Reverence: Pedro’s Bike Lust
I met a nice character a few weeks ago on a magnificent ride through the Bay Area. He rode a Colnago C-50 which was so filthy that I was unable to ascertain with any degree of certainty what color it was painted. I spent most of the ride suppressing the impulse to lead him and his bike through a local car wash. As it turns out, he’s based out of Asia, and the monsoon which is in full swing has the effect of turning white bikes black on the roads surrounding his adopted home of Hong Kong, which I always thought was an ape but apparently is also a city.
I’m what some people might call “obsessive” about keeping my bike clean. Even my Nine Bike gets a thorough washing if not after each ride, then at least after every other. A clean bike is easier to maintain, shifts more precisely, brakes better (if for some reason you want to go less fast), and the components wear more slowly. Not to mention that a clean bike is a beautiful bike. The secret to being able to clean your bikes often is a fifteen minute cleaning routine which I’ll detail another time. For now, lets leave it at having the right brushes and tools in place to quickly and easily get into all the hard-to-reach areas on a bike.
For many years, I assumed I had reached the high water mark in bike cleaning. Ego, it would seem, infects us all at one time or another. To quick I was to believe that cleanliness is godliness. There I sat, lonely upon my high horse of pride and arrogance, until my friend Charlie on Maui introduced me to a product called Pedro’s Bike Lust. And just like that, I was sent back to Earth in the knowledge that I still had much to learn.
This stuff is incredible; it sprays onto carbon, steel, aluminum, or rubber. It cleans and wipes off without leaving any residue. A little bit of rubbing and it brings out an as-new polished finish, covering and filling small scratches – it even diminishes the big scratches caused when, hypothetically speaking, your bike is blown over in the wind on Mount Saint Helens and scrapes along some jagged volcanic rocks. Hypothetically. I also spray it liberally on my saddle, which makes it very slippy and good for sliding forward and back as-needed for crushing fools.
At this point, I’m a complete junkie; I can hardly resist a little bump before each ride, just to get my head right and make my bike gleam beneath me as I set out on my ride. The only downside is the silicone-covered surface makes it harder for grit and mud to stick to the frame and show off how hard core your Rule #9 ride was.
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@Frank – pop a look at your email and see if we can’t help satisfy another lust to looking good.
WD-40 bike protectant or PAM door USPS team mech late 90’s compliance is my choice of sealer!
I’m teaching my bike a good life lesson by not cleaning the bitch
@CSD
Say what?
@chipomarc
How does that work if she then lets you down? So you then give her a harder life lesson? Sounds like a downward spiral to me.
Yup, couldn’t agree more. A clean bike is a happy bike is a happy cyclist. And, if you just give it a quick cleaning ridely or bi-ridely, it makes the job quick and easy.
After seeing people burden a nice racing machine with an EPMS, the second most senseless thing I see folks do is ride around on a filthy bicycle. It’s a head-scratcher for me.
I’ve almost wanted to take back a good deed before when stopping to help someone with a puncture or a mechanical. Oh, I can show you how to swap a tube, since you didn’t actually know there was an inner tube inside that tire…Oh, and now my hands are covered with four years of rim muck and I gotta grab my white bar tape for the next two hours. Thank you!
A work colleague who lives in my building used to give me a ribbing about “babying my bike” when he sees me cleaning and tuning them. Then he had a bunch of mechanicals with his commuter (MTB which never sees the dirt). What? RD not shifting right? I wonder…Cause and effect, buddy.
“Pride comes before the fall.” That better damn well stay a metaphor.
Bike lust is awesome, it just looks funny listed on the receipt (like you would have to pay for something that comes natural).
Out of interest I had a wee keek on Amazon to see how much this stuff costs…er… 36 squigglies ? At that price I would hope it gives you an extra 20 watts as well.
@strathlubnaig
There are two other sellers who’d like £87. No mentions of watts, though.
Despite regular cleaning, my Cannondale has done a few thousand kilometers on a trailer and seen the inside of a bike bag enough times that it’s lost it’s as new lustre. Baby wipes do a great job of keeping it spick and span at a fraction of the cost.
The fault is in the brand fixation, not the ritual. That should be a rule, or a logical extension of Rule #26. Nothing finer than dropping the youngins on a climb astride the old C-40, shiny and clean (Turtle Wax “Ice”). “Dude, is that a new bike…..” Keep it off the helmet and there will be substantial compliance with Rule #9.
@Chris
Not quite sure what you guys are on about when a 16oz spray bottle costs $10. Maybe I should start my own export company. Frank is right though, it’s the dogs bollocks!
