Morgan Blue Travel Kit

If you're escaping the autumn drizzle and jetting off on holiday, the Morgan Blue Travel Kit is a handy collection of unguents and lubricants that can be slung in your carry-on bag to keep your bike, skin and muscles happy while you're riding. It's good quality stuff - Morgan Blue products are used extensively in the pro peloton - and we were impressed by the performance of the various potions.

Morgan Blue is a Belgian company with roots in automotive lubricants, but has since branched out into just about every friction-reduction application you can think of.

For a tenner, you get a collection of sachets in a clear ziplock bag. There are two small (2.5ml) sachets of chain oil, five 10ml sachets of chamois cream, five 15ml sachets of muscle relaxant rub and a couple of moist cleaning tissues for dirty fingers.

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The Travel Kit is sized and packaged such that it fits within the aviation requirements for carry-on baggage, so it's great if you're on a short trip. If you've got hold luggage you could obviously take bigger pots and bottles, but it's super-convenient to be able to grab a single pouch with all of your lubrication needs (steady there) as you jet off on a cycling trip.

We've reviewed the chain oil before and, like Dave, I was impressed by its performance, keeping chains running slickly and silently for a decent while. I was initially sceptical about how easy it would be to apply oil from the torn-off corner of a sachet but it proved perfectly feasible. You wouldn't want to be hanging out of the team car doing it, sure, and it's a bit less controlled than with a proper bottle, but I had no problem getting my chain running smoothly.

The chamois cream has also been seen round these parts too. If you're on a long trip, then the five sachets might not be enough, but then you'd probably have a bit more luggage too. It's good, if probably not my favourite chamois cream. I nevertheless found it was pretty effective at keeping saddle sores at bay, even on hot days climbing big hills in the Alps. Getting it out of the sachet and onto your backside without dropping some on the floor can be a bit of an art; it can be easier to put it straight onto the padding in your shorts. This soft chamois cream is designed for dry days – there's a more solid version available for wet days where the soft version would wash away.

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For me the stand-out product was the muscle relax rub. It has a glorious smell from the essential oils and it rubs in well. It's not overly greasy and it made those achy evenings a lot more bearable. It's apparently a popular choice in the pro peloton. Lastly, the cleaning tissues are another handy thing to have on your travels – when you're putting your bike back together or sorting out the gears, you might not have your usual cleaner handy.

So the Travel Kit isn't doing anything revolutionary, but it's a collection of high-quality lubricants packaged for convenient use when you're away from home. Volume for volume it's pricey, natch, but if it's your annual trip away somewhere then it's pretty handy.

Verdict

High-quality travel kit to keep everything running smoothly, as used by the pros