Cleaning Products

[darrsi]

I used to use a mechanic who for some reason would always use something like Mr Sheen on my seat every time I picked the bike up.
Caught me out every time sliding to the back of the seat as soon as I gave the bike a bit of welly.

[Frosties]

Muc Off and Mr Sheen with ACF50 over winter.

[tommyardin]

I knew someone would mention salt in the washing up liquid, when I was a poor apprentice still living at home  my RD250 would get washed every week for two years with whatever washing up liquid I found  in my mums kitchen, never did it any harm.
I think you would have to leave your bike soaking in neat washing up liquid for years for any effect to be noticed.

I'm sure you right about washing up liquid not doing any immediate harm and maybe soaking the bike in the stuff for a year might not do any great damage (not quite sure how you test that one out) but smokers say similar things to that about the 30 fags they have smoked a day for the last 40 years 'it's never done me any harm' cough! cough!
My guess would be most people would say best not take the risk, anyway a Fazer is not meant to smell of lemons.

[YamFazFan]

Washing up liquid is basically a de-greaser isn't it?

I wouldn't have thought it was a good idea to de-grease the whole bike.

[red98]

Gunk degreaser , turtle wash'n'wax , turtle polish , hose and bucket

sorry about the piccie, wet hands as half way through a pre winter clean  ...

[mickvp]

I knew someone would mention salt in the washing up liquid, when I was a poor apprentice still living at home  my RD250 would get washed every week for two years with whatever washing up liquid I found  in my mums kitchen, never did it any harm.
I think you would have to leave your bike soaking in neat washing up liquid for years for any effect to be noticed.

The leaving in on is not the problem. The fairy liquid itself is just a degreaser. The problem lies in the salt when it is rubbed over the paint. The salt is harder than the paint surface and so it causes micro abrasions and marring on the paint surface which affect the finish.

That being said, the best product in the world will do exactly the same thing when coupled with a poor wash technique. For many marring and swirls are an inevitability.

The colour of the paint has an effect as well as swirls and marring don't show up much on silver or white paint, but show up a lot on black paint.

This is a car I did a while ago which had been being washed with a poor wash method and using fairy liquid:



The sun is showing the swirls pretty clearly.

And the same car after having the swirls corrected via machine polishing:



Being honest though, most people don't even look to that sort of level and yes, it's pretty anal to the n'th degree. If swirls don't bother you then fairy liquid is no problem - it does strip wax off though so if you want your wax to last I would use something less aggressive.

I use turtle wax wash j wax from Costco - its £15 for 25 litres and does the job. Polishing I use a few things depending on what I want to do and I use collinite 476s for my waxing.

[HarryHornby]

I gave the bike a clean today and thought I would try the Mr Sheen approach, bloody brilliant, I don't care if it doesn't last it was very quick and it's now really shiney..... pics to follow once I upload them to the PC. 

[slappy]

Comparing using washing up liquid to smoking is a bit much!
Car shampoo will leave a slight coating a wax but it has to be a  very very small amout otherwise it would leave your seat, brake discs etc with a coating of wax on , not a good idea.

[Anquetil]

I used All Year Biker to do the work.Thorough clean, shampoo, ACF 50 pressure misted, wax to paintwork and fairings. Takes about 90 minutes. £70 of my pension but well worth it. Ready for the winter in North Wales.

[tommyardin]

I used All Year Biker to do the work.Thorough clean, shampoo, ACF 50 pressure misted, wax to paintwork and fairings. Takes about 90 minutes. £70 of my pension but well worth it. Ready for the winter in North Wales.

Damn!  i would not ride my bike if the frost was that hard 

[tommyardin]

Comparing using washing up liquid to smoking is a bit much!
Car shampoo will leave a slight coating a wax but it has to be a  very very small amout otherwise it would leave your seat, brake discs etc with a coating of wax on , not a good idea.

Ha ha! Yeah when I think about it like that it does sound a tad silly.
What I really wanted to say was it's like the mindset of the of the smoker saying stuff like ' I have done this for 40 years and it has never done me any harm'
There is possilby unseen damage going on.


I worked on the building sites since the early to mid 60's and really believed that the outside life was a healthy option, physical activity plenty of fresh air, manual stuff keeping weight down and causing the old oil pump to thump away pumping the blood around, the heart is like any other muscle if you work it will become stronger.
So I believed that I was fit and strong and I worked as a self employed brickie until I was nearly 69, still well able to do the job, but worn out wrist joints caused arthritis and could no longer do the job, so I retired. I have recently discovered that I have asbestosis caused by some the materials that were used in construction years ago, insulation materials and roof cladding sheets. This stuff has been working away in the background in my bellows un-noticed for 50 or more years doing damage that is unrepairable.
Which has got fuck all to do with washing your RD in Fairy Liquid lol! 

[joebloggs]

I used to use white parafin for degreasing but find it difficult to get around here, and more to point its become expensive. I used No Nonsense from Screwfix recently and was well impressed, dilute it cleaned off old oil deposits etc and used neat it made pretty short work of the build up of chain lube from behind the sprocket cover.

At aprox £8 a gallon it didn't break the bank and goes a long way.

Have also only ever used furniture polish on the bike, car wax's may give a better finish but far to much like hard work.

[fazersharp]

I used to use white parafin for degreasing but find it difficult to get around here, and more to point its become expensive. I

Almost every garage sell it outside in the bins that also have the smokeless coal. not sure about cost but cheaper than the "muc offs"