How to best clean your bike?

[Donzzz]

So I bought my Gixxer 600 K7.. The guy (nice chap) lives in Welly. I flew down and rode it back to Aucks today!!!

A fantastic road trip. Me, my new bike and the open road. Not the best weather must say, freakin whole country was racked with a bloody thunderstorm, still managed to find lots of sunny breaks though. The wet/windy stretch through Tongariro national park very nearly made me turn around, but I trudged along...

So I'm back in Auckland now, a proud accomplishment on one hand and a dirty bike on the other. This is my first 600cc, first time I rode 7 hours at a stretch and the worst weather I've ever endured on two wheels all in the same day by the way. I would say I'm a little pleased. If you have any stories share please.

So back to my question: How do I best clean it? I'm saying no to hosing it down, also saying no to weilding a toothbrush for the next 3 hours. Looking for some tips, tricks, best practices and whatever-you-do-dont-do-this's

Thanks guys, and special thanks to those KBers who gave me some good advise prior to this purchase.

Donny

[Marmoot]

Hose it down, then wash it with a bucket of warm water and good carwash soap (meguiar or turtle wax) with a clean soft sponge. Then dry it with a good clean chamois.
Apply good wax (I use Meguiar gold class) on the painted plastic parts, let dry (10-15 minutes minimum), then wipe off with a clean microfibre cloth ($2 at Bunnings, can be washed with hot water and let dry).
Wipe unpainted metal parts (swingarm) with CRC or WD40 to clean any oil/chainlube residue.
Wipe the black unpainted plastic parts (mirrors etc) with a cloth sprayed with Armorall plastic protectant.
I'm not sure about wheels. I'm still fooked with cleaning wheels. I hate it. I normally just ignore them.
Don't do anything to the tyres. Leave them alone.
Methods I use 10 years so far. Still brand new look.
Happy to show results if you want.

[trailblazer]

i do exactly the same but since im a car painter i am able to get my hands on far superior wax's than mequiars. For my wheels i use an car wash brush that goes on the end of the hose. It seems to work fine for my bike but im still a newbie to this so my theory will probably change as time goes on.
congrats on the new purchase and your journey today. I to went for a ride in the worst conditions i have ridden in today but mine was by choice as i got bored sitting round the house so decided to put my gear on and go for a gentle ride. Got to get used to the rain somehow.

[Laava]

Happy to show results if you want.

Happy to see the results you get on my bike! Say 9.00am tomorrow? I'll make you a coffee. I'm good like that.

[Gone Burger]

Good thread - I'll be taking all this advice myself. Got my 1 week old bike home today from a ride and its filthy. Will be spending the day tomorrow making her shine again. Got a bag of Meguires products in the garage that I'll use after washing it. Good advice.

[Marmoot]

Happy to see the results you get on ...

You want me to polish your WHAT????

By the way, a lot of people recommend waxing once every 3-6 months.
From what I experienced, this is if you own a Fiat Panda that you don't love.
I wax mine once or twice every week or two weeks, and after 10 - 15 coats you'll notice the difference. And it's so much easier to keep clean afterwards. After riding in the rain, sufficiently waxed all you need to do is hose it down with water and wipe it clean (don't even need to soap it).

[hayd3n]

You want me to polish your WHAT????

By the way, a lot of people recommend waxing once every 3-6 months.
From what I experienced, this is if you own a Fiat Panda that you don't love.
I wax mine once or twice every week or two weeks, and after 10 - 15 coats you'll notice the difference. And it's so much easier to keep clean afterwards. After riding in the rain, sufficiently waxed all you need to do is hose it down with water and wipe it clean (don't even need to soap it).

how can i drop the soap if i dont need it??

[YellowDog]

I find Pledge furniture polish is good for removing the squished bugs and real sticky stuff like chain lube and road tar.

It doesn't give ultra-violet protection so you do need to put a proper polish on after wards. Works well on alloys too

[Taz]

What is bike cleaning? Sounds like womans work.

[CookMySock]

Basically you sit down with a bucket of hot water and a quality detergent and rip into it. It's going to take a while. There's no simple way to do a good job.

A few tricks I use ;

Squirt the loose shit off with the waterblaster first. Take care not to directly squirt things like alloy-finned coolers, and bearing seals - you will fuck them instantly.

Use a detergent that actually works! Many car cleaning products are just slimy bubbly bottles of crap that just soften the water and don't dissolve jack shit. Find a cleaner than actually dissolves dirt and removes it. Test on a really stubborn patch of dirt and you will see what I mean. See if you can find a workshop that uses the yellow Tergo handwash (the one that smells like lemons) and "borrow" a couple of pumps of it - try this stuff when getting stubborn shit off - its fooken magic!

Keep the amount of water down and the temperature up . Use the detergent mixed as concentrated as you can.

Other than that, its just sitting next to your bike with the rag and bucket of hot water and going for it.

Steve

[Maki]

DO NOT go anywhere near your bike with hot water!!! unless you want it to rust. Use cold water ONLY. Do not use household detergents either because they may contain salt, which also leads to rust.

Hose the bike down with cold water, use a sponge and a product intended for cleaning cars or bikes to get the gunge off and then wax it.

[Kickaha]

How do I best clean it?

Paying a groomer to do it always worked for me

[Virago]

DO NOT go anywhere near your bike with hot water!!! unless you want it to rust. Use cold water ONLY...

That's a new one on me. How does hot water cause rust?

[dipshit]

So back to my question: How do I best clean it? I'm saying no to hosing it down, also saying no to weilding a toothbrush for the next 3 hours. Looking for some tips, tricks, best practices and whatever-you-do-dont-do-this's

I like Muc-off cleaner for the swingarm and under tail section. There's lots of swingarm on a GSXR to clean! Muc-off makes it easy.

[Donzzz]

Wow thats just brilliant, thanks guys, katiepie and the other girl (you know who you are Laava) haha

Well today is just as good as any other, infact better since there's some fooken sun. If you see a blinding, burn-a-hole-in-yo-retinas shining Black Gixxer on the roads soon, you know your advice came in handy...