Muc-Off Helmet Care Kit

The Muc-Off Helmet Care Kit includes a selection of the brand's most useful products for cleaning cycle gear – specifically helmets, but it'll also work on clothing and bikes. Overall it's not a bad kit, but some of the products are less effective than others, so you'd be better off buying them individually.

Though the kit is actually aimed at motorcyclists, the contents of the box will help you to clean bicycle helmets, glasses, sunglasses, shoes, gloves, and even your bike.

> Buy now: Muc-Off Helmet Care Kit for £27.99 from Amazon

The kit includes Foam Fresh (400ml), Visor Cleaner (250ml), Premium Anti-Fog Treatment (32ml), a Luxury Microfibre Polishing Cloth, and a Premium Microfibre Detailing Cloth. The bundle is a fair bit cheaper than buying the products separately, at least through Muc-Off, though you might find it just as cheap, if not cheaper, buying them through retailers individually.

Foam Fresh

Muc-Off's Foam Fresh is designed to freshen up your cycling items, such as shoes, gloves or helmet liners. I found this the weakest product of the bunch, for several reasons. For one, I didn't like the excessive level of foam when the trigger was applied, because it doesn't really absorb all that well into the fabric, and because the nozzle is so short it's really hard to get it into tight areas, like the toe box in shoes.

Things are improved if you get a brush or a towel and try to work it into the fabric, preferably spraying the foam onto the applicator first, rather than directly onto the fabric. It's not quite as pretty, but it's certainly more effective, and less wasteful.

The main issue is that Foam Fresh isn't really all that effective. I tested it on a pair of shoes that had been used for about 30 miles in torrential rain. The shoes had developed that particular type of foot funk – you know, the one that smells a bit like cat wee. After several applications the smell remained, though now it had a sort of fake lime accent to it. It does an okay job of general cleaning, in terms of dirt removal, but then again so does a bit of soap and water.

In the interests of experimentation, and since I already had it to hand, I decided to try applying Muc-Off's Anti Odour Spray – I've tested this previously and rated it highly. This near enough removed all the bad smell, so this is the one to go for if you really want to de-funk your riding gear.

Helmet Visor & Goggle Cleaner

This visor cleaner is one of the standout products in the kit. It's a 250ml bottle, which should last you quite some time, and consists of a non-toxic, biodegradable blend of de-ionised water and surfactants designed to lift any dirt away gently.

Spray it on, leave it for a few seconds, and then wipe it away with a microfibre cloth. The solution flashes off pretty quickly, leaving no residue, and the cleaning power is impressive – it removed dead bugs from my motorcycle helmet easily, and oily smudges from my prescription glasses and cycling sunglasses.

Premium Anti-Fog Treatment

This product impressed me only slightly more than the Foam Fresh – which is to say, not a lot. The actual performance of the product is pretty good when it's active, but it's not only hard to apply without smearing, it doesn't last for long.

I tested it on my prescription glasses, which are the only ones I own that don't have a specialist coating that I figured would probably interfere with the application of the product. Applying the coating involves first cleaning the area you're applying it to – I did this with the aforementioned visor cleaner, so I knew it was good to go. Then, you shake the bottle and spray it on lightly, gently wiping it dry with some paper tissue. This is all pretty straightforward, but the treatment left a horrible smeary layer on my glasses, which I struggled to remove. Although Muc-Off recommends not to, I applied the solution then wiped it off with a microfibre cloth, which worked much better.

The anti-fog treatment works pretty well, admittedly, though it doesn't seem to last very long. I got about a day, maybe two at most, from it after application. Muc-Off says it should last up to five days, so it fell a little short of that. It's possible I could eke out a day extra if I left my glasses alone, but I find that after a day's use the glasses need a bit of water and a wipe to get rid of any dirt or oil. Given that Muc-Off says the formula repels water, I figured it wouldn't remove the treatment.

Luxury Microfibre Polishing Cloth

This cloth is, as the name suggests, pretty thick and luxurious. It also feels like it's constructed to a high standard. It's probably one of the nicer microfibre towels I've tried before (and I've tried a few in the past). It works for just about any task, whether that's polishing your paint, cleaning your helmet, or drying your bike, though personally I wouldn't clean my chain with it, as per Muc-Off's product page. It's pretty pricey.

Muc-Off says that the towel features split-fibre technology (which literally means splitting the fibres during the production process), helping to increase absorbency – although to my knowledge all microfibre towels are split fibre (feel free to correct my in the comments). It's also very soft, and makes easy work of cleaning or polishing. The deep pile and numerous fibres help to trap dirt particles and keep it away from your paint, to reduce the chance of scratches or swirl marks. I certainly had no issues, but then I'm very careful when cleaning my bikes anyway.

As with all microfibre towels, the Luxury Microfibre Polishing Cloth can be machine washed to keep it going for a long time.

Premium Microfibre Detailing Cloth

The smallest product in the box, this Premium Microfibre Detailing Cloth is very different to the Luxury Microfibre Polishing Cloth. It's incredibly soft, almost silk-like. The fibres are very short and very dense. The overall size is quite small, which makes it useful for taking on the move. It's designed to clean glasses, visors or screens (if you ride a motorcycle).

I actually got one of these cloths many years ago when I bought a small bottle of Muc-Off's Helmet Visor & Goggle Cleaner. I was impressed then with its performance, and I'm just as impressed now. It's perfect for cleaning glasses, leaving no residue behind, and it doesn't cause any scratches either.

If you go gravel riding or mountain biking, one of these cloths with a small bottle of the visor cleaner is ideal to keep your glasses or sunglasses clean after a long day's ride.

Value

If you were to buy all the items individually, it would set you back £44.50, so the complete kit here represents nearly £15 saved, which is pretty good value. Of course, you can buy those items elsewhere online for less – I found the Premium Anti-Fog Treatment for less than a fiver on Amazon, for example. The cheapest I could find the Helmet Care Kit was £24.99 on Amazon (though it's £27.99 now), so you might find it less expensive to buy the items individually.

The only thing about the kit that I would choose to change is the Foam Fresh – I'd go for the previously mentioned Muc-Off Anti Odour Spray instead, as this is far more effective. Alternatively, 2Toms Stink Free Shoe and Gear Spray was well rated by Shaun a few years ago.

> Read more road.cc reviews of cleaning products here

There are a few similar helmet care kits out there designed for motorcycles (none of which we've reviewed, funnily enough). Although I've no experience with the Oxford Mint Helmet Care Kit, it contains similar products for £19.99, while the Shift-It Complete Helmet Care Kit is £17.99, but the cloth is pretty poor by comparison. Neither of these alternatives include a dedicated glasses cleaner, either.

Conclusion

The kit is better value than buying the products separately on the Muc-Off site, although you can pick and choose the items individually elsewhere online and still save as much, if not more. Given that the Foam Fresh product, in particular, isn't all that great, that would be my preference.

Verdict

Decent value kit for caring for your helmet or glasses, but some of the products are better than others