Most readers of this blog think of me as just a software geek… which is understandable considering that’s usually all I ever talk about. What you may not know, however, is that I’m an avid motorcycle enthusiast, and have been riding motorbikes (of different shapes, sizes and generations) my entire adult life!

Most of what I know about motorcycles (specifically with relation to maintaining them) I have taught myself through a combination of research and experience (often bitter).

As I ride the roads in the UK, I notice a disturbing number of rider’s bikes in unnecessarily bad states of disrepair, and when I speak to these riders (as I occasionally have the opportunity to do so) to ask them how they maintain their bikes, I’m always surprised by some of the common misconceptions directly responsible for the poor condition of their bike.

This series of articles strives to highlight (and, more importantly, correct) these misconceptions, and educate new or inexperienced riders on how to properly maintain their steeds.

How to wash a bike (properly).

Please read this guide in its entirety before you begin, and perhaps even print a copy out to reference when actually cleaning your bike! It is important you understand the entire process I’m detailing here before you begin, as once you get started, you really do need to finish before you can ride the bike again.

It is absolutely critical that you do not leave the bike wet for any prolonged period of time. Even a few hours of being wet is enough to seed rust on even the most imperceptible imperfections on the metal!

Does my bike need a wash?

The first step is to determine whether the bike actually needs washing at all. If your bike is a little dusty or has some light dirt on it, then really you shouldn’t be washing it!

Washing a “clean” motorbike just promotes corrosion, and while it may be nice to ride around on a shiny metal beast… it’s not worth it when the cost is longevity.

So, let us presume that your motorbike really does need washing…

What you will need:

• A bucket and/or un-nozzled hose
• A suitable supply of proper motorcycle soap (MuckOff, for example)
• A very soft brush
• A can of degreaser and/or bottle of Kerosene/Mineral (White) Spirits (the latter tends to work best, and is much easier to work with). DON’T GET KEROSCENE OR MINERAL (WHITE) SPIRITS IN YOUR EYES! IF YOU DO, CALL A DOCTOR OR AMBULANCE IMMEDIATELY, AND WASH YOUR EYES THOUROUGHLY AND REPEATEDLY WITH WARM SOAPY WATER!
• A box of disposable latex gloves. NOTE: These will last you a long time as they tend to be sold in boxes of 50 pairs or more. You will only need about 5 to 10 pairs for an entire cleaning session. These are important especially if you’re working with Kerosene or Mineral (White) Spirits, as these substances are strong irritants to human skin.
• At least one litre of Scottoiler FS-365 or equivalent (available cheaply online or from many good motorcycle stores around the western world)
• A hand-pumped pressure sprayer/mister bottle (available online or from any reasonable garden supply store such as B&Q in the UK). These are also often available from vehicle-specific stores, though they are identical products and tend to carry a hefty mark-up in price when purchased from a vehicle-specific store!
• A bottle of chain wax. (will last multiple cleaning sessions)
  
• A bottle of chain lube (Scottoiler chain lubricant, for example) (will last multiple cleaning sessions)
• If chain-driven motorbike: A ratchet and small socket set and/or set of hex keys (dependant on your bike)
• A large clean, dry, soft lint-free towel (make sure it’s one you can allocate specifically for use when cleaning your motorbike as you won’t be able to use it again for other purposes afterwards)
• Multiple dry lint-free soft rags/cloths (such as a pack “Jay Cloths” sold at all supermarkets)
• A tub of multi-purpose grease (sold at all vehicle or “hardware” stores such as Halfords in the UK) – NOTE: For general cleaning use, a typical tub of grease will last you at least a year, so it’s not very expensive really!
• A can of WD40 (this will last many, many washes)

The above list really does sound more expensive than it actually is. Please keep in mind that virtually everything you acquire on that list above will last you many, many washes… so it’s a nominal infrequent investment with high rewards (it’s cheaper than a new motorbike, that’s for sure).

How long will it take?

If you’re following this guide properly and not cutting any corners, you should expect it to take as much as two hours (though it will depend heavily on your bike: how big it is, how accessible it is for cleaning etc).

Cleaning a motorbike is a labour of love as much as it is necessary… so never try to wash a motorbike in a hurry as you won’t be doing your bike any favors. In fact, if you don’t have enough time to wash the bike, you’ll do far less long-term damage by riding it dirty to get whatever you need done over with.

It’s generally best to allocate an entire day for detailed bike maintenance, so you can take plenty of time to do the job properly.

What about the weather?

Well, if you’re washing your bike outside, you would obviously want favorable weather. There’s no point in trying to wash a motorbike if it’s pouring down with rain, ice cold or covered in snow!

