RiderSite.com - Motorcycle Forums

There are things growing in the little nooks and crannies on the Falco and that rats nest of wires pipes and cables under the tank is covered in grime.

I've got a jetwash and a steam cleaner but never had them anywhere near a bike.

It would be a really bad idea wouldn't it?

I jetwash mine .... when I bother to clean it.

Tried jetwashing mine once - I was so disappointed with the result I've never done it again, I give it a quick wash with a cloth if I'm going down Poole Quay - but I almost never go there so..............

I steam cleaned my Police bike once after a the Reading Rock festival where it had been raining for 3 days constant and everything was covered in mud.

Anyway, suffice to say, I ended up with a two tone coloured bike. White on one side, battleship grey primer on the other It just stripped the paint off the fairing and it also knocked the front wheel bearings for six as well as it just dried them up and pushed all the grease out.

Suffice to say I have never used a steam cleaner on a bike (or car) since, but I have jet washed the bike and car many times snce, and never had an issue.

Jetwashes, if used from a distance, are fine.

I wouldn't even contemplate a steam cleaner, too much possibility for stripping paint and grease as mentioned.

What he said though as I'm backward I do mine before going out so it gets a blow dry

Years ago I asked about steam cleaning my bike when I was buying some parts, the guy went off to find my parts, came back with parts and the most distorted side panel you could imagine.
He said 'Thats steam cleaning for you'

Right then, thanks folk, steam cleaning is a no then.
I'll go for a gentle as possible jet washing, MOT next week sometime.

Yes, carefully. just don't get the lance too close and it'll be fine.

T.C. wrote:
Anyway, suffice to say, I ended up with a two tone coloured bike. White on one side, battleship grey primer on the other It just stripped the paint off the fairing and it also knocked the front wheel bearings for six as well as it just dried them up and pushed all the grease out.

Farkinell, mate.. Did you attach a hand wand to one of my intensifiers?

Home jet washes arent that effective in reality. I dont know how / why it happens but they leave a sort of dirt film that only comes off with a sponge and detergent. What they get rid of is solid mud and similar but not this surface film.

lazarus wrote:Home jet washes arent that effective in reality. I dont know how / why it happens but they leave a sort of dirt film that only comes off with a sponge and detergent. What they get rid of is solid mud and similar but not this surface film.

Is that with any additive in the tank? I know that commercial car washes have a whole battery of fluids they use for different purposes. The most widely used one is TFR (Traffic Film Remover), I believe.

lazarus wrote:Home jet washes arent that effective in reality. I dont know how / why it happens but they leave a sort of dirt film that only comes off with a sponge and detergent. What they get rid of is solid mud and similar but not this surface film.

So how do you go about it then?

I give mine a bit of a soak with the jetwash. Then I clean with a sponge and detergent and then I rinse the lot off with the jetwash.
I assumed everyone did it like that.

Leaves it fine.

If I have the time, once in a while I might dry it with a chammy leather and give it a rub over with a bit of polish but don't often get time for that stuff.

I went for spraying it with the hose pipe, then muc-off, then spraying it again while rubbing it with a wash mitt.

Turns out the stone chips on the forks that had been annoying me for the past five years were just dead insects. No I don't wash it much...

It's now very shiny and also refusing to start so I suppose it'll stay clean for a bit.

randomsquid wrote:I went for spraying it with the hose pipe, then muc-off, then spraying it again while rubbing it with a wash mitt.

You used the Devil's vomit to clean it?

I used that muc-off stuff and it ruined the powder coating on my once-shiny swinging arm - left it a horrible matt finish.

I would never use that stuff again.