Non-Bike Products That Are Great For Cycling

Some bike specific stuff is great… some not so much.

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As soon as a product becomes bikesp specific, the price goes up for no real reason. Well, we know the reason. It’s to pay for the marketing. Okay, there’s some stuff that makes sense. Shoes, shorts, jerseys with pockets in the right places. But then there’s base layers, particularly winter ones where you can pay about £80 for a Castelli or Goreware one, or you can go and buy a Peter Storm one for 20 quid. No one’s even going to see it. It’s a base layer. Same for socks, especially winter ones. You got the Woolly Bully, which is a legendary sock to be fair, from Defeat, and they cost 24 quid. Or you can get a fourack for the same price. Non- cycling. It’s a sock that nobody can see, especially if you’re putting over shoes over your shoes, which you probably will be if you’re riding in England. Gloves. You guessed it. You want them to be grippy, warm, especially for off-road stuff. Try googling thermal work wear gloves or freezer gloves. 17 quid. Or you could buy Castelli ones for £80 and they have a scorpion on which, well, it’s a lot of money to pay for a scorpion, isn’t it? There are so many options that come up when you do Google work wear gloves. It’s a little bit overwhelming, but some of the prices are so cheap. You could just go and buy five pairs and see what works. different thicknesses, different grip, what’s going to suit your hands. You can experiment based on all of the above. Now you’re warm and you’ve ridden loads, but that means your bike is basically falling apart and it’s covered in filth. You’re going to have to clean it. So why not with some cycling specific muckoff bike cleaner for just £40 for 5 L or motorbike cleaner for 13 quid or car shampoo for six quid. Bike paint and car paint is pretty much the same thing. So, anything car related usually works quite well and they’re quite a lot cheaper than the bike specific alternatives. Of course, some of these can be quite a strong degaser. So, maybe don’t load them into a pressure washer and then blast them into your bearings, but a sponge brush, bucket of water, and some car shampoo has never failed me. Disc brakes. I would also leave to the end and just use a bit of plain water or some specific cleaner like Finish Line cycling specific disc brake cleaner for £10. Oh, wait, no, no, no. Just get some isopropyl alcohol. Put it on a bit of towel and then rub your disc rotors. Make sure it’s 99.9% pure if you can and you can find this stuff for about 5 quid. Oh, motocross or motorbike products in general are also quite good. So, it might be worth a look if you can find some good deals there. Now your bike is mostly clean, but your chain and cassette are particularly bad and covered in black grease. What you going to do? Well, we need to degrease them. What have we got here? A few different options. Bike specific. 15 quidish for a liter. Some good discounts to be fair. Or some generic degreaser from B andQ. 5 L for 13 quid. If you’re in America, Simple Green I know is very popular, but there’s probably some even cheaper ones. Bit of degreaser on an old piece of tail. Rub the chain through it. Loads of black stuff comes off. Remember to dry your chain and then lube your chain afterwards, probably with some bike specific chain lube. If your skills surpass bike cleaning and you consider yourself a bit of a DIY mechanic, you might occasionally need grease. Grease is basically used on parts of your bike that aren’t supposed to move, but could move under stress and cause creaking. and parts that could get stuck like the threads on the end of your pedals or to help protect against corrosion, moisture, dirt. Lots of good uses handy to have in your home workshop or tool kit or garage or shed. But, okay, we all know the drill by now. Cycling specific one, this much. Automotive grease, this much. You can get a massive tub, which will probably last a lifetime cuz you really don’t need that much. A little goes a long way. and also useful for other applications around the house or your car. Your bike is now spotless, not a creek in earshot. What about you? First up, your shoes are wet. And I should be getting paid by this company cuz I’ve talked about it many times in the past. The Renery shoe dryer. It’s on this list cuz it’s for boots, but it is also amazing for cycling shoes, especially if you live in the UK. Did you know cycling shoes