Step 1 – The front sprocket

A good place to start is by removing the housing covering the front sprocket (if your bike is chain-driven). What you might notice is that the front sprocket is surrounded by a deep pit of oil and dirt, which has been displaced and deposited as the chain travels around the front sprocket (as this is an enclosed space where grit and oil become trapped). I have personally witnessed a front sprocket housing so thick with grit that it was actually eroding the front sprocket (and the rear plates of each chain link) from behind.

Personally I check and clean the front sprocket housing every 6 months maximum (sometimes sooner if I’ve been travelling a lot in bad conditions). If there’s a buildup of grit and oil, you should apply a little elbow-grease and degreaser (perhaps even some Kerosene or Mineral (White) Spirits) to help take away all this grime. Do NOT use a wire brush as this can seriously damage the sprocket and chain!

Leave the front sprocket casing off as this is going to help toward the end of the cleaning process. Feel free to wash and dry the sprocket casing you’ve removed so it’s ready to put back on at the very end!

Step 2 – The initial rinse

Stop right there! Was your first instinct when reading the title above to fire up a hose at full pressure, or worse-yet use a pressure washer? If so, this note of caution is for you!

Using pressure to clean a motorcycle is bad… very bad! This is because the pressure forces the grit and other hard dirt deeper into the paint, plastics, anodized and raw metals, then scrapes this all the way along the surface until it detaches from the bike. Basically it’s the same as giving your bike a sand-blasting (albeit not quite as severe in a single instance).

Simply cover the bike in cold water at as low a pressure as humany possible. You can do this by pouring one or more bucket-loads of cold water over the bike, or using an un-nozzled hose at a low pressure to apply a liberal flow of water over the entire bike.

Dependant on how much dirt is covering your bike, and what that dirt is composed of, just the initial rinse may well remove a majority of the visible dirt! Still… proceed to the next step either way!

Step 3 – Soaping it up

Stop right there! Remember to use a proper motorcycle soap. A common mistake people make is to use common dish soap or other potentially-damaging soaps. Dish soap, for example, can damage plastics and clear-coating on your paintwork. Repeated use of dish soap on a motorcycle windscreen will make it opaque (cloudy), and this cannot be undone shy of buying an entirely new windscreen (I learned this the hard way)!
Just buy and use a proper motorcycle soap, as these are designed specifically to be safe with the materials used on your motorbike, and so will not react badly. Always read the bottle, of course!

What you want to do now is spray the entire bike with the soap (don’t use a sponge or brush to apply or assist the soap, as this will eat away at the metal-work over time). I tend to buy motorcycle soap in a spray bottle, which makes it very easy to apply to even the largest of motorbikes.

Stop right there! Try your best to avoid getting any of the soap into the brake calipers, as this could reduce the effectiveness of your brakes the next time you try to use them! Don’t worry too much if you get some into the calipers, we can wash this out in Stage 4, and so long as it’s not an excessive amount, working the affected brake a little when setting off on your next ride will take care of the rest!

So, once you’ve sprayed every square inch of your bike (except the brake calipers, of course) with soap, go and make yourself a hot beverage (tea, coffee, some form of vegetable extract you like to drink even though it takes disgusting and is green) and allow the soap to soak in for at least 10 minutes, but no longer than 15 minutes.

Dependant on the weather (sun and wind in particular) the bike may appear almost dry when you return to it… but don’t worry, it’s all good!

Step 4 – The second rinse

Re-rinse your bike in fresh (clean) cold water exactly as you did in Step 2. If your motorbike soap was any good, you will now notice that a lot more (perhaps almost all) dirt has been effortlessly washed away!

Step 5 – The stubborn bits

It is almost inevitable that some dirt will remain, having stubbornly refused to go away with its fellow dirt particles. Not a problem!

Take your very soft brush, and (while applying a constant flow of low-pressure cold water) very gently (and I really do mean very gently) brush at the affected areas in a downward stroke only. Don’t do circles or any other strange patterns…. just apply light, even strokes with the brush in a downward direction until the dirt has been lifted.

Remember to use a low-pressure flow of water to help you shift the annoying bits while brushing.

You can use a bit more “force” when cleaning the engine block… it should be coated to withstand constant high temperatures, which means it’s strong enough to withstand a lot of what you could do with a soft brush.

The key here is not to rush! Take as much time as you need… even take breaks if necessary!

Pro Tip: WD40 is surprisingly good at lifting grease and oil, despite being considered greasy and oily itself. Simply spray any oily/greasy areas with a liberal amount of WD40, give it a minute or two to soak, then wash away with cold water and a soft cloth… you’ll be amazed how easily the mess disappears!

