Advice Please - How to clean a bike!

[arc123]

Hello All

I'm after tips & advice on how to get my bike into a nice & neat condition after a winters riding and not a huge amount of cleaning! I don't have any products, so was after advice on the best stuff to use for an all round spring clean....... I don't have a paddock stand or anything..... can I get to all the hard to get to parts with the rear wheel still on??

The bits that need care:

Chain is rusting
Sprockets are filthy and covered in grease
exhaust & footpegs are showing signs of pitting (not corrosion) from the salt - are there any products that will shine these up??
Rear shock (or around the rear shock where it is hard to reach) is filthy

What products are there for cleaning up the brakes etc??

Bearing in mind my handy skills are not existent, I don't have a paddock stand, and not a great deal of space (no garage) to do this work - how clean can I get it??!

Any advice greatly received

Andy

Righto...might not be able to answer all of this but I'll give it a go...

Try to get some bike specific cleaner to help you...Hein Gericke do I 1litre bottle of cleaner for about 3 quid which is pretty good...just wet the bike, spray on, leave for a while and clean with a sponge.

The shock will be easier to get to if you take off the plastic guard thingy - only one bolt iirc...

The chain will be easier to clean if you take the chain guard off (2 screw?), and I use paraffin, applied with either a soft brush or cloth - gets all the grease off, and good for the sprockets too...just dont forget to re-lube when you are done.

If you are doing a proper job, and havent got a paddock stand - you will need to roll the bike forwards to make sure you can get access to all of the chain.

With regards to corrosion, wd40 can help to protect (avoid the brakes obviously), and I've heard good things of protective sprays such as Scottoil FS365 and ACF-50.

Try to remember to use a different sponge (and water) for cleaning the bike plastics and dirty parts (wheels, C&S etc) - you dont want to scratch your paintwork now....

Personally I find that a good paint protector (I use Autoglym Super Resin Polish, then another AG polish, cant remember the name) it helps to make the bike easier to clean the next time - only talking about the plastics and tank tho...

Remember to lube the gear and rear brake pivots if you have used a de-greaser on them too..

Thats about all I can think of...

HTH,

BB.

cleaning will take you along time, firstly you need to wash your machine over with a soapy wash like car shampoo or something simalir, the dry it all off and use wd40 to remove all the baked on grease and oil, the wd40 will also clean up your wheels removing brake dust and chain lube, remember not to get it on your tyres, brake disks or pads. i then polish up the metal parts with autosol and polish the painwork with either a car wax or mr sheene.

[dizzyblonde]

I like the shine that Autoglmn super resin polish puts on the bodywork of the black sv i got, I also found some autoglmn motorcycle spray cleaner today in Halfords, usually ?6.99 today ?3.99. Holts aluminium polish for the forks which made them super shiny. And a good dolllop of autosol on my downpipe. And just to put kwaks mind at rest I will be contuing the effort on the yellow one when shes back together

u know it makes sence and your baby is worth it

[fizzwheel]

How clean do you want it and how much effort are you prepared to go to to get it that clean.

If its minging, then rinse the worst off with a hose pipe. Then get some muc off, or some of that castrol bike cleaner and spray it with that and leave it a few minutes to eat the dirt off.

Then get some auto glym bike shampoo, and a sponge, and go over the whole bike starting at the top with the sponge and water, the rinse off with the hose pipe again.

Get some parasene from B & Q ( parafin ) and then use that to clean the chain with, also you can use that to clean off tar, grease and brake dust and general mank from the dirty bits, again use a sponge and you might have to attack it several times to get it clean, rinse it off.

Then relube your chain one you are done, a toothbrush is useful for getting at the hard to reach places.

Once your done let it dry, Polish the plastics with Auto Gymn resin polish, use WD40 on the metal work and wheels to bring it up to a shine.

Repeat until you are happy. I think you'll find it easier with a paddock stand especially the chain cleaning. They dont cost much money and dont take up much storage space either.

[arc123]

Thanks all for your helpful replies....

In short I want to get it very clean and will be taking a day off work to get it done (so will spend the whole day if necessary, and longer if I'm not happy with it then!). I'm cleaning the bike up to part-ex, or possibly sell privately...... so want to get it as clean as poss.


And to follow on from this..... anybody interested in an 03 plate (RR3) 'Blade? i'm after an 'appropriate' price to take into account the condition of it, and also the fact that a service is due..... let me know and I can provide more info .

But keep the tips coming for the big clean

Andy

[fizzwheel]

Ah you want it kwak clean....

*says in a Yoda voice*

If once you start down the kwak clean path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did his cousin

[arc123]

I've seen photos of Kwaks bike and can saely say it won't be that clean

But i'll give it a good go....

Cheers

Andy

Originally Posted by arc123

And to follow on from this..... anybody interested in an 03 plate (RR3) 'Blade? i'm after an 'appropriate' price to take into account the condition of it, and also the fact that a service is due..... let me know and I can provide more info .
Andy

Is it yellow/black? If so, a PM to Hovis might see you a sale as he's been looking for one for a while.