Pedro's Chain Pig

The Pedro's Chain Pig makes cleaning your chain a simple and above all mess free job thanks to some sensible design. It looks cute too so there is more chance of you getting the kids to do the job for you.

The body is made up of two parts, and upper and a lower section which is easy to take apart and reassemble. The upper half is home to the neat alloy tail which loops around the lower jockey wheel on the rear mech giving you totally hands free operation.

With the two parts snapped together you can spin the cranks backwards as quick as you like without having the Pig jump or slip out of line.

To appeal to the professional market as well has the home DIY'er Pedro's have gone for larger diameter bristles for a more robust cleaner. We're not talking much here obviously but compared to my Halfords cheapie the Pig's brushes are much stiffer.

The first brushes in the cycle lift the degreaser up on to the chain before those manly bristles take up the main scrubbing role. They do a good job getting in between the pins and remove the majority of grit and crap thrown up from a season of winter miles.

Pedro's are proud of the fact that it only needs 30ml of degreaser to clean a chain thanks to the design and on the whole I'd agree with this only really heavily caked chains need two or more cycles. I'm talking the lube, salt, road grit kind of paste you get from a couple of months of winter abuse.

It gets by using so little thanks to the sponge in the Pig's nose. It wipes the chain clean and absorbs the degreaser which returns to the reservoir relatively clean after filtering through.

As with most manufacturer's claims I was sceptical about how great it was going to clean and be so mess free etc. etc. but I am unbelievably impressed. Even heavily soiled chains clean up well and the fact it's so quick and easy to use it's become a weekly exercise to keep the drivetrain clean.

The only sticking point could be seen as the price, £24.99 put it up there with the likes of Park Tool's CM5 which also cleans well but in my opinion the Pig has the edge.

Verdict

Most thorough chain cleaner we've used with hands free operation and no mess