Any chance of some before and after pics rone?

I will give a proper workout Friday a should be muddy. Will get pics.

Was good on the jockey wheels.

Thanks rone, really interested to see the results.

Not been able to photo properly got back in the dark so bear with me.

I really want to like it, but it seems to cost a fortune and looks like something you’d make on Blue Peter.

Was it effective on your actually muddy bike, rather than their ‘slightly dirty but still wet’ one?

I’ve done it twice now.

I rode for 35 miles yesterday in an average covering of mud. It dried on as I left my bike at work. It had no problems getting this off. Maybe days of mud wouldn’t be great – but that’s hard with a regular hose.

The blasting power is quite good. If you’re not careful you get through the water tank quick and the detergent.

It’s a different kind of cleaning, rather than being sopping wet and physically touching things you’re blowing things off.

I’ve got a slight issue: mine machine was cosmetically damaged upon delivery so it’s being picked up Monday and having the main cover replaced.

I would say it’s not quite as good as spending 30-60 mins using lots of brushes and cleaning detergent but you can do it in 5-10 mins and have a dry 95% clean bike. You get the odd bit of surface muck you’ve forgot. But it gets rid of the really awkward stuff you can’t get a brush in.

I’m really liking it. I’ve not used any sort of brush with it yet at all.

It is a bit home made in a good way and it’s not cheap but I think they’re made to order, so probably a few man hours and scales economics mean it’s not going to be far east cheap. But good back up. I like being able to talk to guy who built it.

Will report more when I get my cover
replaced.

Thanks rone, look forward to the updates.
Might be tempted by one of these instead of a pressure washer.

seems to cost a fortune and looks like something you’d make on Blue Peter

Perfect for the STW crowd then….. they should sell like hot-cakes on here

We’re hoping to get one in to test here too soon – after another cycling editor was RAVING about it to me recently. He’s gone out and bought one for himself.

I forgot to add – I only ride a mountain bike and I only commute off-road to work. So I need to clean my bike a lot. This winter has been hard work.

A good cleaning system keeps things tip-top.

The device has gone off to have the front case replaced (broke in transit). Hopefully have it back later in the week and will see if I can knock up a film/photo.

I be interested to hear how it compares to a pressure washer. I’m always disappointed with the result of pressure washing – it gets the big stuff off, but it usually find that it needs a sponge or brush to get it actually clean.

I wonder if this would work well in combination with the Scottoiler Ultimate Bike Solution stuff?

I would never put anything that uses pressurised water or air near a bike.

A bucket or a dribbling garden hose on the rare occasions that my bike gets washed instead of wiped. Strangely my bearings seem to last forever…

One thing I do though is to strip the bike when new and apply a good coating of a quality car polish on the frame etc, and repeat each year. It seems to help it stay cleaner.

At last: Sorry about the above – linking google photos is a pain now.

So my thoughts are:

PROS:

A very handy of way of cleaning bike – you don’t really need a brush to clean things. Pretty much all-in-one.

The Pressure is enough to blast muck away from areas that you can’t get to – this is a real boon. Problem areas such as where the hub and disc connect, around the fork etc.

The drying is fantastic.

Flexibility is great too: You can use very diluted detergent if you want to. After all the system is blasting air rather than agitating. The downside is it’s easy to blast through lots of detergent! So I dilute right down.

If the bike is really dirty – it’s no real problem – it will just take longer. I still estimate it’s probably twice as quick as conventional.

It blows muck away from jockey wheels etc. (You’d probably still need to de-grease every now and again.)

Hardly any water compared to hose or pressure washer.

Chances of scratching bike are minimised as you’re not touching it.

You can use a lot less detergent if you’re careful – (if you wanted to just use water and spray detergent on you could.)

CONS: For very dirty bikes you use way more water than it can carry on board. Hence I just had bucket connected to the hose. It still only used half the bucket though!

It’s noisy. It is after all 1600W of reverse hoover!!

I would love the industrial version as it’s got 6.5litres on board. But it jumps up in price.

If you’re an advocate of not bothering to wash your bike in the first place I’m still not sure whether this would cut it, as there’s still a small amount of hassle plugging it in. Much less than a pressure washer.

You have to develop a bit of technique making sure you blow downwards so the stray muck gets blasted off or you will get the odd bit of dried on dust.

Before:

After:

I only ride off-road and through all the winter so this is just the kind of solution I’m looking for. It could be developed perhaps to hold a bit more water.

I think this is a great product – for those that are bothered about cleaning. For me time is of the essence as I’ve always got two bikes to do and anything that saves time and keeps the bikes running and looking good is worth the cash.

Looks good, thanks Rone.

Thanks for the update. I’m really interested in this and very tempted myself.

It works great on winter shoes and helmets etc too.

Actually states that it uses high pressures air, a small amount of water and detergent… So its not really cleaning just “by air” is it, if anything it’s possibly worse than a using a jet washer…

But I like the idea of cleaning the bike up with air, I have got an oil free compressor, never thought to use it for blasting muck off, might fit a nozzle and try it now…

The air forces the muck out of position. You see this happening when you don’t turn on the water. The water effectively loosens the dirt up and rinses rather than forcing itself into gaps.

Your compressor will work to an extent but is not high volume enough.

It’s certainly a lot better than a jet wash both in performance, and by not being very high pressure via a narrow nozzle to cause issue.

Any updates on this? Anyone else tried one? Did the mag get one to test?

It appears I’m the only one daft enough to shell out 😉

Still using mine, and it’s still the best way of cleaning. I’ve bought out the bucket once or twice for getting the big mud off just because you would use loads of water on the cleanbyair .

I actually think it’s biggest downside is the noise. It’s probably the loudest thing I own. I’ve played with different ways of cleaning and like to dilute up the detergent as it gets through a lot of that.

You could almost just load up two tanks of water and spray detergent on instead. It still cleans and dries great though.

It’s irritating me having to get an extension out so thinking of extending it’s own kettle lead to 15m next.

Used it most of the winter. The drying element is a godsend.

Very positive review over at bike radar here.

Bit gimmicky for me, a little while ago my friendly almost local LBS suggested using a wet wax (something like turtle wax wet and dry) for cleaning. Works really well as it builds up a nice protective layer on your bike and gives it a good shine. Also means that any mud more or less falls off. Also doesn’t wreck your disks if you get a bit exuberant as the wax stays on the surface and can be wiped off. Acts as a chain lube too.

…wax…discs

No. Bad idea.