As a cyclist I have been through my fair share of chamois cream and whilst I know people who do not need this, I am a fan and on the road or turbo will always see me applying a generous amount of chamois cream pre ride and sometimes mid ride too depending on the distance.
I have a few people who are friends and that I follow on social media who use Premax products and so looked into them a little more. I was particularly interested in the warm up cream and seeing if this would help me when on the bike, especially during winter months in particular.
Chris Hall yesterday finished his personal #107TDF Project, which is raising money for The Pace Centre. This challenge is following Chris Hall cycling from London to Land’s End to John O’Groats and back to London, covering at least 107 miles per day on the days the Tour de France is on. During this epic ride Chris has had many questions about comfort whilst in the saddle and is using the Premax chamois cream and as I type this has suffered no issues.
The Internationelles, who are raising awareness for gender equality in cycling, are also using the Premax chamois cream and honestly whilst the Tour de France route was not possible this year they undertook the challenge on turbo trainers and followed this up with an Everesting challenge. For me products that help with challenges as noted above are always ones I am keen to try as they are tried and tested to such a high level.
I have been using the chamois cream now both on the road bike, gravel bike, MTB and the turbo so a real mix of riding and different terrain. I would always maintain that there are also other factors for saddle comfort to take into consideration such as the saddle itself and bike fit but for me chamois cream is also on that must have list. I have written a blog post about saddle soreness that you can read here and will need to update it to include reference to Premax also. I use a Mimic saddle on my road and turbo bikes but have a Brooks saddle on my gravel which is much stiffer but surprisingly comfortable. I have found a real difference in opinion on some creams with a lot of triathlete friends liking sudocream as it will not wash off in the water but I don’t personally like the consistency of cream like that for riding. I found the Premax cream to be pretty much perfect consistency, smells nice, noticeable difference when riding, easy application, doesn’t stain (this is important as some can leave some discolouration on chamois pads that no one wants!) and no chaffing experience whilst riding. The cream I used was women’s specific so was designed with a female specific PH formula too. Pretty much ticks all the boxes! What would be great would be individual sachets – an item I will often take on long rides in my saddle bag.
Now the warm up cream! Well I had been looking at another brand who offered something similar and was keen to see if this stuff worked. I always find the first 10 miles of a ride to be the hardest to warm up and get going so a cream that claims to warm up the muscles is something I was definitely interested in. I was keen to know the feel because having used magnesium sprays post ride previously I knew that using too much can pack a little bit of a sting and I had heard the same of some warm up creams too. This cream was smooth, easy to apply and smelt great! I have used it again on road, gravel, MTB and turbo and a real difference of short and endurance rides too with the shortest being one of the gravel rides at about 10 miles and the longest being just over 130 miles. Now I know I said it takes me about 10 miles to warm up but I also find off road riding much harder and will joke saying 10 miles off road feels like 20 on the road so that my comparison. I was pleasantly surprised that my legs felt that they were in fact ready to go sooner into the ride and will be keen to continue using this to test more especially in the winter months to see if it shows benefit then too. The only thing I haven’t yet done is take with me on a long ride to reapply and think that could be useful too.
I was gifted the items, but all opinions are my own.
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