I am one of those people who like to keep my bike shiny and dust free. I am proud of my motorcycle and treat it well. If I am caught out in the rain on a ride, when I return home I take the opportunity to wipe the whole bike down.
When you actually want to wash your motorcycle, here are a few tips to remember:
- Before beginning use small pieces of duct tape to cover your keyhole, any areas you want to protect, and any switches on the handlebars that may be open to water ingress. It doesn’t hurt these to get wet, but over time you can have problems with wire corrosion, etc.
- Lightly rinse the bike with a gentle stream of water. Be sure not to aim the jet into your carburetor, fuel tank cap, spark plugs, or brake master cylinder.
- Use a mild solution of regular car washing soap. It is easy on the paint job and chrome. Always use a large, soft sponge to wash the bike with and keep it soaked in the soap solution so as to avoid scratching from grit. I always use a second sponge for the lower areas and a tire brush for the wheels. This is where most of the road grime is and you don’t want to scratch the paint by using the same sponge for all. Begin from the top and work your way down to the ground.
- After you have carefully washed everything rinse well with another gentle stream of water. Make sure you rinse all soap residues off. Now remove the duct tape pieces you added in the beginning.
- When you are finished washing and rinsing the motorcycle well, go ahead and dry it off using clean, soft towels. Begin at the top and work your way down using a dry towel as each one gets damp. I use several and then wash them for the next time.
- I don’t recommend waxing the motorcycle. A good wipe down in between washings should leave you with a sparkling bike that you can be proud of.
Then take your bike for a spin to dry off any hidden water drops. Now you are ready to ride for a while and show off your clean, shiny motorcycle.
Check this idea out - pretty cool!
5 comments:
I'm incredibly ignorant of your subject matter but that doesn't stop me form admiring it and for admiring fellow females who ride and care for their machines! With that said, where can you buy those Blaster things? Any motorcycle place? If nothing else, it would be a really cool gift... for cars and construction sites too!
You can go to: http://www.motorcycledryer.com They have links to dealers you can purchase from, or you can order online I think.
bikerchickz
Can I use a leafblower to dry off my bike or would it be too strong? I could use my wife's hair dryer, but she'd probably put me in the dog house.
I think a leaf blower would be too strong and a hairdryer probably wouldn't be powerful enough. Sounds like you should stick to towels.....
bikerchickz
wow you are gentle on your bike.( not critizing) We live on a dirt road, little reaosn to keep it so clean. But when we take a customers bikes to them, we are sure to spray it down well at the local car wash. We do use pressure washers, no taping, and wipe it down with a shammy to keep water spots from showing up on the chrome. We ride in the rain, and washing will do very little damage to most of your electrical at least on American V-Twins.
Great tips, by the bye.
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