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Cleaning a motorcycle can be a real chore or a labour of love. Those to whom it is a chore tend to be those who use their bikes as a practical form of transport, rather than for their love of it and whether their bike is clean or not is not terribly relevant.

Those to whom cleaning their bike is a labour of love are those who love motorcycles, appreciate their form, their engineering and pleasure of riding. Pride in your bike indicates that you belong to this group and a clean well-maintained bike says a lot about the owners love of motorcycling and the lifestyle associated with it. Unless that is, you have bought your bike as a toy and it rarely makes it out of the garage, in which case it will stay clean and the mileage on the counter will give away your secret.

As for how to clean a bike, it can be accomplished quite quickly depending upon how dirty you have got it, and how long it is since it was last cleaned. An easy solution to a slightly grubby bike that just needs a little bit of cleaning, is to use that good old cure all, WD40 or other similar product. A quick spray and a rub with a soft clean cloth will remove light dirt, tar stains, etc and provided you are not too excessive in your use of it, a good shine is achievable. The advantages of such a product is the protective layer which is formed over the parts cleaned by it, and next time you come to clean your bike, the task is made easier.

Of course what you don't want to be doing is applying such products excessively as they will become a magnet to dirt and this is detrimental to the bike, especially on moving parts.

When it comes to washing the bike with water, avoid using a pressure washer. These can damage the paintwork and also a high pressure jet of water can remove grease from areas such as wheel bearings, swinging arm bearings etc... not good! A sponge or soft cloth is sufficient with a suitable car wash n wax added to it. It is important to dry the bike to avoid rusting, I suppose that this is less of a problem with sports bikes that seem to be mainly plastic! The best way to do this is to wash it on warm sunny days and take it for a ride out. Once dry the WD40 treatment is a good thing to do.

Learn more about this author, Edward Flynn.
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