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review
2022 Silca Ultimate Bike Wash£30.00
VERDICT:
High-performance bike wash – but it is Silca and it's far from cheap per wash
Powerful cleaner
Slick on paint
Leaves no residue
Smells great
Expensive
Weight:
536g
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.
What the road.cc scores meanGood scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.
- Exceptional
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Quite good
- Average
- Not so good
- Poor
- Bad
- Appalling
The Silca Ultimate Bike Wash is a powerful yet safe hand wash for your bike. It smells nice, doesn't contain any nasties and you'll get about 16 washes a bottle, which works out at about £1.88 per wash. It's not cheap, but it does appear to be quite effective – the high level of slickness helps to remove dirt without damaging your paint.
Ultimate Bike Wash, or 'Scrub', is step 2 in Silca's Bicycle Spa Collection. It's ideal if you still like to use a bucket and mitt to clean your bike, rather than the spray cleaner type (à la Muc-Off).
I don't normally use the bucket and mitt method, as I prefer to loosen any dirt with a spray cleaner before physically attacking a bike, but as with many of the other products in the collection, Ultimate Bike Wash is designed to encapsulate dirt and lift it away from the bike, so it doesn't cause any scratching or marring of the paint. In Silca, we trust.
Silca also says its Ultimate Bike Wash contains no chemicals, is residue free and rinses cleanly, and won't attack the wax on your paint or chain.
> How to clean your bike – from a quick lick to a full makeover
The cleaner comes in a 16oz bottle (about 455ml), and thanks to its super thick, highly concentrated formula you only need about 30ml in a bucket full of water, which isn't all that much – I reckon you'd get about 15-16 washes out of the bottle.
Ultimate Bike Wash also has a lovely cherry scent, which certainly lifts your mood on a dull, cold winter day that's spent cleaning a bike.
Speaking of which, dull and wintery is when I've been using most of my bike fleet recently, and subsequently they've got covered in filth – which is at least perfect for testing cleaning products.
> How to clean disc brakes on a bicycle
Before starting, I hosed the bike down with water first to minimise any damage to the paint from large particles stuck to the frame. Then I moved onto the wash.
I was initially disappointed with the lack of suds when mixed with a bucket of water – but more suds don't necessarily make a better cleaner. Where Ultimate Bike Wash impresses is with the way it glides over your bike's paintwork. It feels very slick and slippery over any surface, and despite the lack of visual flair, dirt doesn't stand a chance – it just falls off.
Value and comparisons
You'll get a decent number of washes out of the bottle, but at £30 a bottle it's pricey stuff – though as it bears the Silca name that probably won't be a surprise.
It is a very effective product, though I'm not sure how much more effective it is than some other cheaper bike- or car-specific soaps. If the claims are true, however, at least you know you're guaranteed a cleaner that will remove dirt without damaging your paint and without any nasty chemicals.
Matt rated Naked Bikes' Pure Bike Shampoo, which costs a third of the Silca stuff, and he reckoned you'd get at least 20 washes out of it, which works out at 50p or less per wash. It's also meant to be full of only the good stuff, so like the Ultimate Bike Wash it won't harm you, your bike or the environment.
Squirt's Bike Cleaner Concentrate is a biodegradable, great value product that you can use neat as a degreaser and in diluted form as a general wash. And Steve was certainly impressed when he tested it.
Conclusion
Ultimate Bike Wash is an effective cleaner, and feels great to use, though the price is high – if you can do without the cherry scent there are plenty of other concentrated cleaners out there that will do good job.
Verdict
High-performance bike wash – but it is Silca and it's far from cheap per wash
road.cc test report
Make and model: Silca Ultimate Bike Wash
Size tested: 473 ML
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?
Silca says: "An Eco-friendly bubble bath for your bike. Make micro-scratches a thing of the past by allowing the advanced surfactants to lift the dirt and grime from your frame. Scrub with a sponge or soft brush, rinse with water."
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
* Eco-friendly and less harmful formulas
* Encapsulates dirt to prevent scratching as it is removed from the surface
* Clean rinsing to leave no residue
* Cherry Glow Scent
* Heavy concentrate for ultimate cleaning power
* 16oz
Rate the product for performance:
9/10
Very effective, safe on paint and chains.
Rate the product for value:
3/10
Very expensive per wash.
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
Shifted dirt very easily, and the slickness allowed any dirt to simply glide off without risk to paint.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
Very slick.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
Nothing – apart from the price.