Bike lust is a beauty. Easy to apply, much easier than taking all the components off the frame and putting paste wax on it. And it keeps the sweat/sunscreen off the frame too, or at least helps keep it clean.
A friend was warned not to use a silicone polish on his motorcycle seat, one good twist of the throttle and he might not be on the bike when it left the station.
I’ve got an issue down this line of buyer regret.
Since moving to a “raw carbon” bike the finish always looks that bit off. Seeing all the carbon joins just makes the bike look a bit less polished all the time, and it never feels satisfying to clean it. I should have lost the weight off the motor and kept a nicer paint job.
I’ve yet to see said product on shelves about the LBS, but Mr Sheen has keep the luster lusting and the bugs, um… offing for many many years. Great for that quick clean mid week, and to bring up the luster after the weekend degrease/wash/lube full hurrah.
As to to baby wipes, maybe I am buying the wrong ones but they won’t shift any wayward grease/lube which stands to reason since after three babies raised in my house, none yet have had to be de-greased.
I’ve always thought about stripping my bike down and giving it a dose of 303 aerospace protectant, but I never have as I don’t know if it’d work or if it’s any good.
My BMC has white chainstays… now that’s a fucking design flaw. Upon cleaning my bike on Sunday I found that these just stay a grimy-version of their former selves. Super frustrating.
@Gianni
I armour-alled my dad’s BMW one day. It looked fucking fantastic, all shiny and so on.
He said he took it through a corner and almost fell off. He appreciated my effort but asked me never to do that again. Nicest he ever was about me doing something that almost killed him. So far anyway.
Maybe this stuff will be the product that finally keeps the bugs off during mating season. apparently the mere sight of #1 gets them all hot and bothered. ends up looking like the front grill of my car after I drove across the country.
Last summer I took delivery of a custom bike. Before I built it up I rubbed it down with several coats of this stuff. I was very glad to have done so when, on my second after the build, I found one of my regular roads had a fresh coat of asphalt on it. I cringed at the thought of my tires throwing countless small globules of tar onto the fresh paint, but then remembered the Pedro’s. I should mention that the chief color of the downtube is pearl white. I risked the road, and when I got home, wiped the few bits of black gunk off with a rag. They came right off without even streaking. Fantastic stuff.
Meguires car cleaner not bad either
@Chris @Strathlubnaig Presumably Pedro doesn’t have a UK distributor. Try Muc Off, who also do a silicone spray which is available in the UK for a tenner.
I agree with Rick – the brand fixation is not helpful, though it is frequently seen on these pages.
When I’ve used polish I’ve tended to spray it onto a clean rag then use that on the bike. Always been a bit paranoid about braking surfaces.
@ChrisO
Mer is another good cleaner/polish. @ChrisO yep you can find Pedros in the UK.
I think the word fixation is a little harsh, you get a product that works and you want to share it. +1 on the ritual, I look forward to sunny days when not riding, in garden, cleaning bike with a cold beer. Not cleaning with beer obviously.
@ChrisO Just messing there, I’m sure it’s available in some of the local bikes shops.
I’ve used the aerosol version of the Muc Off spray in the past on my mountain bike but that was before I’d found the One True Way and wouldn’t always clean the thing when it got mucky.
I should probably see if I’ve still got some in the garage as it would seem that we’ve had our allocation of nice weather this year and it’s going to be predominantly Rule #9 for the rest of the summer.
Admit it, Frank: you’d have bought the stuff anyway, regardless of how well it performed, just because of the name. (I must admit that it makes the VeloForma look mighty fine though – as if that thing needed to look any more gorgeous, FFS…)
Nice touch in the first photo, by the way, with the shiny bike in the background, gleaming spokes and all. Cool pic.
Thanks for the write up – I’d heard of the stuff, but not heard from anyone who had actually used it. Unscented baby wipes are my go to for a post ride quick clean, with a full wash followed by an application of Eagle One Nanowax the more involved cleaning scenario. I’ll have to give the Bike Lust a try.
The stuff is similar to what Moots riders have used for years. Lemon Pledge. Same silicon oil component. Almost smells as good too.
I swear by Purple Harry products
I use Pledge wipes after a washing and in between washings. Lays down some wax to make cleaning easier, is pretty good at getting off road grime and grease off, even the white parts, and keeps the bike looking good. I’ll check out Bike Lust.
@strathlubnaig
I don’t know what a squiggle is, but apparently its about $0.50 US?
@Chris
Its called Bike Lust for a reason; my R3 was in the same state when I first used it and it was head and shoulders above all else I’d ever tried, including baby wipes. The little shallow scratches disappear.
