Top yoke revival - what, and how? Pointy.

My Pointy is now oficially just a play thing and no longer my regular commuter!

Starting to tart her up a little bit and one of the biggest (i said one of) issues is a seriously scratched top yoke.
Whats the best ideas for reviving it... Paint or polish, and whats the best way of going about it/whats the best paints to use etc etc etc?!

[Jayneflakes]

I polished mine and it looked great for about three weeks and then started to go dull. Polishing in-situ is hard work and if I had to do it again, I would probably get it powder coated the same colour as the engine.

The other down side to a polished top yoke is not something that you will encounter too often but every now and again it reflects the sun right into your eyes!

The good side to polishing a top yoke is that when done it looks gorgeous, just don't drop it on the road while fitting it...

[TamSV]

As above, I've also polished them before. Looks nice but I'd echo Jayne's comments in that keeping it that way isn't easy. You need to keep polishing it regularly..and don't have any other keys on your keyring...or a keyring...and try not to touch the yoke too often...or use the bike very much.

I rejuvenated the top yoke on my Fireblade to a more OEM finish.

Before:



After:



There were some quite deep marks on the top so I took it back with various grades of went n dry to give a flat finish.

Then clamped the yoke in a Black & Decker Workmate and wrapped a piece of wet n dry round a sanding block and drew it down the length of the yoke a couple of times to replicate the brushed finish. It cut a bit deep so if I was doing it again I'd start with a higher grit paper, maybe 600, and see what that looked liked.

After that I masked off the top and painted the rest with Simoniz Alloy Wheel Silver which is a pretty good match for the original finish. I though about putting a clear coat over the top of the whole lot but didn't bother and it's been fine with no special attention needed.

Hmm, think ill steer clear of polishing then!

So OEM Black, or silver to match the k4 frame? Strange that the yoke is the only thing on my bike other than the wheels that is actually painted black!