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?
Much more expensive per wash than other concentrated hand wash cleaners we've tested previously – the Naked Bikes Pure Bike Shampoo is much cheaper at just £0.50 per wash compared with £1.88 for Silca's Ultimate Bike Wash.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? No – at least not at the full retail price.
Would you recommend the product to a friend? No – again because of the price.
Use this box to explain your overall score
Great cleaner – slick and safe on paint, with no nasties. It's very expensive though.
About the tester
Age: 39
I usually ride: Condor Italia RC custom build My best bike is:
I've been riding for: 10-20 years I ride: A few times a week I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: commuting, touring, club rides, sportives, mtb,
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17 comments
According to the official product blurb you need 45ml per full bucket of water. So that might knock your costings even further out of the park.
You are exactly right. However when I watched Josh's video, he explained that 30ml was plenty enough. In fairness it depends entirely how much you fill your bucket - I tend to only use about half a bucket because you're only washing a bike after all. So I think 30ml is probably more appropriate in this instance.
What on earth is it made from then, the emperor's new clothes?
Good point, it should probably read 'toxic chemicals', or ' harmful chemicals' (although I still wouldn't want to drink this stuff).
Apart from everything being chemicals.
I am frustratingly falling for Silcas wet lube, shockingly expensive but just works so well. And my chain is so clean...
Want the rest of my bottle? I don't rate the stuff at all--smells horrible, messy to apply, chain runs loud and rough, no cleaner in use than my standard, gloopy, old school lube (Finish Line Wet).
I know that other people really like it and I can't understand or explain the difference between their experience and mine. I follow the instructions scrupulously (apply to fully degreased chain, wipe the excess off after initial application and between rides, etc.) and just can't get decent results, whereas with my standard lube my drivetrain is always quiet and smooth, and no dirtier than would be expected with any other wet lube.
I am a big fan of the wet finish line cross country, and am using the Silca to replace it as my goto lube. I'm finding that the Silca is lasting longer and my chain is shinier, which is what is selling it for me. I did start to try and do the nightly wipe with microfibre cloth (after getting most off with old T shirt) using Xcountry lube, but my rear gear cable broke on my Getting to Work bike and I started back on the Ultimate Commuter. I'd had great results with the Silca on the ever so delicate XTR drivetrain on my Good Bike, until I broke her Ti frame.
A friend just swapped to this but not impressed.
Interestingly, when he queried the new design - non needle, plastic nozzle - they said the original design did not deliver enough lubricant.
I was disappointed not to get the needle applicator.
750ml for £2.60 from Ocado etc, works perfectly well. A bottle lasts me months of washing dishes, bikes, oily hands and (very occasionally) the car. Available in Unfragranced, Mandarin and Pink Grapefruit 'flavours'.
With a pH of 11.5, and full of salt, maybe not the best product for washing your bike.
https://biod.co.uk/shop/dishwashing/bio-d-fragrance-free-washing-up-liqu...
I was about to say... If the stuff was that great, everyone would be using fairy liquid to wash their bikes.
Galvanic Corrosion: "Let me introduce myself"
You're not supposed to use it neat, silly.
As I said, I've been washing everything with Bio-D for years without any problems. The only rust I see on components is from road salt & spray when I don't wash the winter bike promptly afterwards.
You're welcome to stick with this kind of hilariously-priced unicorn piss (£66 per litre) but bollocks like "Eco-friendly and less harmful formulas" and "Encapsulates dirt" is for fools.
That made me chuckle, having read all the cruelty free vegan planet friendly credentials of your chosen 100% plant based hypoallergenic formula! But it is cheap, I'll give you that.
Fair enough but Silca's "less harmful" claim is not exactly explicit - it's probably less harmful than paraffin, I guess... it's what they don't tell you that matters.
Bio-D is based in Hull and has been making what could be termed 'environmentally benign' vegan-friendly products for a long time, is highly rated ethically and yes, it's pretty cheap too. Would you like it more if it did not have those credentials?
If bog-standard stuff like that (and other WUL) does the job just fine then I can't see a reason to spend vastly more for no real improvement.
Paraffin is often under-rated. OK, the taste is only just tolerable but the effect on the central nervous system is astonishing and after three or four pints you don't much care about cleaning the bike.
Unicorn tears, the piss can be had for the cost of shipping only, they want to get rid of it.