• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

Best Dirty Bike Wash?

kantuckid

New member
My bike has 5k of Mexico all over it and now that the weather is turning around-what is a really good bike wash and where do I get it?I'll add that I'm rural and have zero bike dealers anywhere near.:ear
 
I favor Dawn dishwashing liquid in a bucket of hot water, with a scrub brush, washing rag, and sponge handy. Wet down liberally with the hose, scrub with soapy water using the brush, rag, or sponge as easiest for the part being scrubbed. Rinse. Repeat as needed.
 
I am reluctant to criticize anything Paul says. He knows a lot more about maintaining bikes than I will ever know. But I have to question his choice of Dawn. As a youngster I always cleaned my cars and bikes with dish washing cleaners. But I have since read many articles stating that dish washing detergents have degreasing cleaners that are not recommended for automotive finishes. A time or two probably wouldn't do much harm but long term it supposedly has a detrimental effect on the finish. It will also strip most protective wax finishes. Maybe Paul knows something about Dawn that I don't. I would drop by the auto parts store and buy any good name brand auto cleaner. They aren't very expensive and you will be assured of a product designed for the paints used on cars and bikes.

Sorry Paul. Now set me straight.
 
I recall this discussion back a few clicks.

Some dealer on the East Coast has a very detailed article on line about how to get the job done from headlight to taillight.

Have to hustle off to a birthday party a few hundred miles from her. Will try to dig it out on return - if somebody has not found the article by then.
 
I've heard some of the same things about not using dish detergent. But the reason given was mostly the part already mentioned that the degreasers are strong enough to remove the wax you might have worked so hard to apply.

Maybe if you don't wax your bike you don't have to worry about it!
 
On the r1150r forum I have a post that says the Aerostich green stuff is great. Who cares about wax when your bike is really grungy? Clean is the issue and waxing a bike is not hard at all. If you are talking a normally dirty 4 wheel vehicle that you spent hours waxing, that is another matter. I have always used the dish wash/dawn approach on bikes only-OR- vehicles that I am going to perform body work on and need to not have wax in the mix. I also use it on new body parts before I scuff them as a prewash. There are commercial washes to use for this purpose too. Now that my brain is churning(HA) I am thinking of my wifes Dawn that's for 10x the grease??? might do wonders on my lower bikes grunge...
 
I used to use Dawn, too. My brother-in-law, who takes much better care of his vehicles than I do, uses carwash stuff you get at the auto parts store. I started using that too and have found it works a lot better than Dawn. :dunno Just my humble opinion.
 
I use mag wheel cleaner, the kind you spray on. I only use it on the engine and metal parts and I spray it on and rinse it off. Every time I go to the dealer they remark how good of shape my 04 r1150gs is in and how easy it is to service, bolts easy to remove etc. It has 63,000 miles of all kinds of riding on it also. I also spray all the metal and controls with WD-40 before I put it away in the fall to keep everything lubed. Seems to work for me but I'm sure some would argue it hurts protective finishes or something but has not seemed to be an issue for my bike.
Also I clean with the WD-40, it removes tar from the muffler and other debris that seems to stick like glue to a motorcycle.

Brett Endress
Altoona pa
 
I use Simple Green, ridiculously diluted. I hose down the motorcycle, then spray Simple Green over the particularly grungy areas to let it soak. Then, in ~4 gallons of HOT water, I put about a cup of concentrated Simple Green. I use a sponge, rag, brush or whatever to scrub the motorcycle stem-to-stern, and then rinse thoroughly. I hit the instrument cluster and mirrors and a few other nooks and crannies with compressed air to blow out the water. Then I towel-dry whatever's still wet. I gave up on waxing motorcycles years and years ago.
 
I use a hose to knock off most of the dirt & then use S100 along with a soft bristle brush to get the rest of the grime. Rinse throughly, clean windscreen, wax/polish if needed, and relax with a cold beer. Ride Safe :drink :usa :usa
 
I recall this discussion back a few clicks.

Some dealer on the East Coast has a very detailed article on line about how to get the job done from headlight to taillight.

Have to hustle off to a birthday party a few hundred miles from here. Will try to dig it out on return - if somebody has not found the article by then.

Found it! Everything you need to know about detailing your Beemer.

Go to Mortons BMW Motorcycles

Click on Features which will bring up a page full of interesting articles.

At the bottom click on Beemer Detailing by Bill Shaw. This is the preface:

There is a perception within the BMW motorcycling community that anyone with a clean bike, particularly a GS, must not ride far or often, or would rather clean it than ride it. As a matter of fact, Lifetime BMW MOA member and GS rider Don Graling is often heard saying that "a clean GS is a dirty shame." Well, I am here to suggest that the two do not have to be mutually exclusive.

There are a number of advantages to periodically cleaning your bike like protecting your investment, taking pride in its appearance, or, for those attentive riders mindful of costly repairs, identifying problems before they occur. It should be considered routine maintenance, which is why I recommend doing it with the same commitment and regularity as a 3,000-mile oil change.

