GTechniq Cloths and Detailing Brush

These items are sold individually or as part of the Ultimate Bike Care Kit (in the latter you only get one Buff Cloth) along with a bundle of potions for cleaning. Fundamentally you have a mitt for accessible wide-open spaces (as far as there are such things on a bicycle), a detailing brush for getting into the nooks and crannies, a towel for drying (if necessary) and a cloth for buffing up after cleaning. Of course, you could use this on your motor vehicle, too, if you have one.

GTechniq mitt, cloths, detailing brush in packaging

Microfibre Wash Mitt £14.99 3.75/5

The Mitt is for those bits of the bike where you can get your hand, or a soft brush; frame forks racks, cranks etc. It is the generalist in the team. Some bike cleaning potions do not demand this approach. Many spray cleaners don’t really need this; spray- on, leave, rinse off, buff. The cleaning mitt comes into to its own with a nice sudsy bike wash, such as Crankalicious Mud Honey. In that sense, I have used the mitt most on those big cleans. You know, wheels off, on the stand, probably a bit of fettling at the same time. Mind you, it has also done a nice job after a day of dirty gravel riding before putting the bike in the back of someone else’s van.

I like the way you can wrap your hand around tubing or forks, shape your fingers to clean out the underside of a mudguard, etc. This latter extends to getting into some nooks and crannies, but does not seem to me to be as effective as a stiff brush for heavily begrimed hidden corners. Is it better than a cloth? I think so, simply because it holds more wash and can be more easily manipulated.

Every now and again a quick wash in the machine has done it good after a particularly tough mission, but, generally just let it dry and it’ll be good to go.

Value for money? Muc-Off’s 2-in-1 Mitt has two elements, one side for a general wash and the other for getting rid of stickier tar, oil etc. Here we go multi-factor, because effectiveness comes down to more than the cleaning cloth. It is cheaper, but I found the GTechniq better suited, to me, and just as effective. £14.99 for a quality mitt is not out of line compared to similar products form names more usually associated with the automotive market, such as Autoglym – whose mitt I have used on the van for several years.

MF1 ZeroR Microfibre Buff Cloth 3 Pack £12.99 3.75/5

Surely a microfibre cloth is a microfibre cloth is a microfibre cloth? Well, the MF1 ZeroR Buff Cloth is large, very large by comparison to most. Very helpful when buffing a few bikes following a fleet cleaning afternoon. There are plenty of clean cloth to carrying on buffing. The additional size also makes buffing larger areas quicker. Having said that, how much of a rush are you in? Vital, perhaps, if you are running a bicycle hand wash business.

On the other hand. Like most, it gives a good finish without menacing the paint job.

£12.99 seems a lots, but that’s £4.33 per cloth. The quality is good, so it’ll outlast a cheaper generic multi-pack from your local market. I should say, it has outlasted them in my experience. Again, when it comes to value, it does a better job than the run of the mill, but how far you want to buy into this is a discussion point amongst those I have discussed it with.

Microfibre Drying Towel £9.98 4.5/5

There are microfibre towels and microfibre towels. I recall the thrill some forty years ago when getting a lightweight one to carry on backpacking expeditions. I also remember that whilst it soaked up water, one never felt completely dry until time had finished the job. GTechniq’s up to date take on the drying towel is light years ahead. It is even softer than my ancient one and much thicker, much more absorbent, and, consequently, much more effective. I have not used it on myself after bathing in a river – it may not require much, but the towel is too small to protect much in the way of modesty. However, use it for the intended purpose and you have a really handy bit of gear.

Using it, according to instructions, to dry the frame after a wash, it quickly removes most of the dampness. It’s large enough to enable you to find an unused bit to complete more than one bike, too. Equally important is the speed with which the cloth dries after use. Repeat the operation, if necessary. After washing I have found it dries quickly on the washing line.

You’ll have worked out by now that I like it: a handy bit of kit for bike cleaning at home or the trail head.

Detailing Brush £3.98 3.5/5

The GTechniq Detailing Brush is akin to a densely bristled one-inch paint brush. Soft bristles make if handy for working on paintwork, for example around the fork bridge, cantilever brake bosses, or other locations where the sun rarely shows its face. This makes it a bit different to my regular bike cleaning tool with two sets of narrow, stiff bristles, and a curved, notched hook for getting into the cassette.

As you might expect, the GTechniq brush does not do all the jobs that the drive train cleaning tool does. I’ll rephrase that, it can do most of them, but not all as effectively. At the same time, it is much less of a threat to a nice paint job or highly polished surfaces.

GTechniq detailing brush and chain rings

bike cleaning with GTechniq detailling brush

I have used it to work in degreaser into a lightly soiled cassette. A rinse off left things looking pretty good. However, little bits of accumulated greasy grime deep between the cogs of the cassette or on heavily soiled cassettes need the drive train cleaning tool to liberate them. That is not a surprise. Under dirt encrusted fork crowns and suchlike, the Detailing Brush has been a real help for agitating bike wash into the grime, as well as flaking off dried mud.

The handle is long enough to get the bristles into just about anywhere on the bikes whilst keeping you hand away. Not having an ergonomic handle is, in my opinion, an advantage in this context as it allows more freedom of movement when firkling in the depths.

Overall, I’d describe this as a useful addition to the cleaning kit, as opposed to being the only thing you need. Don’t bung away the traditional narrow stiff brush or the cassette hook from your old plastic cleaning tool.

Value 3.5/5

Harder to define than usual; these can be bought individually or with a bundle of potions. Some manufacturers offer bundles, for example, Juice Lubes three brush and cloth set. Muc-Off offer bundles, too. Both good value, but not directly comparable.

Oxford and Muc-Off both offer micro-fibre towel multipacks – Muc-Off five for thirty pounds and Oxford six for £6.99. Mind you, they are not the same thing! Juice Lubes offer a special finishing cloth for £4.99, and others offer similar.

Overall, the GTechniq seems to me to be pretty good value because you get size and quality, which should give you lots of use. Mind you, you may still want a bigger brush for larger areas and a tool with a cassette cleaning hook and stiff brush. Over to you!

Summary

Buying all the above as part of the big package that includes cleaner, degreaser, etc, makes a great gift for any cyclist. The cleaning cloths and brush can, of course be bought individually, and, of course, can be bought more cheaply on the high street – a soft paint brush, a multipack of microfibre clothes, a wash mitt form the car store. However, the quality of the GTechniq gear is undoubtedly higher than I have found down the market. This is especially true of the drying cloth, which is, in my opinion, the true stand-out amongst these. Spending that bit more on other items will probably result in more uses per penny, but, as my family know, the microfibre cloths from the kitchen draw somehow find their way to the bike shed (the pixies are very active around this area).

Verdict (Overall) 3.75/5 Good quality, at a price.

Steve Dyster

https://www.gtechniq.co.uk/product-category/bike/

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2025

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