Detailing your motorcycle after winter storage, the chrome story

Being a motorcycle rider living in New England is a blessing and a curse. Easy access to the ocean, the mountains, big cities and rural scenic towns are some of what makes it great to live here. Excessive salt and sand, wet leaves, horrible roads and harsh winters all add up to a giant suckfest. Most of us store our bikes for a few months and no matter what precautions you take, the bike is filthy when you pull it out in the spring.

Guess what I did over the weekend. Thats right… spent the day detailing my ride.

I can’t believe that it’s the end of April and I’m not out riding every day. Normally by now, my weekend excursions would have begun but thanks to the craptastic weather we’re having I just don’t have my routine set up yet. The weather over the weekend was perfect to do some detail work on the bike though. Over the winter I spent some time researching some products I wanted to try and picked up a few winners.

I started out by doing a basic wash using Meguiar’s gold car wash. The way I look at it, any car wash is as good as the next as long as it is non-abrasive and doesn’t strip the wax you put on there. Now that all the winter dirt that made it’s way on there has been eliminated, I stood there looking at my non-shiny bike. For no logical reason I did the chrome next, starting with the front wheel and working my way back.

• step 1. steal your man’s powertools
• step 2. attach a Mothers power-ball mini
• step 3. apply thin coat of Nano-polish
• step 4. let the fun begin

That’s right, after being sucked in by a late night TV commercial I went out and picked up the Power-ball mini. It attaches to a drill with a 10″ rod and it’s small enough to get all those hard to reach spots, like in between your spokes, the back side of your forks, and the head casings of your engine. That made life so easy and greatly reduced the elbow grease needed. But the big surprise was the Nano-polish. Not only did it do a killer job cleaning up the chrome and making it shine, but it also got rid of some surface rust and filled in some minor scratches. I can’t get over this stuff.

I started working on the bike at about 10am and took a 2 hour break for lunch. Just when I was finishing up the rear wheel at 5:30pm the rain started up. I’m pissed I wasn’t able to take any photos of the chrome or that I didn’t get to the paint. Since I live by the ocean the fog has settled in and I’m looking out the window at my soaking wet bike cover. If the weather clears today I’m going to try and get to the paint and get some good photos.

Once the bike is all detailed it will be time to lower the back end. Stay tuned.