Coupled with ideas given to me by friends, as well as information gleaned from the Internet, marketing literature and other reading material, the following is a compilation of techniques that I've been using for years to clean my Beemers.
 
Hmmmm....nobody else here just waits until it rains?
When I travelled through Manitoba and Saskatchewan last summer, the panniers, engine guards, windshield and even my boots were covered with grasshoppers. I did have at least one daytime rain and two overnight rains before I got home. Arrived home with no grasshoppers. That acid rain sure did the trick cleaning up my bike.

Normally when I return from a ride, less than five minutes with a hose and a quick wipe down will have the bike looking respectably clean for my next ride.
 
Go to a HD forum for tips on cleaning. Essentially, clean & polish 23 hours for every
hour riding. Only ride on nice days. Better yet, put the bike in the back of a truck
and drive it where-ever. Save's alot of polishing time.
 
There are riders and there are cleaners....

Go to a HD forum for tips on cleaning. Essentially, clean & polish 23 hours for every
hour riding. Only ride on nice days. Better yet, put the bike in the back of a truck
and drive it where-ever. Save's alot of polishing time.
....read that in one of the "ON" mags. Your post is funny and....contains a lot of truth. I do clean my bikes now and again, but it's not a priority and I kind of appreciate "the rode hard and put up wet" look. When I do clean I spray with "Bike Bright" and rinse. That's pretty much it, with maybe a yearly wax. A bottle of Bike Bright will last a year so; if you're a rural sort buy a couple of bottles next time you are in a metropolis and you'll be good to go for a long spell!
 
Hmmmm....nobody else here just waits until it rains?

I'm with you, bro'. My '06 LT has never been polished. I've given her maybe three light, sloppy washings in almost 80,000 miles, and she's sexy as ever. Thunderstorms remove bugs. The windscreen and mirrors are all that get regular attention.
It's been said that one can not see the motorcycle one is riding. I'd like to add the caveat that one can not see that motorcycle if one is riding it hard.
 
Last edited:
Bike cleaning

Some time back there was an article or thread somewhere that was very enlightening about bike cleaning. You should, according to it and I have found it works very well, always START by cleaning the lower portion of your bike first.

I have one bucket for the lower and another for the upper. Into the lower goes, and I just had to go to the garage to see what it is I use, goes anything from Simple Green, to Purple Power, to 407 - and sometimes its a mix of those. I use either Purple Power or BMW M/C Wheel Cleaner [~$20 at the dealer - very good stuff!] on the wheels - they work well at removing the build-up of dirt and grunge. Various brushes help do the work and a kitchen scruber with sponge on one side and soft plastic scratcher on the other can also help.

I use Purple Power or 407 on the engine and other dirty lower [unpainted] parts - rinsing all frequently. Again, different brushes and scrubber to aid in removal.

For the top/painted/windshield et al parts of the bike, a new bucket of hot sudsy water [any car wash cleaner from the local auto parts store]. Before wetting the top down I use hydrogen peroxide on the bugs - bubbles them off and doesn't harm the surface. Then I scrub the windshield first with a dedicated car mitt or sponge [last one came from wallyworld and has neat little danglies on it and is soft but cleans well.] Again rinse frequently. I use a long soft brush on the cables, lines, controls as the brush gets down in where bulker items can't.

Finally a compressor to blow off/out most of the water; towel dry with a microfiber towel and go for a ride to dry out the brakes and get the remaining water out from the hidden recesses - oh WTF - I just like to ride!

For leather I use Lexol products - also from auto parts stores or cage wash businesses.
 
Some time back there was an article or thread somewhere that was very enlightening about bike cleaning. You should, according to it and I have found it works very well, always START by cleaning the lower portion of your bike first.

I have one bucket for the lower and another for the upper. Into the lower goes, and I just had to go to the garage to see what it is I use, goes anything from Simple Green, to Purple Power, to 407 - and sometimes its a mix of those. I use either Purple Power or BMW M/C Wheel Cleaner [~$20 at the dealer - very good stuff!] on the wheels - they work well at removing the build-up of dirt and grunge. Various brushes help do the work and a kitchen scruber with sponge on one side and soft plastic scratcher on the other can also help.

I use Purple Power or 407 on the engine and other dirty lower [unpainted] parts - rinsing all frequently. Again, different brushes and scrubber to aid in removal.

For the top/painted/windshield et al parts of the bike, a new bucket of hot sudsy water [any car wash cleaner from the local auto parts store]. Before wetting the top down I use hydrogen peroxide on the bugs - bubbles them off and doesn't harm the surface. Then I scrub the windshield first with a dedicated car mitt or sponge [last one came from wallyworld and has neat little danglies on it and is soft but cleans well.] Again rinse frequently. I use a long soft brush on the cables, lines, controls as the brush gets down in where bulker items can't.

Finally a compressor to blow off/out most of the water; towel dry with a microfiber towel and go for a ride to dry out the brakes and get the remaining water out from the hidden recesses - oh WTF - I just like to ride!

For leather I use Lexol products - also from auto parts stores or cage wash businesses.

and ... check out post #12 - good gouge there.
 
Back
Top