Andi
06-13-2004, 05:43 PM
Cleaning - U need a very soft brush. (a shoe buffing brush) is enough, big enough, soft enough and hard enough - all at the same time. The backing handle is not the flat wooden type but is plastic with curly back bits that fit around your fingers. This is useful when squeezing your fingers in between spokes without leaving the brush behind. A toothbrush is also good. A powerful hand-held spray bottle for spraying the soapy water before brushing is useful. You can make your own degreaser by adding a good squirt of dish wash liquid to 400ml of paraffin. Use good car shampoo for the plastics as it is usually cheaper than the special bike stuff. Do not use dish wash liquid on the fairings as it removes the protective silicon layers. Do not use steam or high pressure water hoses to clean your bike as it damages the grease packed into the bearings. You can use them on your wheel rims and spokes if you have tubeless tires. If you have spoked wheels with tubes ensure that you ride the bike afterwards to evaporate any water that may have forced its way inside the rims. This avoids rust where the spokes penetrates the rim.
Very fine steel wool available at good hardware stores is also great. Ask for the type that cabinet makers use to buff wood with. This does a great job on greasy inaccessible spokes and very dirty wheel rims. Use sparingly however and do not use this on any surface that is coated in some way as it will remove the coating. A sponge - the type used to clean floors with, the type that goes hard when dry. This is useful if you wet only the front bit and use the hard back as a support to push and maneuver with. This type of sponge does a good job when you are applying a UV plastic protector liquid to any black plastic or rubber surfaces your motorcycle may have. It works because you can push the soft front into inaccessible places with the harder back part of the sponge.
Service/repair - My suggestion is to take off all the non essential fairings/plastics and then ride your motorbike in naked - the BIKE, not the rider! This allows you to inspect it thoroughly yourself before you hand it over and no, you do not have to be a mechanic to do this. Look for cracked rubber hoses, rubber hoses that have become hard and brittle, loose bits, missing bolts, loose spokes, loose and chaffed electrical wires, soiled areas as a result of a leak, battery water levels, battery acid corrosion around the battery area, kinks in your chain, worn chain master link, thin brake pads and all other fluid levels. Then you can specify your concerns on paper when you check it in. When you collect your bike you can then see the work for yourself as 'the lack of work' cannot be hidden behind the plastics.
Very fine steel wool available at good hardware stores is also great. Ask for the type that cabinet makers use to buff wood with. This does a great job on greasy inaccessible spokes and very dirty wheel rims. Use sparingly however and do not use this on any surface that is coated in some way as it will remove the coating. A sponge - the type used to clean floors with, the type that goes hard when dry. This is useful if you wet only the front bit and use the hard back as a support to push and maneuver with. This type of sponge does a good job when you are applying a UV plastic protector liquid to any black plastic or rubber surfaces your motorcycle may have. It works because you can push the soft front into inaccessible places with the harder back part of the sponge.
Service/repair - My suggestion is to take off all the non essential fairings/plastics and then ride your motorbike in naked - the BIKE, not the rider! This allows you to inspect it thoroughly yourself before you hand it over and no, you do not have to be a mechanic to do this. Look for cracked rubber hoses, rubber hoses that have become hard and brittle, loose bits, missing bolts, loose spokes, loose and chaffed electrical wires, soiled areas as a result of a leak, battery water levels, battery acid corrosion around the battery area, kinks in your chain, worn chain master link, thin brake pads and all other fluid levels. Then you can specify your concerns on paper when you check it in. When you collect your bike you can then see the work for yourself as 'the lack of work' cannot be hidden behind the plastics.