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At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.
Good scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.
Ruzer Performance Luxury Chamois Cream is light, slippery and does a decent job of protecting your most sensitive contact point. It's not the most tenacious or durable shorts pad coating, but its lack of tingle is a definite bonus and it smells good.
The first time I used Ruzer chamois cream I didn't use much, thinking that its slippery feel meant it was better well spread in a thin layer. After a two-hour ride It felt like it wasn't working any more, so on subsequent rides I used quite a bit more and then a lot more. With a properly generous slathering on my shorts pad I was comfortable for three hours.
Being thin makes Ruzer chamois cream easy to spread, but its rather wet consistency does mean it seems to vanish into your shorts pad after a while, unlike thicker and therefore more tenacious creams.
Ruzer makes quite a lot of fuss about how good this chamois cream smells. I agree and so does our independent judge, my partner Caroline, choosing the Ruzer cream as the nicest-smelling of the three chamois creams I happened to have around (the other two, for the record, being Muc-Off Luxury chamois cream and BeElite chamois cream). None of them smell bad, but the Ruzer is pleasantly floral and fruity, so that's an advantage if you're in the habit of shoving your Lycra-clad bum into people's faces (YKIOK, but make sure you have enthusiastic consent, eh).
Ruzer claims this cream provides a 'mild cooling effect', but if you're expecting that menthol tingle that's a feature of many chamois creams, that's not what you get. It doesn't feel 'cooling' to me at all, but that's a good thing for anyone who doesn't like tingly stuff on their undercarriage.
> Buyer’s Guide: 10 of the best cycling chamois creams
One problem with Ruzer Performance Luxury Chamois Cream is that the lid of the tin it comes in is just a push-fit, and a fairly loose one at that. Lob this tub into your kit bag to head out for an event and you're running the risk of ending up with everything coated in cream. Fine if it never leaves home, but otherwise the tin really needs a screw-on lid. On the other hand it's thin enough that you could easily transfer it into a screw-top container or a reusable squeeze tube.
At rrp Ruzer chamois cream looks better value than a £24.99 250ml tub of Muc-Off cream, or 250g of BeElite for £20, but you can currently get Muc-Off for £15 from Halfords, BeElite's £14 from Wiggle, and you don't have to use as much of either of them to get effective bum buttering.
However, it's £16.87 from Amazon and if you make use of Amazon Subscribe and Save you can get it for as little as £14.34, at which price I felt far more willing to slather it on generously.
This is the cream for you if you do rides up to about three hours, the scent of a chamois cream is really important to you, and you're never going to pack the tub in a kit bag. It's also worth trying if you dislike tingly chamois creams.
Decent but not outstanding chamois cream, but it does smell good
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Make and model: Ruzer Performance Luxury Chamois Cream
Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
As a chamois cream, it's a lubricant between your skin and your shorts pad to prevent chafing.
Ruzer pro Chamois Cream- Made for performance and enriched with specially formulated ingredients and scent. Moisturises your skin and helps minimise friction sores or burns. Long lasting protection for hours
Antifungal & antibacterial protection. Provides a mild cooling effect on areas applied, reduces the build up of bacteria and germs in the body movement areas where it is applied.
Superb aromatic scent. Our specially selected scent will keep you smelling fresh even after an intense workout. It really smells beautiful.
Apply to your chamois pad on your shorts or bib tights 5-20 mins before your activity. And let the cream activate and form a protective barrier on your skin
Use in confidence, Made in the UK with the best ingredients and tested to the highest standards. Made to soothe the skin of cyclists, triathletes, runners, sprinters, marathon runners and other endurance competitions 225 ml, packed in a special gift tin and sleeve
Made for performance and enriched with specially formulated ingredients and scent. Moisturises your skin and helps minimise friction sores or burns. Long lasting protection for hours
Reduces the build up of bacteria and germs in the body movement areas where it is applied.
Our specially selected scent will keep you smelling fresh even after a intense workout. It really smells beautiful.
Use in confidence, Made in the UK
Made in the UK with the best ingredients and tested to the highest standards. Made to soothe the skin of cyclists, triathletes, runners, sprinters, marathon runners and other endurance competitions 225 ml, packed in a special gift tin and sleeve
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
The tin needs a threaded cap.
There are better chamois creams, but this one does the job and hits a bullseye in its 'smelling nice' target.
Other chamois creams have kept me comfortable for longer.
Does a decent job of making your bottom slippery.
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
It's decent. Not stellar, but plenty good enough.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?
At RRP it looks better value than a £24.99, 250ml tub of Muc-Off cream, or 250g of BeElite for £20, but you can currently get Muc-Off for £15 from Halfords, BeElite's £14 from Wiggle, and you don't have to use as much of either of them to get effective bum buttering.
On the other hand, Ruzer cream can be got for £14.34 from Amazon, so the value for money assessment is more or less neutral.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? No, I prefer Be Elite and Muc-Off.
Would you recommend the product to a friend? I'd suggest they try it.
Use this box to explain your overall score
This is good chamois cream, but in terms of overall comfort and durability there are better alternatives. However, it gets a point back for smelling nice, if that's important to you.
Age: 55 Height: 5ft 11in Weight: 100kg
I usually ride: Scapin Style My best bike is:
I've been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: Most days I would class myself as: Expert
I regularly do the following types of riding: commuting, touring, club rides, general fitness riding, mtb,
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John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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Barely noticeable in use, but does a great job of stopping any saddle soreness
Excellent even with frugal use, and 100 percent natural – though not cheap
Excellent chamois cream for long rides, as long as you don't mind that menthol tingle – and almost eternally half price
A lightweight, mess-free cream that protects without you even noticing it
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