Motorex Bike Cleaning Kit review: a complete cleaning kit from Swiss brand Motorex

Motorex has been making lubes and cleaners for pretty much every industry imaginable in Switzerland for a long old time and it's collated the essentials you need to keep your bike clean and squeak-free. 

The ‘dry lube’ is actually a decent all-rounder when compared to the best bike chain lubes. A sponge and cloth aren’t as effective against heavy filth as brushes though, and the high cleaner price affects overall value.  

Motorex Dry Power Lube

The best bit about the package is the Dry Power Lube. The twist nozzle bottle makes it simple to apply and light viscosity means it penetrates well although it doesn’t obviously flush out deep grit like some lubes. We’ve been lucky (if climatically terrified) to have had a very dry winter so far, but even on wet days, Motorex’s mix of synthetic oils and waxes held off the squeak pretty well. In fact, if anything we’d say the slightly tacky, oily residue you get even after wiping picked up more dust and grit than normal on icy/dusty days so we’d peg it as a general lube, not a summer-specific one. $9.89 / £8.99 for 100ml separately is a reasonable price too.

Motorex Bike Clean

The bike cleaner spray comes ready mixed in a trigger spray with an adjustable nozzle to avoid overspray. There’s no flip-over snow foamer option but it gets a bit fizzier in wide mist mode if that’s your thing. Given the very short max ‘leave on’ time of 3 minutes and ‘Do not use in sun/bike must be cold/never let it dry/rinse cautiously’ warnings on the bottle we were expecting a seriously aggressive cleaner.

If anything though it’s less effective than average and unless the dirt is relatively light and super fresh you’re definitely going to need to get the sponge heavily involved to get a reasonably clean result. At $14.25 / £12.99 for just 500ml separately it’s over double the price of competitors.

Motorex Easy Clean Chain Degreaser

Things went better with the Easy Clean degreaser which comes with a wide spray as standard, but it's more accurate to apply with the nozzle head provided. The citrus/boiled sweet-smelling formula obviously gets to work fast too, with black drips falling onto the floor from our test chain before we’d even stopped revolving the chain. It’ll do the same with any other bearings it comes into contact with, so be careful where that nozzle points. 

You’ll still need to get a scrubbing brush involved on a really filthy cassette but when stuff was just dusty or coated with light lube residue a quick wipe with the cloth and then a thorough rinse was fine. Make sure you do rinse it well though as if it dries the dirty residue is pretty tenacious. At $17.49 / £13.99 for 500ml, it's not great value though and we’d rather see a reusable trigger spray than an aerosol.

Sponge and cloth 

What can we really say about a sponge and a cloth? Well they’re both Motorex minty green and the sponge is a good density for holding plenty of water and not tearing apart immediately if it touches a tooth on the transmission. Similarly the cotton cloth is tougher and thicker than just using an old T-shirt. Neither can match a brush of some sort for shifting proper filth or getting into awkward places on suspension linkages/behind chainsets/fork braces etc. though. Cloths and sponges have a much higher chance of holding grit on their surface and scratching stuff too. 

Verdict

Motorex’s bike cleaning kit does an OK job as long as your bike isn’t too dirty, and the Dry Lube is a reasonable all-rounder. If you follow the cleaner usage instructions to the letter they’re very restrictive though and a sponge and cloth are no match for brushes against proper dirt. Charging $12.36 / £9.02 for a sponge, cloth and plastic tube when the contents are expensive already is a bit of an ask too.

Tech Specs: Motorex bike cleaning kit

• Price: $53.99 / £44.99
• Includes: Easy Clean 500 ml chain cleaner, Bike Clean 500 ml bike cleaner, Dry Power 100 ml chain lubricant, Bucket with lid, sponge and cotton cloth