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Muc-Off Premium Bike Shoe Care Kit

7
£29.99

VERDICT:

7
10
Keeps your kicks looking clean and smelling fresh with minimal work
Comprehensive
Works quickly and easily
Won't work on heavily stained shoes
Weight: 
989g
Contact: 

At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.

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If you want to keep your cycling shoes feeling brand new, the Muc-Off Premium Bike Shoe Care Kit tackles dirt on the outside and whiffs on the inside. It's quite a comprehensive bundle with the contents all working effectively, whether your shoes just need a spruce up or a thorough clean.

I gave the Muc-Off Shoe Care Kit quite a tough challenge for its first test; a pair of white Giant shoes, last worn in the winter, left covered in road spray – including mud and salt in all the creases, stitches and even the fabric of the tongue. There were also scuff marks from crank arms and tyres.

First up was the Premium Bike Shoe Cleaner, sprayed over the outsides after giving the bottle a good shake. Muc-Off recommends leaving it for a minute to penetrate the dirt before you scrub it with the included brush. It quickly removed all of the scuff marks and filth on the synthetic uppers, and the brush even got into all of the little nooks and creases. It cleaned the shoes up well.

2022 Muc-Off Premium Bike Shoe Care Kit.jpg

Where road spray had actually got right in and stained the white uppers, though, it could do nothing. Don't expect this to totally restore old shoes.

On the tongues I left the formula to soak in before scrubbing with the brush and a bit of warm water. They cleaned up quite well too, considering how long these shoes had been sat in the airing cupboard covered in dirt.

2022 Muc-Off Premium Bike Shoe Care Kit - Premium Bike Shoe Brush.jpg

On shoes that have just been worn in the mud or rain, though, the Muc-Off kit works very well indeed. On both my road and gravel shoes (one pair being knitted), it quickly broke down the dirt and the majority of times I could just wipe them off with the supplied microfibre cloth.

Next you spray your now-clean shoes with Premium Footwear Shield. This applies a finish that is water repellent, and resistant to dirt and oil too. It doesn't affect the breathability of any mesh sections.

2022 Muc-Off Premium Bike Shoe Care Kit - Premium Foot wear Shield.jpg

Wearing the shoes in the wet after adding this, I found they only needed just a quick wipe over after the ride.

> 24 of the best performance road cycling shoes – get faster with light, stiff shoes

Also in the box is Muc-Off's Foam Fresh, which you squirt inside to clean them and leave them smelling fresh. This stuff expands a fair bit, and at first it can be a little bit OMG as your shoes fill up with foam, but it soon dissipates and dries quickly.

2022 Muc-Off Premium Bike Shoe Care Kit - Foam Fresh.jpg

Overall, I found each element of the kit to work well, and Muc-Off says the liquids are water-based and don't contain any chemicals harmful to your shoes, your feet or the environment.

Value

The whole thing – that's the three cleaning products, a microfibre cloth, a brush and a bag to keep it all in – will set you back £29.99. To start with I thought that might be a bit pricey, but you don't need much per application so it's going to last a fair while. Also, if you have spent hundreds of pounds on some bling shoes, this seems well worth it to keep them fresh.

You could also look at the Lake Shoe Care Kit for £25, although that is primarily designed for Lake's own range of leather shoes.

Sneaky offers its more generic Complete Shoe Cleaning Kit which includes a range of similar products for £19.99.

Overall

If you are using this to look after your shoes as you go, it does a very good job, but don't expect miracles on old, abandoned and stained shoes. It's not the cheapest, but if your shoes are expensive it's a worthy investment for prolonging that new look and feel.

Verdict

Keeps your kicks looking clean and smelling fresh with minimal work

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road.cc test report

Make and model: Muc-Off Premium Bike Shoe Care Kit

Size tested: 6-IN-1 KIT

Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

Muc-Off says, "The Muc-Off Bike Shoe Care Kit is packed with everything you need to show your shoes some love. There's a cutting-edge hydrophobic rain repellent, super-effective shoe cleaner, premium brush and microfibre cloth so you can freshen up your MTB or road shoes – no matter how grimy or muddy they get. It contains all the tools to get your shoes looking factory fresh. No more excuses for not sending it on rainy days!"

It's a substantial range of products that works on everything from road shoes that need a wipe to downright dirty gravel shoes.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Premium Bike Shoe Scrubber:

Synthetic PP bristles easily get rid of grime and mud

Handcrafted wood handle

Screen printed Muc-Off logo

Great for all-around cleaning

Tough on stubborn stains

Premium Bike Shoe Cleaner:

Biodegradable, environmentally friendly, water-based formula

Powerful cleaning performance

Doesn't compromise breathability

Suitable and safe - specifically designed for bike shoes

Safe on technical fabrics, suede, nubuck, leather and other fabrics*

Perfect for preparing your footwear for fresh waterproofing/re-proofer treatments such as Muc-Off

Premium Footwear Shield

Handy sized 250ml spray bottle

Premium Footwear Shield:

Suitable and safe to use - specifically designed for bike shoes

Advanced polymer technology offers excellent performance without using harmful chemicals

Water-based formula

Safe on technical fabrics, suede, nubuck, leather and other fabrics*

Added conditioning additives for leather, nubuck and suede

Hydrophobic - offers excellent water repellency

Improves resistance to dirt and oil

Maximises breathability

PFC-free/non-hazardous

Effective without heat activation

Handy sized 250ml spray bottle

Grey Microfibre Cloth:

Super-soft, high-quality cloth

Safe to use on all surfaces

Deep-pile material traps dirt deep in the pile of the cloth preventing scratches or swirling

Split-fibre technology for increased absorbency

Machine washable

Foam Fresh:

Great for cleaning the inside of shoes

Gently agitates grime and dirt

Smells rad with citric burst fragrance

Tote Bag:

Looks the business

Keeps all your bike shoe essentials together

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
8/10
Rate the product for performance:
 
8/10
Rate the product for durability:
 
8/10
Rate the product for value:
 
4/10

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

All of the products work well at cleaning shoes and protecting them from further bad weather.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

The Footwear Shield makes subsequent cleans easier.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

It doesn't clean mesh materials very well if they're heavily stained.

How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?

It's a bit pricier than Lake's offering, although Lake's version is intended primarily for leather shoes. Other non-cycling specific kits can be cheaper, such as that from Sneaky.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes

Would you consider buying the product? Yes

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes

Use this box to explain your overall score

There is quite a lot of kit in the box and it all works well, providing you aren't trying to restore seriously stained shoes. For all other applications though, it's impressive.

Overall rating: 7/10

About the tester

Age: 42  Height: 180cm  Weight: 76kg

I usually ride: This month's test bike  My best bike is: B'Twin Ultra CF draped in the latest bling test components

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, club rides, sportives, fixed/singlespeed,

As part of the Tech Hub here at F-At Digital, our senior product reviewer Stu uses the knowledge gained from putting well over a 1,000 products through their paces (including hundreds of bikes) to write in-depth reviews of a huge range of kit. After first throwing his leg over a race bike back in 2000, Stu's ridden more than 160,000 miles on road, time-trial, track, and gravel bikes, and while he's put his racing days behind him he still likes to smash the pedals rather than take things easy. Although, as he spends a fair bit of his time reviewing ebikes these days he's becoming an expert in letting the motor take the strain. He's also waiting for 23mm race tyres to make a comeback!

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2 comments

Avatar
fenix | 1 year ago
1 like

Or black shoes and a wetwipe.

Avatar
Rapha Nadal | 1 year ago
1 like

No before/after pics of the shoes mentioned in the review? Fail.

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