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Sharkguy
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - 09:16 pm: | 
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I like murpheys oil soap applied with a sponge, rinse, then rinse with Mr. clean auto wash no spot rinse (DI water). I used to also use the leaf blower to dry the bike, but I stopped, thinking that perhaps I was forcing water into places it shouldn't be. |
Gusmiami
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - 09:25 pm: |
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I would recommend against using any sort of dish soap when washing a car or motorcycle. The uly might be a bit different because of the plastics, but remember that dish soap is a de-greaser and the paint on most vehicles is oil based. Using dish washing soap on a car will dull the paint and I'm not so sure the same wont happen to the uly if you use it often enough. |
Gusmiami
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - 09:36 pm: |
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To each his own, but I personally don't see the glory in riding around with a dirty bike. I can understand maybe after an off-road trip/adventure as a sort of battle-scar, but after a day or two of that.....i'd need to wash the damn bike.
Besides, i cant imagine that any of us would have appreciated our bikes, just before we bought them, sitting in the showroom (or wherever you bought it from) and the bike looking like sh!#!!!
And don't think that we don't ride our bikes. We can ride year round here and we've done two 2,500 mile trips in the past year. But at the halfway point, i wash the bike and do the same when i get back. If you guys saw my bike you'd probably laugh your asses off because it still looks like it could sit in a showroom.
(Message edited by Gusmiami on September 15, 2010) |
Ourdee
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - 10:43 pm: |
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It ain't glory, I'm lazy. This week I've been washing machines at work. I don't feel like going home and washing another machine. Even one of the guys at work that doesn't ride has been telling me to wash it. |
Gusmiami
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - 10:52 pm: |
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Understandable. Shouldn't feel like a chore. |
Etennuly
| | Posted on Thursday, September 16, 2010 - 05:18 pm: |
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Odd, to me at least. I have only a few times seen cars or bikes painted with oil based paints. The Uly isn't painted, but technically it's plastics and powder coatings are probably oil based.
I saw a neighbor kid steal a mini bike many years ago who when he got it to his house painted it with some old oil based house paint to hide it's color. He still got caught though 'cause he stole it from three houses away.
Lots of times people will paint demolition derby cars with oil base house paints, mostly because they are cheap and handy.
Dish soap will not hurt those finishes either, however it is a mild degreaser which is why it works so well at removing oil, bug snot and such, and one of the better reasons that it is good for removing grime and dirt is that it lubricates the surface to 'float' particles off.
If it leaves a surface looking dull, you either got one with additives that enhance it's dish-shining capability, fragrance, hand softening, or it did not get rinsed completely, or it washed off a wax or polish that was keeping an otherwise dull finish shiny.
The Dawn regular blue liquid dish detergent mixed with water is not going to hurt or damage any of the surfaces on a Uly. And as I proved to a customer this morning in my body shop, with a strong enough mix it works great for taking off tree sap and old wax build up from an automotive finish while not hurting the 12 hour old urethane clear coat that I put on it yesterday. Now that their vehicle is clean again, they can go back to the car wash and wax away at it.
Because I own, and I am in a body and paint shop nearly every day, I cannot have any of my vehicles slathered in silicon dressings, polishes, or waxes. I have to settle for just really clean. The shiny stuff is for customer vehicles on the way out the door. I use my bike to transport customer vehicles to and from my shop so having that stuff on my hands and clothes is a bad thing. Minute specks of it can ruin an expensive well prepped paint job.
At 53000+ miles, a couple of hours of buffing, and polishing would make mine qualify for a showroom look also. However, like today, my bike was clean, but I picked up a customer vehicle thirty miles away and rode in the rain for half of it.
I used to be an extremist the other way. I had a new '79 Honda 750SS that I rode for three hours, then spent eight hours cleaning and polishing. 12000 miles of riding and several hundred hours of cleaning in four years. The Uly is more like 15000 miles a year and ten hours of cleaning. |
Gusmiami
| | Posted on Thursday, September 16, 2010 - 05:41 pm: |
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But don't you use de-greaser (which is essentially what dish soap is) to remove the wax from a surface your going to paint in your shop? This is why I have always been told to never use it on a car or a bike (if painted). |
Gusmiami
| | Posted on Thursday, September 16, 2010 - 05:47 pm: |
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By the way thanks for clarifying about the paint. Perhaps I misunderstood someone when they told me about that........I guess they were referring to the wax itself.
