[WendySkeleton]

So how does one actually wash a motorbike? I’d say it’s more complicated than washing a car. Or am I just over-analysing it?

[Ben]

It’s pretty much the same as washing a car. You can soap the whole thing down, rinse it off etc… bikes are waterproof, you can ride them in the rain. The only thing that you have to do is make sure that you run the bike for a while to dry all the water off the engine, also make sure you grease up the chain when you are done too. Although I know a few riders that don’t bother with any of that, and they just take some windex to the fairings and some sort of green degreaser liquid to anything with built up dirt and grime.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[swede]

You should also avoid getting water into all the bearings, simplest avoided by just not pointing the water beam directly on to joints with bearings. Should you get water into a bearing, get a grease hand pump connect it to the grease nipple and inject a few squirts to press the water out.

This mostly applies if you use a high pressure washer, but be careful with them bearings anyways.
smörgåsbord
Jonathan

[Anonymous]

WD40 is great for getting chain lube and grime off of the wheels. S-100 is good for the hard to reach areas of a bike.

Sometimes all the bike needs though is a quick squirt of a do-everything spray polish to brighten it up.

[Kickprivate]

Fuck WD40.

Get a grunge brush and go to work.

~Not your average hairless monkey
Kick

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that eloquent and obviously well considered response Kick.

If you want to clean wheels the hard way, then who am I to interfere…

[Anonymous]

Just how long does it take to clean wire-spoked wheel rims with a brush?

[Kickprivate]

The pleasure is all mine. If you want to destroy the workings of your bike with WD40 then by all means, who am I to interfere…

As far as cleaning your wheels. If you really want to go through all the work of cleaning the wheels, by all means go for it. But before you know it they are going to be filthy again. If you have some gunk build up, after you sud up your bike hit the wheels right quick and it will take care of a lot of the crap.

WD40 does indeed remove the grease from the inner-workings of your chain. Avoid it.

The grunge brush is a chain cleaning brush btw!

~Not your average hairless monkey
Kick

[Anonymous]

Kick,

I agree with you that the use of WD-40 on *chains* is probably a bad idea (and thanks for pointing that out), but I was suggesting its use for cleaning wheel rims and spokes, not chains. Grime and hardened chain-lube (on the wheels) just wipe right off with WD-40 (prior to sudsing up the bike). Of course, then you need to sponge-off the WD-40 during the wash.

I know what a grunge brush is and I use one on my chain together with an O-ring safe chain cleaner. They really make chain cleaning much easier and more effective.

Re. cleaning the wheels, it depends to some extent on what chain lube you use; some fling-off onto the wheel a lot more than others (even though they say they don’t on the label). Another benefit of washing wheels, especially if you have wire wheels, is that you can check for loose or broken spokes while you’re doing it (I recently found a broken spoke on my bike), but yes, I agree, cleaning wheels (and bikes in general) is not much fun.

[Ben]

My friend ray recommends cleaning a really gunky chain with kerosene.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[Jake K]

One useful trick if you live somewhere without access to a hose is to use a hand pumped sprayer. They’re pretty cheap, you can usually find them in the home and garden area for spraying insectiside.

Also, it should be noted that Meguiars detail spray is pretty handy.

[cbr600rr 2007]

i know this sounds dodgy but the best thing for polishing up your bike is the good old mr sheen!!! a mate of mine who’s been into bikes for years showed me resently, and until then i used that expensive motul shine and go… and i was a bit sceptical until i saw how good it works!
for 6 bucks it’s cheap and in my opinion looks better than when i use the motul!

[Author]

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