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how much should i wash my bike?


barwell1992
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hi my bike tends to get verry Sh*tty verry quickly because i ride in all conditions i have cleand it about 5 times in 2 weeks and was wondering how much i should actuly wash my bike and when i say wash i mean thorougly in all the nuts a crannies then i tend to polish the exhaust pipes to stop corosion and use protectant all over the main bits apart from break's

also what are the best products to use to stop rust and corosion especialy for the exhaust's(Down pipes)

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hi my bike tends to get verry Sh*tty verry quickly because i ride in all conditions i have cleand it about 5 times in 2 weeks and was wondering how much i should actuly wash my bike and when i say wash i mean thorougly in all the nuts a crannies then i tend to polish the exhaust pipes to stop corosion and use protectant all over the main bits apart from break's

also what are the best products to use to stop rust and corosion especialy for the exhaust's(Down pipes)

You could write a book on this one so just a couple of comments. If the headers are SS then dont attack them with wire wool. The millions of small scratches encourage further corrosion. I learned this one too late. Clean with a one of the propriety metal cleaners. If that is ineffective because the staining is too bad them get Hein Gericke's Optiglanz. ACF 50 claims to inhibit downpipe corrosion.

How often you clean the bike depends on many things but a major factor is the dreaded salt and if it gets on the bike get it off as quick as you can. Wash it but dont use warm water as that encourages corroding.

As for the full monty as often as you can wothout getting totally fed up with it. PPL have given up biking because of the need to clean the bloody things!!! Finally, the design of most modern bikes renders them unsuitable for outdoor use and should be only ridden indoors anyway! I use an Yamaha SR 400 for work with full mudguards, guard plate on the downtube and front mudflap so no crap gets on the bike except inside the mudguards where it belongs. Best end now I think!

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You could write a book on this one so just a couple of comments. If the headers are SS then dont attack them with wire wool. The millions of small scratches encourage further corrosion. I learned this one too late. Clean with a one of the propriety metal cleaners. If that is ineffective because the staining is too bad them get Hein Gericke's Optiglanz. ACF 50 claims to inhibit downpipe corrosion.

How often you clean the bike depends on many things but a major factor is the dreaded salt and if it gets on the bike get it off as quick as you can. Wash it but dont use warm water as that encourages corroding.

As for the full monty as often as you can wothout getting totally fed up with it. PPL have given up biking because of the need to clean the bloody things!!! Finally, the design of most modern bikes renders them unsuitable for outdoor use and should be only ridden indoors anyway! I use an Yamaha SR 400 for work with full mudguards, guard plate on the downtube and front mudflap so no crap gets on the bike except inside the mudguards where it belongs. Best end now I think!

cheers for that was helpful :) think im going to invest in a fender extender and need to find a way to get a bigger or extend the standard rear huger

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cheers for that was helpful :) think im going to invest in a fender extender and need to find a way to get a bigger or extend the standard rear huger

"Hugger"! Well if you study it the hugger does very little except perhaps keep the crud off a monoshock. The problem is that the the wheel is revolving towards the hugger so all the crap just goes up over it! The hugger is in the wrong place! Some of the BMW bikes have a short hugger further round towards the back of the bike ( on an extended arm). This is where such a device should be properly placed. ( Good for them!)

I fitted a fender extender to my Fazer last week- this a carbon fibre job and only cost 20 quid. They recommend securing with silicon to avoid insightly PKs or bolts and it does seem to fix securely. Sadly, although a fender extender stops muck going up around the top of the fork area it wont be long enough to stop the shit continuing to cover the front pipes. :angry:

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haa i see well my front pipes are actuly prety coverd already so the extender will cover them fully also my rear shock is side mounted so i dont know why there is a hugger there

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haha lol my GF ould tell me where to shove it (plus woulent want her to touch it any way :P )

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If you're using a protectant like ACF-50 or FS-365, then you shouldn't need to wash it too often.

The idea of the protectant is to form a barrier between crap and bike. The crap sticks to protectant, so washing it removes protectant as well.

If you're a poncey poser who rides a shiny Cruiser, then fair enough - You need to maintain your shiny chromed coxcomb so you look your best.

Otherwise, if it's just a load of road crap, I'd say maybe once a fortnight.

If we're talking mud and off-road style crap, then you might want to do it more often. Cow and other shit is likely corrosive.

Oh, speaking of corrosion - The reason warm water is a no-no when washing bike is because the salt dissolves into it and gets washed into every nook & cranny.

Remember that when you're sponging the thing down with cold water on a freezing winter evening!!!

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yeh im using the fs-365 stuf (runing out) but acording to the bottle rain water will wash it off and what i do is was the bike with a hose (cold water) then jet wash wheals and panels and forks, then use warm soapy water (car wash) and wash it down then wash it over with water again the lube up the chain, and then use FS-365 when its dried and polish forks screen and other bits.

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