REVIEW: Purple Extreme Golden Degreaser - Industrial Strength

Taking care of your bike is really important if you want to increase its lifespan.

Many parts on a bike get dirty from the rain, dust and durt. However, the degreaser I'm going to review is wonderful for drivetrains mainly. I didn't try it the rest of the bike but I'm sure it'd work as good.

How fast parts less efficient depends on your usage. Personally, I commute 150k a week so I clean the drivetrain every week if it has rained a lot, every two weeks otherwise.
The main components that need cleaning are:

• Chain
• Cassette
• Chainset
• Derailleurs

BEFORE ANYTHING: make sure damp the bike with hot water (not boiled) before applying the degreaser.

The first one is the most important. I usually use a chain degreaser machine and repeat the process twice or more depending the chain state. After the first run, the chain should already be better. The degreaser works so fast, you see the shiny plates going back to their normal grey colors.

The cassette: squirt on the degreaser while pedaling gently then quickly scrub with a tough brush each cog of the cassette. It cleans one side(outside) of the cogs nicely. For the other side (inside), use a rag.

For the rest, mix with water and use a soft brush to clean.

So far, I've used it about 6-8 times (once I cleaned two bikes instead of one) and the bottle is half empty. When you look at the price, quantity available in one bottle and normal usage, the degreaser should last another 2-3 months. So for less than €10 spent over about 5-6 months period, I think it's not too bad.

Overall, this degreaser is the best I've used. I highly recommend it to anyone who need to keep her/his bike in shape. From experience, a chain/cassette last 2000k if you don't take care of it. My commuter chain/cassette has 2000k already and it still looking brand new. But too bad CRC don't sell a 1L container...

Product Description : http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=14885