@Steve G
The Pedros stuff also cleans in addition to shining. It’s worth a shot anyway. I did have white cables for a while (not a design flaw as much as a thinking flaw) and the Bike Lust did clean them up nicely. But white chain stays…yikes.
@Owen
Where do you live, in the biblical middle east? I need to hear more about this bug infestation.
@Rhodri
Good point, I have sprayed it on the brake surface with abandon and the first stop is a hair-raiser although after that its gone and everything works as intended.
@Chris
Just say “No” to aerosols, we’d like to keep being able to ride outside, n’est pas?
@Roobar
That would be most disappointing.
@ErikdR
Well, it certainly made me more willing to spray it on my bike when Charlie showed me the bottle!
Sharp eye. Love how it looks in Cobble Crushing Mode. Can’t wait for next Spring!
@VeloVita
Does that leave any residue? The great thing about this stuff is you can put it on everything without worry.
@David B, @Steve-o
I’ve not bought a Pledge product ever since seeing an episode of Antiques Road Show where the prunish guy said, “This dresser is worth $5,600 but you ruined it by spraying lemon Pledge on it.” The facial expressions were priceless.
@frank
Eek. I’m from a more mountain bikey background and people won’t even touch disk rotors for fear of getting something on them. If nothing else they squeal horribly. But that said I was never as careful with rim brakes and never noticed.
Come to think of it the disks on my cx-but-used-as-a-winter-road-bike seem far more prone to it with all the crap off the roads rather than the lovely cleansing exfoliating mud of off-road.
I use a commercial silicone polish (we had a million cans at work and were looking for a new home for some) and it works great. I do spray on a clean cloth first though.
I’d feel ashamed to ride a bike that was filthy and not working properly. I ride mostly by myself and if I ever went out with a filthy bike, that would be the ride that you meet up with other riders. They would take one look at the shit-encrusted bike and make scornful judgements. Considering I have Velominati decals on bikes 1-5, a filthy bike is not permissable. The only exception is if you AND the bike are covered in shite. That means you’ve been Rule #5-ing.
@frank
I remember an episode (I think it actually was in Seattle) and this snob had brought a lovely dresser into the venue to show off. He snootily declared that he had paid someone – a student I think – a couple of hundred bucks to “take off the ugly finish/color.” That couple of hundred $$ cost him about $50k in value as it was the original patina/finish. The facial expression was indeed priceless . . .
Lemon. Pledge.
Speaking of Spring, I incorporated the first cobble sector of the Seattle Ronde into my ride yesterday. Think I will keep doing that…
World is small, I’m using it since ages!
Frank,
Bought the “Lust” purely based on this article, so I hope you didn’t sell out to Pedro’s and write this to collect a check.
The “Lust” was applied, but since Bike Number One was (and always is) already brought to a brilliant shine, I have yet to notice a distinct difference. I’ll wait until I bring it out in the sun and after a ride to determine how well the product actually works.
But, cleaners are like bikes, you should always have n+1.
@frank
Arizona highlands. There are times when you’d swear you were in Egypt when Moses was causing a hubbub. I know all the spots on my routes in which I need to breathe through my nose for a bit to avoid extra protein going down the pipes.
@Owen
Not sure if this has been touched upon in previous articles but the unintentional consumption of flying things remains that most unpleasant of occupational hazards for our ilk.
That said a petite lapin recently tried to dissect himself beneath my wheels at speed. Eating a bug or two certainly is less stressful (Merckx I hope none were mating though) .
A wipe down Pledge or Endust will keep your ride looking pretty sweet too. Plus they are far less costly…
@Ccos
Decapitated a mouse once. Thank Merckx the bladed spokes made it quick for the little guy.
@Pedale.Forchetta
This only tells me we were meant to meet each other many years ago!
@Nik
I’ll be impressed when you start including the LAST cobbled secteur of the Seattle Ronde in your daily rides…
@Brian
This always scares me. We don’t get paid for this shit, Pedros didn’t give me their product, and we’ve never done a “Reverence” on a product we didn’t buy (although in some cases we’ve been given the product after writing the Reverence.) We have an internal Keeper Regulation that no product is to be Reverence’d after less than 6 months’ use or ideally a year or more. The Reverence series is supposed to be about the products we use that we love, the little things that we keep reaching for over and over, rational or otherwise.
It honestly never occurred to us, when we started, that people would actually buy the shit we talk about. But we know at this stage it happens and we try not to let that keep us from speaking our minds about what we love like we used to. I hope you wind up loving it as much as I do, but if not, also know I didn’t gain a moticum from you taking the advice from an idiot on the internet!
That said, I think the effect is best in full sunlight and on black materials!