Renapur Leather Balsam Review |
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| Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:45 | |||
 Renapur Leather Balsam has been available since 1994 and you’re most likely to have come across the product (If you don’t already use it) at a motorcycle show, as Renapur are regularly exhibitors at many of the UK’s motorcycle shows.To have survived since 1994 and sold 1.2 million pots of Renapur in the UK alone over that time, let alone extensive overseas sales, the Japanese particularly love this product, Renapur Leather Balsam must be an effective product? The first thing to note is Renapur Leather Balsam is made with natural ingredients, which are non-abrasive and include beeswax and jojoba oil. Renapur claim the product is non-sticky, non-greasy and even non-smelly and of course it’s designed to help prolong the life of your leather by keeping it soft and supple. Now us bikers having a particular liking for leather, many of us are to be found regularly clad in it, with leather jackets, leather trousers, leather one piece suits, leather gloves and leather boots. All this protective gear is usually fairly costly and it pays to protect this investment, so it protects you should the need ever arise. If you just leave your leathers and never treat them with a product such as Renapur Leather Balsam the leather dries out eventually becoming hard, and subject to cracking, hence significantly reducing the life of your leathers, let alone reducing their protective qualities. Oh and in case your worried about effecting the colours of your stylish race leathers, Renapur state its colour neutral so you can use it on all colour leathers. However one important point it should not be used on Suede, Nubuck or Aniline type leathers. So what is the product like to use. Well firstly its best applied with a sponge. Dip the sponge in the pot and wipe any excess off on the pot lip. You apparently don’t need to use very much, a lot goes a long way.  We firstly applied the Renapur Leather Balsam to a pair of lightly dirty leather motorcycle boots that hadn’t had any leather treatment for approximately six months. The light dirt easily lifted off on our sponge. Renapur state that their Balsam can be used where the item has light grime or dirt, however if the leather is more soiled they recommend using their Renapur Cleaner first. As Renapur claim, we needed very little Balsam on our sponge to treat both boots and the product was simple to apply, working the Balsam into the leather with the sponge. Thereafter, you don’t even need to buff the boots the product is just absorbed into the leather. Apart from the instant visual appearance of clean boots you can instantly tell the leather is suppler. We did find the product has a slightly vanilla smell if you directly sniff the pot, but this is not unpleasant at all.  Next we tried a somewhat faded and dried our set of motorcycle gloves with the same pleasing result. However the product also claims to have waterproofing properties, so to test that claim we put a treated glove on our hand and ran it under a fast cold water tap; far more of a direct soaking than you would get riding in rain. The water just ran off the surface of the glove (like rain on a well waxed car) and our hand stayed dry inside. Now whilst we accept the water will eventually penetrate leather gloves rather than purposely designed waterproof gloves, it’s likely that wearing leather gloves treated with Renapur Leather Balsam will keep the water out for significantly longer than untreated gloves. Now whilst we are reviewing this product as a motorcycling product, of course Renapur Leather Balsam can be used on a far wider range of leather goods and is by many Renapur customers. So to further test the Balsam we dug out an old pair of leather boots (used for gardening) that had never seen any leather treatment from new and were now completely dried out, with the leather starting to split and basically exhibiting the properties of very dry cardboard!  Now whilst we knew the Renapur Leather Balsam wouldn’t renew these old boots, we were surprised how effective treating the boots with the Balsam was, rubbing the product well in to the dry leather instantly rejuvenated them and once again we had a pleasantly supple pair of leather boots with more working life rather than something fit for the dustbin! So with Renapur claiming that one 200ml pot will treat and protect up to 500 pairs of shoes, 100 leather jackets or saddles or 20 leather suites, investing in a pot of Renapur Leather Balsam may be one of the better investments you can make in these troubled economic times; particularly as it adds life to your costly motorcycle leathers and other leather products for such a minimal cost. One 200ml pot of Renapur Leather Balsam can be currently purchased direct from the Renapur Shop for only £12.00 (plus postage). Renapur even offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee, if you’re not satisfied with their product, they will refund the cost less postage. However unlike many investments this one will also stay good for many years, because if you leave the lid off a pot of Renapur Leather Balsam it won’t dry out and will stay in perfect condition for 5 years. It’s just a shame not all investments are as good as this one! Review and pictures by www.inter-bike.co.uk
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