The best way to clean a mountain bike is to start with the proper gear. That means a cleaner and degreaser, lube for afterwards, and something to work it all in with, like Peaty’s Bicycle Brush Set.

Included in the pack are four brushes that downhill mountain bike legend Peaty (AKA Steve Peat) himself says have been developed over two years, specifically for mountain bikes.

The Bog Brush will fit round your U-bend, or more usefully into the bigger spaces between your frame, fork and wheels

The most useful is the Bog Brush. Yes, it’s really called that. [Note for non-UK readers: ‘Bog’ in the UK is another word for the toilet. Yes, it’s really called that].

It has 360º bristles that are soft enough to save your wiper seals, yet tough enough to scrape off muck. I found you could use the Bog Brush to clean about 90% of the bike. It’s flexible bristles let you cram it into the larger crevices such as around the shock mount, BB area, bikeside of the chainring, and into the fork stanchions. After three months of use it’s starting to look a little hammered on top, but that’s to be expected given I also misuse it on the car’s wheels too.

Detailer Brush is long enough to hit every spot on your bike, you can even reach the wheel hubs without your hand hitting the spokes

Then there’s the Detailer brush. It’s crimped from medium density bristles made from post-consumer plastic, and it fits into every other area that the Bog Brush can’t reach. It’s long and skinny enough to snake into the most complex of suspension designs, and I was even able to clean through the shock tunnel on my Specialized Kenevo SL.

Best of all, the tip is made from super soft cotton to prevent scratches so I had no worries working it around the shock stanchions and seals. 

Drivetrain Brush is an intelligent design, with an angled head to save your knuckles and different length bristles to better clean sprockets and chains

The Drivetrain brush is a nice piece of design work; its shaft is kinked like a hockey stick so you can work the head close to a cassette without skinning your knuckles. The bristles are good and stiff and worked well scarifying the sprockets, and it’s longer at the edges of the pad so it overlaps both sides of the teeth for a deep clean.

It’s also effective on the chain for the same reason, letting the links sit inside the brush head’s furrow to get three sides cleaned, lickety-split. It could do with another inch on the handle to take your hand further away from the cassette’s teeth, but it’s marginal.

Tyre Brush is solid, but I didn’t find much use for it

Finally, there’s a Tyre Brush, also featuring stiff bristles that are longer at the edges to encompass a tyre. I barely used it though, as I find it easier to pressure wash the crud off my tyres. That said, in the name of science I put it to the test, finding it useful enough.

With beech handles and plastic bristles, you’ll probably be wondering why Peaty didn’t go all natural. That was the idea, apparently, but natural fibres were either too soft, too stiff or not durable enough, so he settled on recycled plastic. The bristles are doing well, but the beech has developed blackspot, probably because I neglectfully leave them in the bottom of a bucket after use rather than hanging them up to dry. All four brush handles have holes in so you can lace some string through for this very purpose… shame Peaty’s didn’t do this for us though.

Most bike brush sets are alike, probably made in the same factory before being labelled up with their respective brands. Not Peaty’s.