Cleaning the bike for hours and hours
 

Just spent three hours grooming the bike and it looks good, all shiny and clean... Well, clean enough, it's hard to get perfect! I ran out of time.

Any one else out there meticulously clean the bike BEFORE going on a weekend trip? Am I mad?

As a general rule I clean the bits I need to see to fix and that is about it really. But have discovered that some countries roads / tracks leave some pretty corrosive dirt. I once notice some serious "etching" from lime stone dust of Aluminium panniers.

Are you mad.......... Aren't we all? :rofl:

Three hrs pffft..........is that all :rofl:

I am guilty & I should give myself an uppercut for the cleaning I do doh
For the offroad bike riding day trips, it gets a quick rinse & tub on return only.
Tank & mirrors get wiped down before departure.
On the road...........NEVER :D

Mad??.........Yep, just like the rest of us :clap:

As always, it depends.

If I'm going off somewhere on one of my "fast appreciating old classics" (to coin a salesman's phrase) I probably will put a bit of time / effort in and clean n polish it. If it's one of the two mainstream "adventure" bikes then not much chance. Apart from oiling the chain etc one of them has hardly been cleaned in the last 10yrs.

Somewhere in the middle is the mid 70's 125 Suzuki. According to my insurance company that's now gone beyond classic to fit into their "vintage" category so it should have love and care lavished upon it. But as I use it more for "adventure" (or touring as it used to be called) than most of the others it should be left as it is. In practice I tend to polish it with ACF50 and Waxoil in the hope that when either it or I get pensioned off there will still be a bike under the grime that I can polish.

As for the Gold Wing, I think that goes through the car wash