Step 6 – The windscreen, Mirrors and headlight(s)

Stop right there! Motorcycle windscreens are made of a plastic variant, unlike a car windscreen which are typically made of glass! Any petroleum/oil based cleaning chemical (including dish soap) will damage these transparent plastics irreparably! Since you’ve already sprayed these areas with motorcycle soap and left them to soak, a rinse with cold water followed by a light polishing with a soft cloth will make them shine!

Step 7 – Final rinse

Now that you’ve cleaned all the stubborn areas, you should re-rinse your bike exactly as you did in Steps 2 and 4!

Step 8 – Dry everything!

You don’t want to leave the bike wet! A wet bike is basically dissolving right in front of you (albeit at an imperceptible rate).

Grab the large, soft, dry towel and give the bike a vigorous rub-down until it is absolutely dry in every area you can reach with it.

Start from the top and work your way down, as water will drip and travel down, thus there’s no point in attempting to dry a motorbike from the bottom as it’ll be wet again before you get to the top!

Don’t worry too much about drying the wheels… wet rubber is no big deal!

You want your bike to be totally dry!

Once you’re done with the towel, fire up your engine and let it idle for about 10 minutes. This will warm up your engine and help evaporate any moisture from areas you were unable to reach.

Now let the engine cool for 5 minutes, and dry up any dislodged water you see with the towel.

Your bike is now as dry as you can physically make it shy of stripping it apart!

Step 9 – Chain Lubrication (the right way)

Since you’ve just washed your bike, you’ve washed all the lubrication off your chain! Obviously this is going to need to be restored before you ride the bike, or the chain will suffer wear and damage.

Ideally you want to use Kerosene or Mineral (White) Spirits for this step. Wear the latex gloves! Take a clean lint-free cloth and cover it in the Kerosene/Spirits (it’s generally a good idea to pour a cup or two into a bucket and dunk the cloth in that). Presuming your bike is on a center stand, or on a rear-wheel jack, you now want to open up the cloth in your gloved hand, and close your hand around the chain at the bottom (between the rear and front sprockets). Now, carefully rotate your rear wheel (with your other hand) while rubbing the chain thoroughly.

Health and safety: Be very careful not to catch your fingers between the chain and sprocket, and absolutely do not under any circumstance try to cheat by running the engine to spin the back wheel, as this could lead to the amputation of your fingers (or worse).

This will remove any remaining lubrication and dirt from your chain, and this method is safe on all chains (even those with O and X rings).

If you don’t have Kerosene or Spirits, you’ll need to use a can of Chain Cleaner. Spray a liberal amount of this into your cloth and work it the same way as you would the Kerosene/Spirits. You should hopefully be able to see when the lubricant and dirt is no longer on your chain.

Now, take a 10 minute break to allow the Kerosene/Spirits/Chain cleaner to evaporate a bit.

After that break, you might want to take the bike for a very short ride (around your local block, for example). Don’t ride it very far… all you want to do is rapidly evaporate any remaining chemical traces on your chain.

Remember to put the front sprocket casing back on your bike before you attempt to ride it!
Remember to put the front sprocket casing back on your bike before you attempt to ride it!
Remember to put the front sprocket casing back on your bike before you attempt to ride it!
Remember to put the front sprocket casing back on your bike before you attempt to ride it!

Your chain is now ready for wax!

Stop right there! Did you know that spray bottles of chain wax and lubricant never apply an even coating, and deposit clumps in some areas. These clumps attract dirt and grit, which will increase the wear on your chain and sprockets (reducing their overall life and ultimately costing you money).

We apply wax and lubricant to the chain using a cloth to ensure the coverage is even.

Apply the wax to a fresh cloth (or spray a fine amount on the chain in various places). Now, just as you worked the cloth when cleaning the chain before, work this fresh cloth with the wax to ensure a smooth, even coverage of wax all around your chain.

Stop right there! You want a very fine coating of wax! If you can really see the wax on the chain, you’ve applied too much! Use a fresh dry cloth and continue to rub the chain while rotating the rear wheel… this will level out the layer and remove excess.

Now that the chain is waxed, we should apply a coating of lubricant to it and the sprockets!

Just as with chain wax, we’re going to apply the chain lube using a cloth to ensure a smooth, even distribution around the entire chain.

Once the chain is lubricated (you should be able to see that the chain is visibly wet, but it must not be dripping with lubricant or you’ve applied too much), we need to add some lubricant to the front and rear sprockets.

If your chain lubricant is in a compressed spray can, you will need to carefully apply the lubricant using your cloth (being super careful not to catch your fingers between the chain and the sprockets). The best chain lubricants come in non-pressurized liquid form, usually in squeezey plastic containers. If you’ve bought one of these, you can simply touch the nozzle to the bottom of the front and rear sprockets (against the chain) and very gently squeeze a small amount of oil out while rotating the rear wheel. This will ensure the sprockets have a suitable coating of oil to prevent them eroding or corroding faster than they should.

