Wednesday, December 18, 2013
For those of you who prefer to B.Y.O.B.
Since we started selling Service Course Wash Kits, we’ve had a steady trickle of emails, tweets, and people turning up at the door in the wee hours of the morning asking us if we’d just sell the brushes rather than the full kit.
Apparently, some folks already own a bucket. Maybe not a big, heavy-duty red bucket with a watertight screw-on lid, but a bucket nonetheless. And we respect that.
So, we’re introducing the Bring Your Own Bucket (B.Y.O.B.) Wash Kit. It has all the wood-handled, tampico-bristled goodness and microfiber softness of the original Wash Kit, packed up in a heavy-duty mesh dive bag to keep things neat and let your brushes dry out between uses.
B.Y.O.B. Wash Kits are $45. Delivery is free to doorsteps in the continental United States. To order, PayPal $45 to theservicecourse@yahoo.com, include your shipping information, and we’ll send one out. If you are not in the continental United States, do not send payment without first emailing us to work out shipping costs.
[For those of you who still like a bucket with your brushes, we continue to offer the Original Wash Kit for $55 plus actual shipping costs, which typically run between $11 and $15. Email us with your shipping zip code, we’ll let you know what shipping would cost, and we’ll go from there.]
Here’s what you get in the new B.Y.O.B. kit:
- Three wood-handled, tampico-bristled wash brushes. Tampico
is a plant fiber that holds more water and rinses cleaner than synthetics. That
means tampico brushes cost a little more than synthetics, but they also don’t just drag
the grease and grit around your bike. We include the three shapes best suited
to cleaning bikes quickly:
Frame and wheel brush: Use it where you would use a sponge – frame, wheels, tires, bars. Revel in the fact that it won’t tear like a sponge whenever it hits a chainring tooth or cable end.
Conical brush: This semi-secret weapon of Euro pro team mechanics provides fast, effective cleaning in tight areas, like under the fork crown, between the stays, behind the chainrings and brakes, and hubs.
Solvent brush: If you were a chain-smoking Italian mechanic, you’d dip this brush in a cut-off water bottle full of diesel and slop it all over everything. But you’re probably not, so spray some less flammable cleaner on your drivetrain, let it sit a minute, then go at it with this brush. Rinse, then step back and admire your glistening chainrings. - One microfiber towel: Use it for drying and polishing.
They’re soft, ridiculously absorbent, and washable. Shove a corner into the
bolt heads post-wash to keep them rust-free. This one’s big enough to dry your
bike, small enough to not get unwieldy.
- Mesh bag: Red, heavy mesh bag with a drawstring and cord lock fits all your brushes, your towel, and a few of whatever cleaning sundries you want to throw in, and lets the air flow through them. Sleeping hub? Detergent? Bottle of chain lube? Go nuts.
Is Christmas week the best week to launch a new product?
Probably not, but hey, it’s ready, so let’s go. Cyclocross season may be
winding down in the United States, but those gritty, salty winter base rides
are just getting started. So are we.
