I struggle to get the exhaust clean, it has little black dots (on my car the de-greaser usually melts those sort of?), and its hard to get a good angle to clean the backside... The bottom part of the exhaust seems impossible to get clean too... The front of the engine and the exhaust headers (I think, the part after engine, before bend, lower half) is also challenging me. I do realize I have to get some brushes, and sponges and probably a better shampoo and a fresh "car towel" to dry it off, but cleaning a bike is so much harder than a car. Some places are harder to reach with the hose or pressure washer (back side of muffler for instance).
On my recent trip to Å I saw two guys with their wives roll up on some recent sport bikes (a Yamaha and a Honda, I do not know the exact model), and their bikes were spotless. There weren't even soot on the end of their exhaust. How do they do it? I have been watching turtorials and guides and have tried to read up, but the videos are usually of allready perfectly clean looking bikes... I realize I need to polish the paint and the chrome (or whatever it is), and polish/sand the aluminum covers (need to get rid of those hideous remains of its silver paint (black paint?) too). But it baffels me how a bike can be kept that clean...
If having a clean bike means I have to stop doing things like riding on muddy roads in the rain, I guess Ill pick the muddy roads though. I guess one option is to buy a second bike, and use that only on sunny days, when there is no dust/pollen or anything. But Im not sure how many days that would be... I asked the local car detailing place (the most serious one, Im afraid to leave my baby with the less serious ones), they wanted 450 NOK (about 45 dollars/pounds/euros) and didn't have time for a couple of weeks.
One of my students asked me today: "Is your bike the one you were riding the other day? Thats an old bike, right?" I love that it is so timeless that they get confused about the age.
I read some people use parafin to clean bikes, I think there is a bunch of parafin in the garage, so I could probably borrow a pint if that is what is needed.
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