Step 10 – Grease!

Clutch assembly (and the bottom end of the clutch cable), gear shift assembly, side stand assembly, center stand assembly, rear brake assembly, cluch lever assembly, front brake lever assembly…. liberally grease all of these! Remember: there’s no such thing as too much grease!. Basically if there’s a part on your motorbike which moves (be that via the engine or by you moving it), grease it!

Grease has many great properties! The two most important to a motorcycle are that is provides lubrication to make things move easier, and that it provides a thick waterproof layer to prevent corrosion.

In fact, if there are any partially-corroded areas of metal on your bike, you should coat these in a layer of grease as well, because this will either drastically slow or even halt the decay of those areas!

Step 11 – FS-365 (light-oil-coating the entire bike)

This particular step is sort-of my “trade secret”. Not only does it make the bike shine as bright as it did the day you picked it up from the dealership (click on the picture above to see what I mean), it makes the bike easier to clean the next time, protects the bike from dirt, prevents the dirt from ever sticking to the bike itself in the first place, and protects the bike from its worst enemy: the weather!

Take a 1 litre bottle of Scottoiler FS-365 (or equivalent) and empty the entire thing into the hand-pumped misting spray bottle. Pump it up to full pressure, ensuring that the nozzle is emitting a mist rather than a jet or squirt.

Now, go around your bike continuously spraying a mist of FS-365 until you have coated virtually every inch of your bike. Use the entire bottle! You honestly cannot apply too much of this stuff to your bike! I typically apply three coatings with a 30-45 minute delay between each… because it will cope with the traditional British rain for longer before I have to reapply it!

IMPORTANT: Do not use FS-365 in the following areas:

• Brake discs
• Brake calipers
• Tyres
• Mirrors
• Headlights (well, spray it on there, but use a damp cloth to wipe over the headlights afterwards)
• Windscreen (seriously, it won’t do any damage to your windscreen but it will obscure your vision by distorting light)

Once your bike is 100% coated in FS-365 (including the engine block etc), leave your bike for a good half and hour to an hour (ensuring that the bike is not left in direct sunlight)

Once you return to the bike, you may note that the FS-365 is slightly sticky… don’t worry, this just means it hasn’t fully evaporated yet to leave its protective coating.

Start your engine and let it run idle for 10-15 minutes. This will expedite evaporation, but more importantly will “cook off” the smell of hot FS-365 (meaning your engine won’t smell like burning oil the next time you go for a ride).

PRO TIP: Once you have a coating of FS-365 on the bike, you can make the bike much easier to keep clean and to wash the next time by applying additional coatings over time. You can spray these additional coats right on top of any dirt buildup, as that dirt will not actually be stuck to the bike, but instead the previous layer of FS-365! This means the next time you come to wash your bike, just running the hose gently over the bike will lift off virtually all of the dirt!

Step 12 – Put the front sprocket casing back on!

The last time I cleaned my bike, I very nearly forgot this crucial step, and was about 1 second away from starting my engine while sat on the bike before I remembered. It’s a good thing I remembered, too, as the front sprocket on my bike is in-line with my left leg. This means that without the casing to cover the front sprocket, it would’ve been very likely that the sprocket would have pulled my leg in, and done some serious damage to me (possibly even killed me).

So, yes… remember to put the front sprocket casing back on your bike before you attempt to ride it!

Step 13 – Rest

Let the bike rest in a warm(ish) dry place for the remainder of the day (if time allows you to), as both you and your bike likely need a bit of rest!

Letting the bike rest will help reduce any remaining “stickiness” of the FS-365, leaving the shine and protective coating, without having bugs stick to it like glue.

After your rest, both you and your bike are ready to ride… and your bike will be so shiny everyone would believe you just collected it from the dealership that morning!

Additional tips

• Motorcycle cleaning can be a great group activity if you have biker friends! You can share with them the tips you’ve picked up here, and learn from their experiences any tips they have to impart unto you!
• I’ve been invited to “BC&BBQ” events (basically Bike Cleaning and BBQ). I advise against these as invariably the food ends up tasting of Kerosene and/or oil
• When taking off a pair of latex gloves, hold whatever cloth(s) you’ve been using on the palm of your hand, and enclose it in one of the gloves. Then enclose that glove (with its contents) inside the other glove. This makes cleaning up easier, and also protects the environment from some of the more hazardous chemicals such as Kerosene and Mineral (White) Spirits!

Please feel free to share any lessons you’ve learned along the way, and they’ll be published in the comments section for others to benefit from!