Three things Ive found to work well and save time:

1. Toilet brush for wheels, fork lowers, headlight nacelle. (removes bugs great and I havent found it to scratch, plus you can wash your entire wheel without moving the bike.

2. Mitted wash glove. These things are great for getting into places.

3. Motorcycle dryer. Great gadgets out there for drying your bike. Ive also heard that the mr clean no spot wash works well but is costly.

 

Great idea with the toilet brush thing...I'll have to give that a try. And the Mr. Clean works very well and I don't think it's too costly for the results it gets.

 

Leaf blowers are the way to go. I use them on my car to get the water out of the side view mirrors as well.

I'm also a big fan of the Meguires NXT, it's fully synthetic, and you can get the spray on or the standard liquid wax. There is so little paint on the bikes, (compared to a car) it doesn't matter to me.

I am looking for a good chrome polish before I take delivery of my baby though...

Mac

 

Wait a minute! Yer s'posed to wash the dern things?

Just kidding, tho I don't wash mine as often as I should, I s'pose. I usually wash it every 2500 miles right after changing the oil & filter. Spray the area around the oil drain hose with Simple Green. Spray the rest of the bike with Suzuki cleaner, similar to S100, but lots cheaper. Hose it off with the garden hose, towel dry.

 

Heh, I'm with you. I didn't even realize there was a special way to wash them.

I use some chrome polish that I've had kicking around the house, probably since the last bike. Same with the wax. Nothing special there. I did start using the Honda Brite (or somesuch name) which works very nicely.

I use a sponge and a bucket of soapy water to clean her and my old socks to wax, chrome clean and polish her (instead of a hand mitt).

I guess it depends on what you're going to do. Me, I'm riding.

Carl

 

I like that philosophy...