The Luberetta is the latest piece of awesome to come from Ryder Innovation, a Cape Town company specialising in simple, elegant solutions to many of the everyday cycling challenges we all face. Innovation is the creative arm of Omnico’s comprehensive Ryder range of affordable, dependable bike accessories and components, with every aspect of its products conceptualised, developed and manufactured in the Mother City.

Following on from the wildly popular (because they are so useful) Nutcracker and Slider products. Luberetta tackles a series of challenges we face when lubing our chains, in a compact solution that reduces mess and wastage while increasing chain life and efficiency.

The patented silicone dispenser and chain guide are attached to a lubricant canister that can be filled with up to 15ml of your chain lube of choice. Position the chain guide portion of the applicator onto the lower chain and squeeze the applicator to dispense lubricant as you backpedal to feed the chain through the applicator. As each roller passes through the chain guide, the silicone dispenser puts one drop of lube on each, which makes the process less messy and reduces waste.

The inside face of the Luberetta chain guide portion gets fins, which help remove grime from the outer plates of the chain (we recommend starting your Luberetta life with a spotless chain, but if you can’t, the cleaning action will help you get there). A pin inside the cap prevents the dispenser from clogging up with lube. If it does clog anyway, say if you’ve left the cap off for a period of time, you can pop it off easily, wash it with a degreaser, then pop it back on again.

Living with the Luberetta is simple. The only challenge, really, is keeping the nozzle clear; the Innovators have covered that, as you have just read. It comes packaged with replacement silicone chain guides, should you be a heavy user, but we didn’t come close to needing them in a few months of riding/lubing. And we found ourselves using far less lube than normal, without compromising chain performance. It really does deposit the goods exactly where needed.

The best aspect of the Luberetta, though, is its portability: we live in dusty Africa, where we often need to re-lube just a few hours into a ride. The Luberetta fits in a pocket, and carries more than enough replenishment to get you through the longest of backroad adventures, without your chain becoming an aviary. That translates to longer life on your whole drivetrain – as soon as you can hear it , it is costing you money. In these heady days of spares shortages, every extra kilometre counts.

R89,99, from your favourite cycle retailer.

Ryder Innovation

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