Leave the seat on, water won't hurt it. Leaf blower or cycle dryer will get water out of places you will never get with a towel. I usually just take a short ride then wipe up the drips with a microfiber.

 

I leave the seat on. To dry it, I bought an Air Shammy; very powerful and works great. I also lean the bike to both side to get most of the water out of all the little cravices. Than I let it idle for a little while and stand by with a genuine leather shammy and wipe it as needed.

 

I take my seat off every time i wash it and never a problem !

 

Thanks for all the tips. I used s100 and hosed it down, left the seat on, and used a leaf blower to dry also used a microfiber towel to polish the chrome but the leaf blower worked great.

 

On rare occasion, I've removed the seat and hosed down the area under there before (very low pressure of course) to get rid of all the grit. If you ride in the rain, it actually gets pretty filthy under there due to water that enters through multiple areas including behind the rear cylinder, down the tank and past the seat (it doesn't make a water-tight seal with the frame) and most obviously, through that enormous hole in the rear fender that the taillight wiring runs through which allows the rear tire to throw up a constant stream of water into that area. All that stuff is designed to be water tight and I'd rather find out it's faulty after a wash instead of while I'm out riding around in the rain.

 

thats what i do also my seat is leather so u dont want to get it wet either i pull my bags and seat off to wash and give a good wax every timenow im just waitin for my dual engine master blaster to get here to make dryin easier

 

I don't remove the seat everytime i was but you will need to as dirt and debrie collect under there and you will want to get it out. I do like mentioned above shove a walmart bag in there tuck it in nice and wash with the hose around the fender area and such and try not to spray right on the bag.

Another thing you will want to remove once a year and clean under is your tank console like on my FXDC you will be really suprised how many bugs and dirt are under there after a year of riding.

 

I take my seat off a couple of times a year and the side covers to do a thorough cleaning. Lots of debris gets under there after riding a lot. All the connections are watertight connections. I wash all that stuff off and I've never had a problem. I rinse all of it off with the water hose. Water will not hurt that stuff. BTW, if you hose off the engine, you're getting all of your sensor connections wet as well, and they are the same style connectors found under the seat. Of course, if you only ride your bike 100 miles a year, chances are it won't get that dirty anyway.