Bike Perfect Verdict
Pricey but superbly designed, durable, practical and eco-thoughtful brush kit for cleaning up every bit of your bike without damaging your paint or knuckles.
Pros
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Excellent brushes for every job
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As paintwork safe as possible
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Reduced cog punch and face spray danger
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Eco handles and packaging
Cons
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Quality design costs more
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There's a wide range of Peaty’s Products lubes, cleaners and tubeless kits, and the brand's ‘Loam Foam’ cleaning products have a great reputation for shifting muck away from bikes. Rather than risk damaging that with an off-the-shelf plastic scrub set, Peaty's has spent two years designing and refining a complete set of really effective, durable brushes that won’t damage your paint or knuckles.
We've been using them on our fleet of mucky bikes and can now attest to whether or not they're worth the wait. Read on to find out what we think of them.
In the meantime if you're planning to give your bike a deep clean this winter, be sure to invest in one of the best bike chain cleaners, and check out our guide on how to clean a mountain bike.
Design and performance
We’ll deal with the brushes individually, but commonalities of the range include waxed beechwood handles with laser-etched logos to minimize plastic use, recycled cardboard header cards, and the brushes are attached with string rather than zip ties. The bristles are synthetic though, as Peaty’s couldn’t find a source of natural bristles that was guaranteed free of animal cruelty. It plans to go fully Post Consumer Recycled (PCR) in terms of bristle sourcing as soon as possible too, although currently, only the Detail Brush uses PCR bristles. Going synthetic also gives the brand complete control over consistent filament sizes and any special finishes needed for each brush.
The charmingly named 'Bog Brush' (for our American readers, 'bog' is British slang for 'toilet'), has 'flagged' tips that give the brush a very fluffy feel at the outer edge. This encourages extra foaming and reduces the chance of scratching too. The deep round-nosed 360-degree bristle arrangement not only holds loads of water so you can get plenty of bike done between bucket dips, it stops the wooden handle banging into the frame. It's also great for getting inside bottle cages or fork crowns, braces and around swingarms if the wheels are out.
The ‘Detail Brush’ also uses a 360-degree bristle arrangement on a stiff but bendable plastic coated (again to reduce scratching) wire core. It’s still narrow enough to poke into the awkward bits in the linkages and labyrinths of suspension or between spokes for cleaning hubs. It also gets a soft cotton tip to stop the wire core from clattering or scratching your delicate bits.
The drivetrain brush is designed to stop you from clattering or scratching your own delicate knuckles on cassette cogs by using an offset handle angle. It works really well for getting in behind chainrings from the offside too, though you need to be careful of the overhanging wooden nose bashing paint if you do that. The stiff bristles are also dual height to naturally guide the chain along the center of the scrub zone and reach into the depths of your rear block too.
The ‘Tire Brush’ is also dual height to reach down onto the side knobs and carcass for a full clean. The broadhead is orientated to be used at a perpendicular angle to the tire so you can spin it and apply the brush without filth flying into your face.
While the brushes are only officially launched today, we’ve had a pre-production set on test for several months. Despite being deliberately abusive - leaving them outside, often drowning in wash buckets, scrubbing extra hard, using them to clean the van/patio/workshop chequer plate floor, etc. - they’ve held up extremely well with only a tiny bit of ‘dreadlocking’ on the tips of the Bog Brush that hasn’t affected function at all.
Verdict
Peaty’s has obviously spent a long time using and refining its brushes before finalizing on a set of scrubbers that really work. While they’re much more expensive than the various generic plastic sets available, they feel a lot nicer and more solid to use, and are proving really durable too. Not worrying about hard handles slamming into or rubbing against precious paint and dodging accidental knuckling and face spray moments makes cleaning much less stressful, faster and more effective too.
Tech Specs: Peaty’s Products Bike Brush set
- Price:
- Full set $48.99 / £34.99
- Bog brush $16.99 / £12.99
- Detail brush $12.99 / £8.99
- Drivetrain brush $12.99 / £8.99
- Tire brush $12.99 £8.99
