It’s been a few years now since we first sampled UK based Juice Lubes’ excellent Fork Juice, a silicon based suspension lubricant, and since then Juice Lubes have gradually increased their range, to the point where they now how pretty much every base covered when it comes to cleaning and lubricating your bike. We’ve been impressed with every product of theirs that we’ve tried, and the fact that the vast majority of them are also made right here in the UK is the icing on the cake.
Anyway, here’s what they’ve now got to offer…
Their Dirt Juice bike cleaner/degreaser is available in two flavours; less gnarl, and super gnarl. The first is their take on your classic kind of Muc-Off bike cleaner, and it works a treat. The second is basically just a super concentrated version of the first and you can either use it neat as a super strong degreaser, or you can dilute it 10:1 with water to end up with ‘less gnarl’. This means that if you just want a bike cleaner it’s actually a far more economical way to buy it as one bottle of this stuff with make 11 litres of ‘less gnarl’.
Dirt Juice Less Gnarl: £5.99
Dirt Juice Super Gnarl: £9.99
Here we’ve got a whole pile of different sprays, all aimed at tackling different areas. The first is the JL69 which is perhaps best thought of as a GT85 equivalent, i.e. it’s a light lubricant spray which helps to displace moisture and protect whatever it’s sprayed on. It also has very good penetrative properties so it’ll help you sort out any seized parts.
The next one up is the Frame Juice, and this serves two purposes really. Firstly it’ll make your freshly washed bike look nice and shiny, rather than just a bit cleaner, and secondly because dirt doesn’t like sticking to it it’ll make cleaning your bike the next time considerably easier.
Then we’ve got the Brake Juice which as you’ve no doubt guessed is for cleaning up your disk brake rotors and pads. We normally try and refrain from spraying anything on our disc brakes unless absolutely necessary simply because we’ve been less than impressed with some disc brake cleaners in the past, but we’ve never had any issues with this stuff and it dries away in no time at all.
The final one in this batch of products is the one that started it all for Juice Lubes, their Fork Juice. As I said before this is a silicone based spray which works wonders on suspension, particularly forks. Apart from making them smoother this stuff also seems to help extend service intervals. And yes you can buy cans of basic silicone spray for a bit less than this costs but it doesn’t have nearly the same kind of silicone concentration as this stuff does, and consequently I’ve found it doesn’t perform as well as this Fork Juice. If you don’t believe me then try them back to back yourself.
Price: All £7.99
If you’re like some of the people I’ve met then there’s probably a load of you who think that a chain lube is just a chain lube, but trust me, that’s not the case. If you put some sticky lube on your chain that’s designed to stay in place even in monsoon conditions, but then go and ride on dusty trails, all you’ll end up doing is creating a mighty fine grinding paste which can easily do more harm than using no lube at all. So, Juice Lubes now offer chain lubes for all eventualities. They’ve got a ‘wet’ one for, you’ve guessed it, wet rides, and dry one for…dry rides, and then they’ve also got the two that I’d choose to have in my arsenal.
The first of these is the Ceramic one which is again best suited to drier conditions, but it stays in place a little bit better than the dry lube should you be caught out by some moisture, and it’s the quietest and smoothest of all the lubes. If the conditions will let me get away with using this stuff, then I’ll definitely use it. The second lube that I’d choose is the Viking Juice which is described as an ‘all-conditions’ lube. Considering that it stays in place so well even in fairly horrendous conditions it makes me question the need for a more conventional wet lube as this stuff picks up far less dirt. Maybe if I was doing a solo 24 hour race in the pouring rain I’d go for a true wet lube, but considering I’m not into that kind of thing I’ve found this to always be more than up to the job. If you really can’t bring yourself to buy more than one bottle of chain lube then I’d go for this stuff, as it is great in all but the most extreme conditions, but I really would recommend also getting a bottle of the Ceramic stuff for when it’s properly dry because as good as the Viking is it’s still not quite as good as the Ceramic in those conditions.
Chain Juice Wet: £6.99
Chain Juice Dry: £6.99
Chain Juice Ceramic: £9.99
Viking Juice: £9.99
The other thing that some people don’t seem to realise about oiling your chain is that if you just keep chucking new oil on without ever cleaning your chain then you might as well not bother oiling it in the first place. It comes back to the whole grinding paste thing. Even the most non-stick chain lube will still attract some dirt and so to maximise the life of your drivetrain you really want to do everything that you can to get it as clean as possible before you put any new lube on. That probably sounds like way too much of a ball ache, and it can be, but get a chain cleaner like this ‘Dirty Little Scrubber’, combine it with a strong degreaser, and suddenly it’s a piece of cake and takes no time at all. If you don’t already own one then you bloody should do, it’ll save you a fortune in the long run.
Price: £12.99
Next up we have some ‘ASS Juice’ anti-sieze paste, which is what you want to be using wherever you have non-moving metal to metal contact, for example any bolts, your bottom bracket threads, and possibly even your seatpost/seat tube interface if you’ve got a dropper post that you never move. It could save you a lot of hassle in the long run and it prevents seizing in these situations better than a regular grease would.
Talking of grease, Juice Lubes Bearing Juice is a very high quality grease which has been specially developed for low temperature use (which is what you get on a bike), and for the best possible resistance to being washed away by water. On their website they even have a video of it (along with a couple of competitors products) being jet washed off a piece of glass at point blank range. The others disappear without trace, whereas this stuff manages to at least leave a thin film. So, if you fancy treating your bearings to some fresh grease they’ll thank you for a bit of this stuff.
The last of this bunch is the Hand Juice hand cleaner which does a bloody good job of getting your hands clean after you’ve engrained grease into them. Thanks to some grit type substance in the mix it’s incredibly effective, and yet it’s not so harsh that it destroys your hands. It even smells quite nice too! It’s definitely worth keeping a tub of this under your kitchen sink.
ASS Juice: £8.99
Bearing Juice: £5.99
Hand Juice: £7.99
Finally Juice Lubes are offering a range of suspension oil and brake fluid. The synthetic suspension oil is available in 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 15 and 20w, and all of them have added anti-foaming agents to ensure maximum performance. As for the brake fluids, Juice Lubes are offering both Dot 5.1 and mineral oil types, both of which have been formulated with the highest possible boiling point to ensure fade free performance.
Oh, actually there’s one more product that Juice Lubes are offering…Tyre Juice, but they’re currently out of stock so couldn’t send us any. This is a natural latex based tyre sealant for use in tubeless wheel/tyre setups, and it comes in a 500ml bottle. Juice Lubes reckon it’ll seal punctures up to 4mm.
Suspension Oil: £9.99
Dot 5.1 Brake Fluid: £9.99
Mineral Oil Brake Fluid: £6.99
Tyre Juice: £14.99