melt when you put them on a radiator that is too hot? I might be speaking from experience here. Um, so this product means you can safely dry your shoes. I put mine in the garage, keep it away cuz it’s smells cuz my shoes smell. That’s not the fault of the product. It has a timer which you can set to whatever. And then it provides a slow stream of mediumly warm air to your cycling shoes so they’re dry as a bone the next day. and it turns itself off. Game changer. There is no cycling alternative here, but I’m surprised. Mukoff, don’t make one. You’re missing a trick here, guys. You could be charging like 200 quid and putting a little sticker on the Do it. Oh, we need to make a Cade Media one. Now, you’ve sorted your bike, you’ve sorted your shoes. How are you fueling your rides? Well, obviously get some carb mix for 45 quid or mix your own for a fraction of the price. I am Chef Jimmy and I have two options for you today. The first I am calling the triple R. That stands for the recreational rider resuscitator. So, we take a bottle. We add 15 g of sugar. We add 1 g of salt, which is 400 mg of sodium and lemon juice to taste. That was actually better than I thought it was going to be. You fill it to the top with water and job is a gooden. So, the triple R will cost you 1.5 for the sugar, 0.8 for the salt, 15 for half a lemon. That’s inflation for you. Making a grand total of 18 p. That is a bargain. Chef Jimmy’s next recipe is called the MPBFP, which obviously stands for max performance bike fast race pants. If you are a bike racer or you just really want to dial in your fueling, this is the one for you. You can buy multidextrin powders from places like myproin.com or bulk powders. It’s basically just sugar, but it dissolves better and the science says it can be absorbed faster by your body. It is the main ingredient in a lot of these cycling specific carb mixes. You will see the term 2:1 glucose fructose mix all over sports nutrition packets. This is a common formula because glucose and fructose which are both simple sugars have different chemical formulas. They are absorbed using different transport mechanisms in your intestine which allows you to absorb more carbohydrate than just consuming glucose alone. Maltodextrin and sugar are both types of glucose. So how do we add some fructose into our drink? Well, it’s a simple answer really. squash, specifically the ones without added sugar. They are high in fructose and add some flavor to your drink. It’s concentrated, so you don’t need that much. For this one specifically, it’s literally a teaspoon. I don’t know how they do it. I don’t want to ask. Now, if you really want to get fancy or hate the taste of salt, you can add electrolyte powder. This can also be found on supplement websites and it’s generally unflavored but contains everything you’ll normally find in an electrolyte tablet like none or LMNT such as potassium, calcium, and magnesium. All things which you will be losing through your sweat and for a fraction of the price. I’m lying running out of breath here. This is optional and all of the ratios can be tweaked. You can even make a pure electrolyte drink if you wanted to, but it can taste pretty rank on its own. No one likes salt water on its own. So, the MPB BFF PRP costs 21 p of malttodextrin, 31 p of electrolytes, 3.5 p of squash, which makes a grand total rounded up to 56 pennies. Finally, remember to measure out everything carefully. Read the packets. Don’t be an idiot. Back to you, Francis. On the topic of nutrition, cycling bars and gels are really good for convenience. They have easy to open packets, and I probably use them on race day, but they are really expensive. Three quid for a gel? What the hell? For everyday riding, I just buy sweets like this 2 1/2 kilo bag of Sour Patch Kids Watermelon Fizzy ones for £13. As long as it’s just pure sugar, I’m happy. Percy Pigs. absolute winner. Haribo, also good if you can get the right flavor. Buy the stuff in bulk, decant them into Ziploc bags, pocket size, and you’re on to a winner. Save loads of money. Job done. And let’s face it, they taste nicer as well. And if you like the food that you’re eating on a bike ride, you’re going to eat more of it, feel better, perform better, feel better the next day. Those are a small selection of things that you can sub in instead of cycling products which are a lot more affordable, better value. Let us know in the comments if you have any more. Thanks for watching. See you guys soon. [Music]