Some people really LOVE cleaning their motorcycle. I’m not one of them. Never have and probably never will. Having said that I do understand why people like it. Nothing quite like spending time with your ‘love’ and making her shine like new again.
So, WHEN I clean my bike I try to do it well. And lately, well, let’s just say, I had less opportunity riding my motorcycle, leaving more time to do do other things, like, cleaning it, for example.
So, being the nerd that I am, I decided to do some research on how to best clean your motorcycle. Came across a lot of articles and videos. Conclusion? There is no one true recognised best way. Surprise surprise 🙂. Overall though, these are more or less the general steps:
- Rinse down with water
- Apply some kind of cleaning spray
- Leave spray on for about 1 to 2 minutes
- Rinse down with water again
- Apply steps 2 through 4 with a different product (this is optional)*
- Apply steps 2 through 4 with yet another product (this is optional)*
- Dry with cloths
- Dry with air
* Any one of these products will have a different purpose than the ones used before 🙂
Every article author / video maker had their own favourite products and cleaning materials. No specific products sticking out though. Material wise, a common sponge to agitate / rub in the products, and some old towels and microfibers for drying did the job for most of them.
Now, I’ve yet to give this a try (ordered some products online) and I’ll let you know how it goes. If you don’t want to wait for that, have a look at this video from TheMissendenFlyer:
A very handy tip is cleaning your windshield with spiritus after a ride through a swarm of mosquitos. The spiritus is a alcohol and ethanol based blue liquid and highly flammable, so be carefull in tropical environments. When doing this before you rinse the the bike, it gives you a very clean windshield as the alcohol brakes down the dead mosquito body’s that slammed onto your windscreen.
50/50 Hydrogen Peroxide and Water will melt bugs and it won’t light you on fire!
It’s better to use a microfibre cloth instead of a sponge on painted surfaces, a sponge will collect debris and rub over the paint and possibly scrape or scratch it. Microfibre cloths hold debris in off the outer fibres.