Time for the clean up job

I've managed to leave my Honda uncleaned must of the way through winter as it was too much hassel to clean.

Does anyone have tips on cleaning grubby stainless downpipes/exhausts that have welded on road salt? Also is there a good/easy way to clean rust of all kinds of bolts and nuts? Rest of the bike is fine really just need some de-greaser and some good old elbow grease!

On another note tha lacquer is already coming off my fork bottoms. What a quick way to polish these up so there looking new, will I need a decent polishing kit? New fork oil whilst I'm at it?

Cheers Guy's I'm looking forward to the sunny days now as I've got some grippy Avon Storms fitted!!!

I always use auto glym super resin polish to polish the bike and it comes up lovely, there is a section in superbike I believe this month on cleaning products, pre-haps someone has it to hand and can scan it in?

[Drew Carey]

For down pipes - "Bar keepers friend" from Asda. Its ametal cleaning product. Make it into a paste, spread on downpipes. Leave to dry, then use fine wet and dry paper. Finally polish with autosol.

For general engine cleaning - clean with de-greaser, then WD40 to wipe down after.

For nuts & bolts etc - I have some cleaning pads, whack them in the drill / dremel, put dollop of autosol on nut and go crazy for a few minutes.

Then usual WD40 of wheels etc and polish up plastics.

One other thing I did after long winter with SV, was to remove all plastics and I mean ALL.....so nose cone, rear plastics, all of them....came off then gave it a good spring clean.

[STRAMASHER]

Forks? For me was Nitromors on the paint. Garryflex blocks, harsh to fine then in with the autosol.

Ooooh. Shiney shiney.

Gunk (tin not spray) or wd40 bath for the nuts and bolts. Wire brush and rags and more wd.

All the John Kocinski types are showing up on these threads now.

My tip for winter bikes is not to clean them - ever. But then my gear linkage did fall off due to excess corrosion yesterday

If I were to clean it mind I'd use fine wire wool on the down pipes (wet and dry on any deeper corrosion) followed by autosol. If you are really fussed about the bolts etc, as drew has said you can get a drill polisher and autosol, but I'd recommend a small pot of lacquer or polish to protect them afterwards - once the factoy finish has been polished off they will tarnish very quickly.

Fork lowers are a bitch. i would just live with them, but I think re-painting rather than polishing would be easier to look after. Depends how fussy you are about the look. Fork lowers always look like crap on bikes with plenty of miles on em.

Well it's a 54000 bike! Thing is I like it to look nice when it come around to the good weather after the winter so I think I will take the plastics & tank off too and have a clean around. Never sure about the fork lowers. I know painting would be much easier but polishing looks ace! I might just live with a bit of hammerite as they look awful at the moment!

Originally Posted by vardypeeps

I might just live with a bit of hammerite as they look awful at the moment!

Sounds like a plan. RS motorbike paints http://www.rsbikepaint.com/ are able to sell you OEM colour paint for most bikes if you want to re-spray the forks in the OEM finish. i know what you mean, my bikes are all "well used" but I always have the urge to make them shiney again when the sun comes out.