Washing your bike

Which I assume is the pink stuff you tried.

It needs to be sprayed on, left for a full ten minutes to allow it to do its job and then sprayed off.

Or maybe the grime is just worse in the Southen Suburbs .

By the time we get home to the deep south after a trip it is dark and the dirt has settled down for the night...

The pink stuff is an actaul product. Used to buy it from Builders.

I will try Prepsol. Can I presume it can be bought anywhere?

Try MX Dirt Bike Cleaner (biodegradable and can clean anything).

You do realize no matter what product you use, a little bit of elbow grease is required?

Two blocks from your house is KingTec - Andrew King has some purple stuff he sells for cleaning mud.  He has another product good for grease etc.

I buy the Prepsol at Midas. I don't water it down at all but put it in a spray applicator and cover the bike in it. Wait ten minutes and spray off.

I find with neat Prepsol almost no elbow grease is required, but I always have my wife wash the bike again with sponge, warm water and car wash just to make sure. 

When I bought my bike I asked the same question and was advised by many people to use Prepsol.

I bought 5lts 2 weeks ago at Southern Motor Spares in Maitland for R75. I use a garden pressure sprayer and hose it off using a pressure spray gun after ten minutes as Warren suggests. Ride the bike around the block and dry with a chamois.

I use Shadrack,

works well, does not scratch the windscreen, takes about 45 minutes to do the whole bike.

Best when shaken, not stirred.

If not available anywhere, I follow Warren's advise, using a similar thingummy to what Badger has but with compressor air and then use Cloud's elbow grease procedure.

Sometimes If I'm really sick, I use that white paste in the Gold tube and buff the exhausts with a brilo pad and a soft rag to bring out some shine.

I NEVER EVER ALLOW A HIGH PRESSURE WATER GUN NEAR MY BIKE AND SHOOT TO KILL IF ONE DOES COME CLOSE.

High pressure water spry forces water into orifices that water is not meant to into, much like falling at speed while water-skiing.

Bike part internals, like my colon, do not like water forced in 'cos all sorts of things go wrong after that.

I've read somewhere on the forum that electrical parts do not like water inside them any more than greased parts do.

But Leon, there's some 23 products you still have to try and report back on.

Please post once you have done more tests.

Long live Prepsol, if used diluted with water, it does a grand job for the ten mins it sits and swills over the bike and it does not drain your pocket like the purple, green or other colour stuffs do.

I let the bike cool down, spray off the mud/dust with water.

Let the bike stand for 10min, spray Clean Green on hard to clean places (brakes, rear shock, final drive etc)

Then use car wash n wax with a small broom and mag brush. Wash the whole bike from top to bottom, tyres and all.

Then if I want to brag with the bike I use a small paint brush with liquid silicon (bought at Autozone) on all the black plastics.

I really love my bike so I'm prepared to spend time with it. 

Clean green, applied with pressure garden sprayer followed with the above

Take all of 10 minutes

What an evergreen topic this is (and I'm not talking about KG)

Some enduro / MX chaps have changed from Prepsol to Dirt Nurse and say that it is superior. Another guy with decades of experience claims that Castrol engine cleaner, although expensive, is also a far sight better than Prepsol.

I have tried neither but am willing to experiment, even though Prepsol has been my substance of choice for over a decade, preferrably used in the shade

I don't believe there is a magic liquid that will simply dissolve even the thickest of deposits after a blast with a hose, for those I use a  suitable paint brush with bristles trimmed shorter to get the required scrubbing effect. You also get those long handled jobs for hard to reach places.

PELOX Pickling Paste TS-K green to clean stained exhaust headers. Pickling paste removes annealing colours, welding scale and corrosion in the area of welding and heat affected zones of stainless steel materials. Afrox also supply pickling paste. This product has a hazard warning and toxic by inhalation of gas vapour because it contains hydrofluoric and nitric acid. Please follow the direction very carefully. It cleans heavily stained exhaust header like new, however a little bit of polish just finishes the job. The result is surprising.

For the other stained metal surfaces, such as Aluminium rims, I use Quattro Acon Cleaner, manufactured and distributed by Angelchem. http://www.angelchem.co.za/SearchEngine/Details.asp?DataID=1465

This product has many uses but is developed for the cleaning of air conditioner radiators.

Enjoy your bike also by cleaning it..

Please do heed André's advice on hydrofluoric acid, this stuff is bad news. 

Charl, you beaut! do you also do other bikes?

I would love to do the same as you for my bike,

sed tempus fugit, & I never get there.

So what do you charge?

Merantime, My RT enjoys her bath at  the carwash in High Street under the centre there for 75rond, whenever I can get it there- onced a week or twiced a week.

They really do a swell job and take good care, Still cannot get them to collect and deliver like they cars. But I'm working on this.

My GSA has to wait for Shadrack every Tuesday still.

As for Annie, hmm her bike gets washed by Donfrod every ten thousand kilometers, but lets not go there....very sore point, and bound to end me up tonight on a diet of cold bum and hot tongue..

Eish!

I find that Prepsol makes my bikes exhaust go a golden yellow

Graham, interesting that comment.

Can you get it back to silver again with polish?

I dispense a water/prepsol solution by air compressor, leave it on for ten minutes and then wahs off with hose.

Then I start the TLC with soap water and a rag and then a rinse.

Have not seen it make g'saust go yellowy at all.

Please read "I really love my bike so I'm prepared to spend time with it."

If you can help it don't spray degreaser (Prepsol/Clean Green) on your bike while in the sun and then take a phone call or two.

I did this to my red Adventure and spent that evening polishing out water marks on the screen and in the red paint

Ok I used MX Dirt Bike Cleaner as per Mr. Cloudgazer. It is Ok but still not strong as I would like it to be.

I now using Prepsol. Very nice but I still need a little elbow grease.

I will now go visit Kingtek and see what he has to sell.

Watch this post for more feedback

Elbow-grease will always be needed unless you use very high pressure, which is not recommended.  I just use a big soft dustpan brush to quickly give the bike a once-over when it is soapy (with the purple stuff from Andrew King).

Once it is rinsed off with the hose, I give it a quick dry on the big panels and black plastic where watermarks show, with a big fluffy bathroom towel.  Use a dark colour so your wife can't see the greasemarks.  A short spin to warm up and dry the engine, and blow water out the crevices and the bike is good as second-hand.

I still swear by Prepsol and my high pressure cleaner.

I am very careful where to and not to spray the high pressure stream but it cleans the bike spotlessly and I have never had issues with the electrics, bearings etc.......

By the way does anyone have a contact to buy Prepsol in 25lt plastic drums? Vernon Bosch an ex member now living in Durban used to get it for us at a great price.

but Geoff, you never have  your bike long enough to know!

Touche my dear.

Wayne from Atlantic Motorrad recons he has a better cleaner than prepsol that they use and it is apparently cheaper.

He is going to give me some to try.

I will give feedback.

In your dreams Warren

Charl,

Regarding Prepsol on the screen my experience is as follows :

On the adventure spraying it on the screen and leaving it on for a 10 minutes is not a problem if you dilute the mixture 50-50!

It does however stain the two metal plates on the side of the fuel tank nearest the saddle.....this comes of with Mr Min and a cloth.

However on the dark screens like my Sons Dakar if you spray Prepsol on to it and leave it for even a short time it stains the screen. I remove these stains with normal Rally car polish!!