, low-cost alternative, and one that I've often used, placing it and some chain lube in one re-sealable freezer bag, clean rag in another.

Nonetheless, the Crankalicious wipes are extremely convenient and could prove a godsend should you need to strip and re-lube chains or other components in the middle of a big ride or tour.

Verdict

Convenient and very effective wipes but expensive compared with the alternatives