Drive Chain Brush
Designed to last, not wear out fast!

The Drive Chain Brush was born out of a desire to make a quality brush, with a traditional edge. And not have plastic spikes sticking into your wet fingers!
The Drive Chain Brush is also the World's first FSC certified bike product. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification guarantees the sustainability of wood. (New trees are planted after being chopped down. Lots of wood in the UK is illegally cut and from forests illegally and immorally cut, but turned into new product overseas and sold in the West)
This sustainable wood forms the ergonomic handle which feels great.

Designed to last, not wear out fast. When developing this brush we were offered bristles which would be stiff but wear out within a year.
To use these would be against the Green Oil ethos, and instead we chose durable bristles which don't clog like plastic ones
They soften slightly when wet, can be scrubbed extremely hard without damage and are plant based.
Each brush is expected to last 10 years. The Bicycle Brush is ‘Sustainable’ in more than one way!

Plastic vs Plant & Wood

The Green Oil Drive Chain Brush lasts longer, works better and won't pollute the environment with pieces of plastic.
See our comparison video here:

 

Why the wood we use is important:

Fact: Its not yet illegal to import wood to the UK from Brazil, Papua New Guinea or any other place where rampant, often illegal deforestation occurs, as long as it’s a finished product.
Fact: Many products from overseas factories use illegal wood.
Fact: Deforestation causes human misery, as in the scene above. Its not just about 'saving the trees'.

But on a more cheerful note, the Forest Stewardship Council is helping to put an end to this!
Generally, you shouldn't buy wood products without the FSC mark. The image above from Greenpeace is of indigenous people walking through their land following their trees being illegally felled - their home being illegally destroyed.
Buying wood here in the UK causes this, so we phased that image onto one taken in the New Forest.
So ensure wood products you purchase have this mark, its important:

The Green Oil Drive Chain Brush is:

- Made in Britain
- Has a luxury sustainably sourced, ergonomic wood handle
- Utilizes plant based bristles
- Is designed to last many years of use - 'a brush for life'

What is the Drive Chain Brushfor?
Scrubbing your chain and sprocket primarily, but also wheel cleaning, as a claw brush for sprocket sets, for hard to reach bits, wheel rims and spoke cleaning.

The Drive Chain Brush was developed in part because of another brand's 'claw brush'. This claw brush had bristles one end, and a spiky handle the other. So you had to wrap your fingers around the spikes to use the brush side. Which of course hurt!

The Drive Chain Brush has a burly handle and long bristles -comfortable and with bristles longer than the widest sprocket cog. Its great for cleaning your sprocket set (the cogs on your back wheel), for use as a claw brush to get between the gaps.

The bristles can be a bit harsh at first on some paintwork, but do soften once the brush is 'broken in' - after being used to chain scrub and sprocket scrub a few times, the bristles are bristles will be soft enough for nearly all bike frames, yet still tough for chain and sprocket scrubbing.

The unique bristles are plant based, not plastic. That's better for the environment if you imaging every plastic bristle is a piece of plastic litter.
The Drive Chain Brush bristles are durable, though some will appear to fall out on first use - these are loose bristles left over from the manufacturing process.

The Drive Chain Brush also has a 'cog spike' at the end of the handle. This can be used on dérailleur cogs to remove grime.

Green Oil Drive Chain Brush bristles don't clog up easily with mud or grime. Plastic bristles clog with muc and chain grime, the Bicycle Brush bristles do not.

How to use your Drive Chai Brush
1. Soak Drive Chain Brush bristles in water.
2. If using for frame cleaning, test on a small area to ensure paint compatibility
3. After applying Green Clean or Clean Chain degreaser, use to clean your bike and various parts. On a chain or sprocket, you can scrub very hard without causing the brush damage. See the video with Anna Glowinski below for more.
4. Thoroughly rinse the Brush
5. Leave to dry in the sun or on a radiator for a long Drive Chain Brush life. Do not store damp in a box as it could go mouldy.

Drive Chain Brush also has a 'Cog Spike' on the butt of the handle. Its rounded in one direction, yet edged in the other. Simply hold against the dérailleur cog of your stationary bike, run the chain through to spin the cogs (you can turn the cranks back by hand to do this), and watch the mud scrape off!

The Drive Chain Brush is also great for cleaning spokes and wheel rims.

Designed by Simon Nash, who regularly rides and cleans bikes!

Dirty Tyres? Drive Chain Brush is great for cleaning out those nobles, with a good wide head of bristles

Dirty rim? The Green Oil Drive Chain Brus is great for cleaning your wheel rim on either side.

