Pedro's Green Fizz - IMO

At a recent bike show I was given some of this to use. Being that the weather is pretty crap at the moment it's a great time to be trying out a cleaning product. To quote Pedro’s: Green Fizz - Pedro's developed this environmentally benign bike wash to work on the entire bike. With special foaming action, the surfactants of Green Fizz coat the bike and help wash away all the troubles from the toughest of rides. Pedro's created this product for use in the sloppiest of conditions without harming the flora or fauna. And Green Fizz can be used without water.

Pedro’s have been around for a long time and celebrated twenty years in the business last year. Like many they started off being unconcerned about the environment and have moved with the times and now all their products have environmental concerns taken into account. Firstly I may have made some assumptions on how this product would work, compared to other brands that are on the market. My road bike was about as shitty as I would have ever wanted to get it. The recent conditions have left the roads covered in crap and no matter how much rain there has been it hasn't cleared the asphalt.

I was expecting that the Foaming wash would foam a little more than it did. There was a small amount of bubbles on contact, but in my head I think I was expecting something visually more spectacular. On regular grime thrown up from the road it performed perfectly well. I used a bucket of hot water to rinse off. Compared to my usual products the bike lacked that lustre that I had become used to. So on this front it performed well, but not stellar.

The area where I was left a little more disappointed was that the cleaner seemed to lack any real power to remove stubborn grime or grease (I feel like a washing liquid advert!). The main active ingredient is Sodium Tripolyphosphate (STPP). The United States Food and Drug Administration lists STPP as "generally recognized as safe", along with salt, vinegar and baking powder. It is also used in many other cleaning product and foods. 


What I failed to take into account when I first used this product was how American and UK companies view bike cleaning. Muc-Off popularised the 'Spray and Go' method which nearly all UK companies have adopted. Other notable brands such as Pedro's, Finish Line and Morgan Blue all take the approach of using a whole range of products to get the job done. This is pretty important to note as it influenced my initial outcome as I had been originally sold the idea that Green Fizz was using the UK model for bike cleaning.

 

So in summary the product works, but it lacked the lustre that I had come to expect from using other products. This may be a good thing as the product is trying to one job and not two or three. Greasy cassettes, chains and to some extent rims where a major hurdle for this product so a proper degreaser would have to be called in. My end question is on the 'environmental aspect', when you have to use more of a product to clean the dirt away, when does it become a series of diminishing returns? My thoughts are mixed and I'd give it a 7/10 if we are doing ratings for performance and 9/10 for making me feel better about the environment.

Give it a try as one man’s poison is another man’s pleasure and what works, or doesn't, for me might not result in the same experience for you. For the 2010 Road Season Pedro’s continue to supply products to the Garmin Transitions team.