I limit myself to one hour of cleaning every other week. I use pledge to shine my black Road King. Maybe twice a year I'll taked the bags, windshield, and seat off and do a better cleaning. This will take 3 or 4 hours.
I'll admit this doesn't keep the bike looking perfect, but it looks good and it looks like I ride it. This is the way I like it.
I have a ton of professional grade polishes and Porter Cable dual action buffer and they all work great but take time. Nothing better than when it's done right. However, I switched to Pledge based on a lot posts but I'm done with it pretty much cause my experience is it collects dust faster than other alternatives. I just tried Black Box and I have to say I think it is very very good and dust doesn't stick to it. I think it's the best bang per hour of detailing. The posts about blow drying a dirty bike seem like a great idea too. cover when not in use works for me too.