There is a multitude of things you should not do to your bike when cleaning it, like washing rotors with a dirty brush / sponge, pads, pressure washing seals or bearings, using incorrect lube after washing. Most of these issues are reversible, however, the all new Pit Stop kit from SRAM gives you everything you should need to clean your bike in 1 compact case, and it even comes with washing instructions.
Click here for info on the Pit Stop cleaning kit...
Cleaning your bike is a never ending chore. Rinse, soap, scrub, rinse, repeat. Lube the necessary parts once you're done washing it up. Recently we picked up one of the
SRAM Pit Stop cleaning kits from
Norco. It features the necessary items for cleaning a bike. Everything from pre-soak, to scrub, to sheen and lube. Ok, so they may not be separate containers, but we did the full meal deal wash, and were very pleased with the final product the Pit Stop Kit provided us with.
The only thing missing from the Pit Stop kit is water, something you should already have at hand if you were planning on washing your bike to begin with. The Pit Stop kit includes 1 Liter of bike cleaner, 500ml of bike protectant, 5 scrubbing brushes, 1 sponge, and 1 bucket to hold water in. Designed around simplicity, the bike cleaner bottle comes with a spray nozzle, that is adjustable from fine mist, to jet stream. It even includes instructions for those of you who are completely new to cleaning your bike. Amongst the 5 scrubbing brushes SRAM has included big, small, fat, round, flat, and even doubled up the 1 scrubber. These scrubbing assistants are made out of plastic, so they are not going to rot, or smell up your cleaning kit.
Tyler in action:The Pit Stop Kit is extremely easy to use. Simply follow the 3 easy steps. Spray on Bike Cleaner, wait 1 or 2 minutes, scrub bike to release any caked on dirt, then use the sponge to wipe, and rinse down the bike to remove all the cleaner, and dirt. The final step, once your bike has been sponge dried, is to spray it down with the protectant. The protectant contains P.T.F.E., or better known as
Polytetrafluoroethylene. PTFE's coefficient of friction is 0.1 or less, which is the second lowest of any known solid material (diamond-like carbon being the first). This extremely low friction rating allows the Bike Protectant to not only leave a nice glossy finish on your bike, but add a slight lubricant to the needed areas. In these applications it performs significantly better than nylon and acetal; it is comparable to ultra high-molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), although UHMWPE is more resistant to wear than Teflon. PTFE was first used on teflon non-stick frying pans, but has been adapted as a lubricant, amongst other things.
The Finished Product
A group effort decided that the first time washing the Ibis with the Pit Stop kit proved to be longer than anticipated, but after you got the steps of washing your bike down with this kit you would be well off to the races. What's really nice, is the fact that it's all in 1 shoe box sized container, that you can sneak under your seat, or deep on the dwells of the trunk. The
SRAM Pit Stop kit carries a MSRP price of $100. If you already have your own scrubbers and sponges, for $37 you can get the cleaning agents directly from your local shop through
Norco in Canada.
Happy trails and clean bikes!
