ESSENTIALS
The must-have parts and sprays to spruce up your bike for sunny days
From cleaning products, degreasers, new brake pads and a refresh of your bar tape, we share the must-have kit to help you spruce up your pride and joy for spring
1 RITCHEY WCS RACE GEL BAR
TAPE £27 Few things improve the look or feel of your bike better than new bar tape. Ritchey’s Race Gel isn’t cheap, but it is plush, well padded and light. It comes in half a dozen colours too, from this fluoro yellow to a more muted brown or black. 2 WD40 BIKE CLEANER £7.99 The king of water dispersant’s very own bike cleaner. Rinse your bike, spray on the cleaner, brush off gunk, grit and crud, rinse again. It’s designed for frames, pedals,
wheels and so on, and it won’t damage paint, plastic, rubber or chrome – but (as with your hair) make sure you rinse. 3 PURPLE HARRY BIKE
POLISH £8.99 (500ml) Once you’ve got your bike clean, this British-manufactured polish helps keep it that way, creating a protective layer over the now shinier frame, thanks to its water-repellent silicones and waxes. 4 BTWIN ALL IN ONE £4.99 BTwin’s budgetfriendly range of cycling goodies extends to this wellpriced do-anything degreaser-cumlube. We’re not sure we’d use it as our go-to chain lube, but for degreasing, freeing components and loosening sticky locks it’s the business. It’s good value for 500ml. 5 CAMPAGNOLO CARBON BRAKE PADS £25.99 (for 4) Winter bike put into storage? Best carbon wheels back on? Then you need the right carbon rim-specific brake pads such as these from Campagnolo, which are suitable for Campag and Fulcrum wheels.