Cleaning can Pay off

[Chrisj CMA]

I recently worked on two of my friends bikes. Both of them follow way more “normal” guidelines than me. I clean every surface I can get to and many I can’t often. They clean only what really shows and not all that often.

Both of their bikes now have this cancer



I rotated all the fork tubes so the worst of the corrosion was trailing instead of on the leading edge. That should slow the progression. One of the fork tubes was so bad that soon structural integrity will be a real concern.

I ride exactly where they ride and I have none of it. The one guy the other day said. I guess all your cleaning is paying off for you. He usually makes fun of me when I take things off and apart just to clean

[Farside]

  Hmmm, let me guess who

[Tundra]

I'm of like mind. Everything functions better and looks better cleaned and maintained. Certainly time and money well spent, especially if you plan on keeping something. I clean before and after every ride.
  Just a quick detail wipe before, good clean after. I also focus on calipers, pins and brake dust. Makes for easier less expensive brake jobs.

[Avanti]

I would not ride that out of my garage!

[Chrisj CMA]

I would not ride that out of my garage!

I know!  My bike won’t even start if it’s too dirty if it had that garbage going on

[mello dude]

I'm a clean freak too, everthing gets inspected quite often and I never allow any corrosion or rust spots. Even go after tights spots with Qtips...
Original Bike Spirits Spray Cleaner and Polish is the main weapon, also with a smorgasbord of other products, and forks get wiped with WD40.

Then every fews years or so, I will typically do a winter teardown clean detail - everything gets cleaned and sealed, which more than not sometimes leads to other "while I'm at it" activity's.

Yes, I'm a whackjob  

[Chrisj CMA]

I'm a clean freak too, everthing gets inspected quite often and I never allow any corrosion or rust spots. Even go after tights spots with Qtips...
Original Spirits Spray Polish is the main weapon, also with a smorgasbord of other products, and forks get wiped with WD40.

Then every fews years or so, I will typically do a winter teardown clean detail - everything gets cleaned and sealed, which more than not sometimes leads to other "while I'm at it" activity's.

Yes, I'm a whackjob  

It feels good knowing I’m not the only one. I did a partial under cover cleaning today. Removed seat and side covers and got all the innards and under regions clean. The easy parts (shiny stuff) was already done after my ride to church. I sleep so much better

[Chrisj CMA]

Thought I would revive this cleaning thread and tell a little story. I remembered this today and applied it to the leading edges of my bike.

Ok, when I was stationed in Okinawa I bought a brand new Yamaha XJ650. Now you have to understand, everything rusts on Okinawa. So I sprayed everything that was bare steel with WD40. I did this almost every day for eighteen months. I went through a can of WD40 every week.  If you have ever been on Okinawa you know it is impossible to ride a motorcycle and not ride in the rain. To make a long story shorter, after eighteen months of the harshest conditions imaginable and also a trip on a ship across the ocean. That bike NEVER had a spot of rust in its whole life.

So today I removed the shield and WD40’d all the surfaces that catch wind. Then polished all the chrome that’s hard to get to with the shield on and just got done buttoning all up.

Looks fantastic and my mind is at ease that my forks are protected

[CoreyP]

Noooo.... That's a pic of a fork tube? I would never let anything get like that.

Maybe it's because I lived for a while in a place that used salt on the roads. I worked on some cars that weren't old and the rust would be terrible to deal with. Since then I polish, paint and clean everything I see. Paint chips, repaint some how so it doesn't rust. If bolts are rusting get the rust off, that situation won't get better. Down the road if you need to get that bolt off it will be hassle.  I don't have that problem now unless I'm dealing with something that goes into the ocean.

[mello dude]

May as well throw in... my other bike is a 98 VFR, I have owned for 14 years.
I regularly get the question, (like today), "Is that new?"....

I get a good chuckle out of the OMG look on their face, when I tell them it's 22 years old...