Posts
107
Joined
11/17/2014
Location
Oak Harbor, OH
US
Edited Date/Time
8/7/2015 8:23pm
i have a few cans of maxima contact cleaner can i use that on my plastic after i power wash
The Shop
The pam and clear coat comments are to bring the plastics color back to life and help keep mud build up off during your next ride...
Do you have any auto parts starts in your town like Auto Zone, Advance, O'Reilly, etc? If you do, Lucas Oil makes a product called Slick Mist that works really good and it's only $7. Once I tried it, it worked good enough I stopped using SC1 because of the cost savings.
For cleaning, power wash the bike so that you get all of the mud off of it. Get a bucket of warm water and Dawn dish soap. Use a soft bristled brush to clean all of the metal parts, an old dish rag for the plastics, and a "grunge-brush" for the chain and sprockets. That's all you need, doesn't take anything else fancier than that. If you have a bare metal frame, uses a red scotch-brite pad to clean the rub marks.
The important thing is that you keep it clean after every ride. Don't let it get bad. Once you start getting oil and grime stains, its a pain in the ass to clean.
Tell them you need the red bottle not the blue one.
Here is the link from Lucas
http://lucasoil.com/products/car-care/lucas-slick-mist-interior-detailer
Also, this stuff really is slick. Don't apply it to your seat, grips, or levers.
I would love to get away from the wd40 silicone because it still has petroleum base, and I just don't like all that petrol smell everywhere and getting everywhere.
Turns out the bottle was 100% 409 concentrate. As soon as it hit the forks, it started eating away the anodized coating. Had to wait until the end of the schedule to ship the forks back for re-coating lol.
Stay away from caustic cleaners like Simple Green, Purple Power, LA's totally awesome, etc. They are highly alkaline and will oxidize the metals on your bikes.
Pit Row
Also unless youre a factory mechanic or a factory rider with uber spare parts I try and always avoid the pressure washer, unless were at a mud race of course. the pressure washer blasts sand and water and and crap into all your seals, bearings, basically anywhere that could potentially be an opening. The hose and a nozzle with THE BEST WASHING FLUID EVER (SIMPLEGREEN) are all a regular racer needs after a day of riding. never had a complaint with these 2 products and they are cheap and come in bulk
BTW, None of the mentioned cleaners will have a negative affect on the plastic. It's the metal surfaces that tell the story.
Just get the MSDS sheets for each cleaner. If the pH is higher than 8 or lower than 7, don't use it on your bike. most all purpose cleaners have a pH ranging from 10-14 and these will do some real damage.
The concern is great enough that the FAA has issued an advisory circular warning of care in using common alkaline cleaning agents like Simple Green, which has a pH of 9.5
BTW, I used SG for 20 years prior to discovering Shout. When you find something that works better, you change.
Put them side by side, you can tell a major difference on the bare aluminum parts of the bike, for example the engine cases. I have a thing for clean aluminum parts, trust me.
These are not brand new cases, they were vapor blasted.
edit: but what about not using the simple green by itself and instead diluting it? I always cut it with water and the amount depends on how dirty the bike is, does this help to negate the oxidizing effects on the metals then?
Had some nice lexan number plates on my Champion dirt tracker, with the graphics on the under / back side of the lexan. One wash with the green, and they were no longer nice. The sheen of the lexan was dulled, and spotted everywhere the spray from the bottle hit them.
Purple Power will take anodizing off in about two washes, back to bare aluminum nearly.
I tried the Shout after hearing Cam praise it, and will use nothing else now. It works, and does not take much scrubbing effort, which can also dull plastics.
Yamaha makes a good silicone spray that I use on the metals and rubber. I use Pledge furniture polish on my plastics. Works good.
Shout is available in 1.34 gallon jugs at Costco. It's the cheapest I've found it. Walmart also has it in the laundry aisle.
The Shout results are best on a new bike. It won't repair any previous dulling caused by other chemicals, but it will keep a new bike looking new for longing than any other cleaner on the market.
CamP; never ever do I use the SG straight, unless im cleaning industrial things (house, driveway, deck, machinery, etc.), I have enough knowledge to understand that the water would lower the pH of the entire mixture, therefore deeming it probably pretty acceptable. I dont have a brand new bike atm, and my current bikes look immacualte, but like I had mentioned I will be picking the shout up as soon as I run out. Appreciate the info and recommendations my friend
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