Think back to the last time you wrenched on your bike. Perhaps it was at home for some maintenance. Perhaps it was on the road because of a broken chain or even a simple tire repair. If you’re at home, you washed your hands in the sink, and then you had to clean the sink out. Out on the road, you finished your repair only to soil up your handlebars, the office door, the light switch, and the computer keyboard.
Many bike commuters carry surgical gloves to keep the hands clean, but mine always seem to rip or get lost. A good alternative are CitraWipeTM hand wipes from Zogics. The CitraWipe handwipe is a portable degreaser hand wipe for cleanup on the go. The citrus oil degreaser is very effective at cutting the grease after some personal time with the bike chain. d-limonene is the same substance used in many ‘natural’ engine degreasers. I was concerned about what putting a degreaser — even a safe, non-toxic one such as d-limonene — would do to my skin, but the lanolin and aloe vera keeps my hands from drying out. There’s no itchiness or discomfort whatsoever after using these wipes.
The 9″x7″ wipes are heavy duty disposable fabric that are very similar to baby wipes. Instead of a baby wipe odor, though, the CitraWipes have an unobjectionable citrus-like fragrance; it’s not exactly a manly fragrance, but you won’t smell like a newly-cleaned baby’s bottom, either. The wipes are individually wrapped so they won’t dry out. They’re just the right size to stuff a couple in your saddle bag.
CitraWipe handwipes are currently available in retailers from 20 states across the United States. They’re also available online at Zogics.com. Zogics (rhymes with “logics”) is owned by one-time US Cycling Team cyclist Paul LeBlanc. He’s an outdoor enthusiast in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts. As a member of 1% for the planet, Paul has committed to give one percent of his sales to environmental organizations. Zogics is also a corporate sponsor of the International Mountain Bicycling Association.