Claw brush built in! The Drive Chain Brush can be used in lots of ways, including sprocket scrubbing. Take the wheel off your bike, cover the sprocket set (cogs) in Clean Chain degreaser, then scrub hard with the Brush. The bristles get nicely into the gaps, just like a claw brush.

How is the Drive Chain Brush green?

The Drive Chain Brush is built to last. When looking into bristle suppliers, one suggested using a mixture that would wear out over a year - 'so you sell more brushes'. This 'make it to brake' ethos is not something we believe in, its just not the Green Oil way. We would rather sell a products that lasts and sell fewer of them. The bristles used are strong and durable, designed to last a long time, yet plant based and natural.

The handle is made from sustainably sourced wood with independent FSC certification. At the time of writing, we use wood from rubber plantations. Rubber trees stop producing rubber every 15-18 years, in plantations over 100 years old. Trees are cut down at this point, and new ones planted. These are very old, established plantations. So, this wood from the cut trees is used to make our brushes, whilst new ones are planted and grow up.

Its a good thing that the Bicycle Brush is not made of plastic, so no oil is used to make the brush. Similarly, the bristles are plant based, so when there is wear and tear, little pieces of plastic aren't going into the environment which don't biodegrade.

Even the print on the brush is biodegradable, so theoretically if your brush did ever wear out, you could put it in your compost bin! It is durable though, so a well kept brush should not be heading to the compost bin any time soon, The Green Oil Drive Chain Brush is expected to last more than 10 years with normal use.

We recommend drying out your brush indoors, or in the sun after use to keep it in good conditions, for a long Drive Chain Brush life.

 

So what is the 'FSC®' logo?
FSC is a registered trademark, and short for 'Forest Stewardship Council'. Wood products with this mark ensure the wood used is sustainably sourced.
So where a tree is chopped down, another is planted in its placed. Clearing old growth forests (for example, the Amazon Rainforest) and replacing such forests with a monoculture trees is not permitted for FSC® approved forests. This is a problem globally, as forests are thriving ecosystems. But when replaced with a 'factory forest', where all trees are the same, there is no longer an ecosystem, animals and biodiversity no longer thrive. FSC encourages forest ecosystems, simply FSC® is The mark of responsible forestry. It is endoresed by WWF and other environmental charities. It is not to be confused with PEFC, a much weaker mark.

The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) is a global, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of responsible forest management worldwide. FSC defines standards based on agreed principles for responsible forest stewardship that are supported by environmental, social, and economic stakeholders.

The Forest Stewardship Council is an international nongovernmental organization that promotes environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. FSC® is dedicated to the promotion of responsible forest management worldwide.
• FSC® helps take care of forests for future generations.
• FSC® helps take care of forests and the people and wildlife that call them home.
• By choosing FSC wood products, you help take care of the world’s forests.
• The FSC® label means that wood used for this product has been responsibly sourced.

As a good rule for life, do not buy wood products unless they have the FSC logo on. From Beds to toy Zebras, you can find companies using only FSC wood (and other things including paper and rubber, which of course also come from trees). www.FSC.org.uk

 

'The finest brush in the industry'

- Ed Haythornthwaite Dirt Magazine deputy editor

...the brush gives short shrift to clogged cassettes, dirty rims and drive chain too. Curiously, with periodic rinsing, it doesn't attract dirt, gloop and congealed grime so readily as more conventional types while the wooden handle shows no sign of turning organic despite marinating for long periods in buckets of hot water...

- Review by Shan Audane, road.cc

...even the print inks are eco friendly. Long bristles reach between sprockets...

- Review by Dan Milner in What Mountain Bike, Jan 2011.

...even the print inks are eco friendly. Long bristles reach between sprockets...

- Review by Dan Milner in What Mountain Bike, Jan 2011.

…the wooden Bicycle Brush is fantastic and of course made from sustainably sourced wood!

…Green Oil offers the best and most ecologically friendly products around…

- IMB Mag, Issue 21 page 113

...The special bristles are strong enough to rid mudded sprockets and chains, yet soft enough not to damage the anodized finishing while cleaning. It eliminates the claw brush to clean dérailleur cogs and be used as a chain cleaning device, tooth brush, wheel cleaning and spoke brush by using its remarkable handle. All these effective uses are with just one Bicycle Brush...

- Review on BikeReviews.com. Click on their logo for the review

....good for your bike, and the environment...

- Recommendation in Triathlete's World magazine Kit Zone, in the Concise Gear Guide. DEcember 2010, p.53.

4.5/5

...This is a brill brush and is really neatly designed and branded. Go buy one is my advice...

- Recommendation by Stumpy Dan in iBikeRide.com

'...a fine thing...'

- Recommendation by RCUK. Click logo for full review