In any case, de-greaser + anything I'm going to wash = bad (to me). |
Motorfish
| | Posted on Thursday, September 16, 2010 - 05:55 pm: |
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There is nothing wrong with a clean bike. I only have time to do it once or twice a year, and after every wash I stand back and say, "Man this thing looks great cleaned up, I should do it more often." But is doesn`t happen. Wish I had the time to do it. To get bugs off of, I find using a bath towel soaked in hot tap water, laid over the windshield and allowed to sit for a few minutes, works well. Kind of loosens up the splat. |
Etennuly
| | Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 09:17 am: |
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Petroleum type degreasers will usually not touch organic type of dirt(water soluble), they take of waxes, road tar, grease, and oils.
For tree sap, dirt, road grime and such, soapy water is needed first. It actually protects the surface by making it both slippery so that the dirt "floats" off and by breaking down the dirt's grip on the surface so that you don't have to scratch it to get it to break loose. Pre wetting is good to help too.
Then there are PolyCracking cleaners for removing silicon based products that are only as good as the millionth rag in the process of wiping all of it off.
If you spent the weekend waxing your vehicle, using dish soap to wash it would be counter productive. It is a mild acidic degreaser that will usually remove at least part of most waxes. Generally waxes and polishes fill the little micro scratches in the surfaces of your paint, there for, your paint looks much shinier when waxed and dull when it is cleaned off. |
Wolfridgerider
| | Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 09:32 am: |
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If you spent the weekend waxing your vehicle, using dish soap to wash it would be counter productive.
never thought about that.... |
Gusmiami
| | Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 09:49 am: |
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That's what I was getting at before. Definitely not a good idea to use something that removes grease when that's pretty much what's on the surface (wax)? And nowadays you can buy car-washing soap as easy as dish-washing soap......they sell the stuff in the supermarket. |
Etennuly
| | Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 11:52 am: |
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Yep you are correct!
Wow.....this has gone full circle, eh?
BUT.....it is a good idea to use the dish soap if you do not want a waxy film on your bike. AND as I stated much earlier, it does an excellent job of removing dried bug splat, especially when working with a night of soaking with dew. You may get good results with one of the car wash soaps, I don't know because I cannot have the waxy silicon laced stuff around my shop. However, those that I have tried away from here were not as good as advertised. |
Froggy
| | Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 12:29 pm: |
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Anybody here want to make a few bucks and clean/detail my 4 bikes? |
Wolfridgerider
| | Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 12:33 pm: |
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ok.... so I wanna wash my wifes black car and I want it to end up looking about a mile deep.... what should I use and do? |
Badrap
| | Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 02:49 pm: |
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The key to making the car paint look deep is the paint wet sanding/polishing/buffing not so much what soap you use. if there is enough clear coat/paint on the car, you can make it look pretty good but be careful, especially around the body edges. |
7873jake
| | Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 07:13 pm: |
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Wolfridgerider,
Ever put a clay bar to a black car? That and a good wax after will give it some depth and take out any waterspots and other crap.
I think Griot's garage website has a stupid 2 minute video on the nuances of clay bar'ing a car, if you want to peruse that one. |
Gusmiami
| | Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 07:35 pm: |
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You beat me to it. I was going to suggest the same thing. I would also recommend that to remove bugs and whatever else sticks to your windscreen.
But back to the car.....You'd be amazed at how much crap comes off your paint with a clay bar even AFTER you wash it. It's easy to use. Wash the car well and don't bother drying it. Spray a section of the car (Door for example) with some quick-detailer then flatten out a walnut sized piece of the clay and rub it over the quick-detailer you just sprayed on the car. The quick detailer serves as a lubricant. It'll feel gritty at first but should feel smooth in no time. |
Etennuly
| | Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 08:37 pm: |
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On a black car, stay in the shade to do it. Yep, do the wash first (dish soap here is a good idea, it will get a lot of old wax off and other crap, and you don't want to use a car wash with wax in it before using a clay bar) do the clay bar. Now you will have a truly clean finish.
There are black polishes specifically for black cars that are similar to black shoe polish. If it is dull from microscratches in the clear coat this stuff works pretty well. Or take it to a Simonize car wash and spend twenty bucks for the full outside detail deal. They do a great job around Knoxville area.
I used them to do my black Denali because we have hard water with minerals that will stain it if it dries on the vehicle. They have products in their recycled water other than softeners that are called 'water wetters'. Really is great for washing cars. They could do in ten minutes for twelve bucks what would take me five hours and twenty dollars worth of materials. |
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