Clean some grease

[AJ]

I've posted this before, but since it's spring and people are still hauling bikes out of their garages.......

Waterless hand cleaner (without the pumice/grit) is really excellent for cleaning deep, heavy, dirty grease and grime off your bike, like your swingarm, around your countersprocket, or from leaky engine oil. Even works on a dirty chain.

Put the hand cleaner on the parts with no water (no water is crucial - if the bike is wet, it doesn't work 1/10th as well). Use lots of it and scrub with a stiff brush. Rinse off with water.

There are a lot of degreaser products out there (e.g., Gunk Engine Brite), but few work as well on heavy grime buildup as cheap hand cleaner which won't stain aluminum like other products will (like Engine Brite).

 

[Planetsmasher]

That's a bit of brilliance right there! I tried it out this afternoon because I had my tank off. Gobs of that stuff and a 99 cent toothbrush, and the results were, just as you said.. excellent. Greasy crud on top of the carbs that had been there for God knows how long just fell off. Good tip!

 

[AJ]

Glad to hear it worked for you!

For anybody else out there, this is the type of cleaner I was talking about. Works great on grimy rear wheel, sprocket, chain guard, and even the chain.

 

[GateKeeper]

Careful on what you use to clean your chain with......

if it's an O ring chain, you don't want to be drying out the o-rings......use a chain cleaner and or kerosene, and then lube it up afterwards.....

.

 

[AJ]

Careful on what you use to clean your chain with......

if it's an O ring chain, you don't want to be drying out the o-rings......use a chain cleaner and or kerosene, and then lube it up afterwards.....

.

Good point. I think these handcleaners (with lanolin) are probably better than things like kerosene or degreasers and you need to reapply lube anyway.