Gear Reviews: SRAM's Ultimate Bike Cleaning Kit

As a bike rider and owner I know the importance of bike maintenance. I always make sure my mountain bike is in top shape before venturing out on a trail or even down our local country roads. I always carry a quick fix kit on the bike when I am out. At home I have quite an array of tools and chemicals to choose from for bike maintenance. A fellow biker had a bike maintenance kit that was given to him as a gift. It was a SRAM's Ultimate Bike Cleaning Kit. Out of curiosity I asked him to bring it over to my house so I could take a look at why they called it "ultimate."

The SRAM's Ultimate Bike Cleaning Kit contained:
A storage tub with lid (for cleaning your chain)
Four "bike" brushes
1 liter of Pitstop Bike Cleaner
500 milliliters of Pitstop Bike Protectant

It didn't look "ultimate" to me. I asked him if he knew the price of the kit. He didn't know so we went to the Web and looked it up. The suggested retail price we found was $54.95. I checked the SRAM Web site to find out more about the chemicals. I couldn't find much information about the two bottles except that the price of the protectant is $15 and purchased separately. I know that some of the products on the SRAM site were listed as biodegradable but so is water and alcohol.

At $54.95 I found the "kit" to be grossly over priced. Most of my bike chemicals for cleaning can be found in the motorcycle section of any auto parts store and at a much lower price than $15 a bottle. The brushes I use are from the dollar store for a pack of four and if they get destroyed in the cleaning process I toss them. I would be worried about destroying one of those expensive brushes in the kit.

My opinion of the SRAM Ultimate Bike Cleaning Kit is that it would make a great gift for a biking enthusiast, especially one who enjoys bike maintenance. It would not be one of those items you would buy for yourself because of the price.