We’re halfway through winter in the UK so we thought we would share our top tips for cleaning your bike in winter. Whether you’re getting in the winter practice on motocross tracks, enjoying an off-road trail, or even taking your motorcycle out in the winter sun, bike cleaning and maintenance is essential in cold weather.
Clean your bike after every ride!
We know it may be colder, wetter, and darker than usual but your bike still needs cleaning! You rely on your machine to always perform at its best so you must ensure you always look after it.
Allowing contaminants to dry and to sit on your pride and joy for long periods of time is asking for trouble. The surface you ride on contains varying types of damaging elements, for example soil or sand can be highly acidic and even highly alkaline depending on varying factors. If you ride on the road this time of year you must be aware of how much salt is down on the roads to prevent ice. No matter where you ride, not cleaning after riding can cause harm to your bike and its components.
Pre-Rinse your Bike
There is a major misunderstanding when it comes to pre-rinsing your bike. When you apply cleaner directly to your bike without removing the excess dirt first, you are only cleaning the top layer of dirt and not your pride and joy.
We’ve seen comments that say once you’ve rinsed it water, your bike is clean. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple! Water and wet surfaces will disguise contaminants which give an appearance of what seems to be a clean bike. Once dry, your bike is dirty, dry, streaky and not ready to perform at its best.
You need to ensure your components are clean and free from any surface contaminants so pre-rinsing all the excess dirt is best practice for Bike Wash or Snow Foam to work effectively.
Protect your Bike
Is cleaning your bike enough? Protecting your bike from the harsh elements is a key process to maintaining the look and performance.
After Shine provides a microfilm of protection which not only gives your ride a factory finish, but also leaves a barrier against the elements and helps prevent them from attacking your parts and components. It also makes your next clean even easier as when you come to pre-rinse, the dirt is sat on top of a microfilm so it de-bonds from the surface much easier.
*Pro Tip for Off-Road: Apply After Shine right before your ride to help prevent mud and sand sticking underneath your mudguards.
Chain Maintenance
Every rider should know how important it is to clean and protect your drivetrain. Especially in the winter! Your chain will need cleaning much more regularly over the winter months, we recommend after every other ride at least. Keeping on top of cleaning your drivetrain is an effective way to ensure it performs as it should. Our Drivetrain Clean + Lube Kit contains everything you need to maintain your drivetrain through the winter.
Let us do the hard work for you
This doesn’t mean we’re on hand to meet you at home or trackside and clean your bikes for you! But it does mean to allow our products to do what they have been developed to do.
As your bike will need thorough cleans more often during winter choosing the best products for the job is key. Using Motoverde products, you’ll know that we manufacture the safest and most effective cleaner on the market. This means our products do not contain any harsh elements that can damage your pride and joy. As we do not use these harsh elements our cleaner needs the specified times to do its job to its fullest potential, the longer you leave Bike Wash the better the results. This can all be done with the peace of mind that no matter how long you leave Bike Wash or Snow Foam on for, there is absolutely zero chance of any damage or harm happening to your ride.