How to Clean your Motorbike is a common question we are asked.
As a clean bike is not only more attractive to buyers than a dirty one but is also prevents problems getting hidden and then only getting worse over time. If your body work is covered in muck you simply can’t see any scratches, small dents etc.. So, by keeping it clean you sort out small body work issues as they crop up and stop them before they cause real problems! Having a nice clean bike also prevents corrosion on metal bike parts and stains on the soft cloth parts. So here is our guide to keeping your motorbike clean!
Pre-wash rinse off
It’s a good idea to rinse your bike before going at it with the shampoo. Rinse down your bike with a hose, building up pressure using the ‘thumb over the end’ technique. The front-end of the bike and tail-piece tend to be the areas that accumulate muck, so hose them down first and make sure the whole bike’s been lightly rinsed.
How to Clean your Motorbike Wheels
Start from the bottom of the bike and work your way up. Give you wheels a good coating of wheel cleaner leave it for a couple of minutes and gently brush away any muck with a brush (but don’t use too much pressure!). Then take your pressure cleaner, now give it good though rinsing down. Wheel cleaner is great stuff and is safe for bare metal, alloys, lacquer, powder-coated and painted wheels.
How to Clean your Motorbike Exhaust
You can use the same wheel cleaner on the exhaust as well! A watered down solution will remove the road muck that builds up on the underside. Spray it on, leave it for a couple of minutes and then rinse off.
How to Clean your Motorbike Body Work
Using Halfords Bug & Tar remover; is cheap and very effective way to get rid of the stubborn much on your body work. You just need to be careful spraying this around bare black plastics, like the chain guard or speedo unit because like polish, the Halfords Bug & Tar remover leaves a white stain when it’s dry so best not to get it onto bare black plastic in the first place. Spray the Bug & Tar remover onto your body work, leaves for a few minutes and then wipe off with some kitchen roll.
Shampooing
To remove the left over muck and get a deeper clean get shampooing! Get two buckets both full of washing solution take a sponge or cloth and work your way from the top down getting into all of the nooks and crannies, taking time and care as you go. Too notice a real difference use the second bucket to go over it again, making the bodywork really shine! Don’t forget to dry off your bike with a cloth once you’re done!
Polishing/Waxing
To get that final showroom look wax or polish your bike. Take your time applying the polish and leave to soak in before removing with a micro fibre cloth.
Now you have a shiny clean bike that any biker would be proud of!
