And the bike is also available in … clean!

I’m pretty certain that when I bought my bike in April 2011 he was silver. Yep I’m pretty certain that was supposed to be his colour 🙂 Which is why I found myself looking with dismay at him just before we got our latest dumping of snow. I know that when I picked him up from the show room he was immaculate. I also recall that I have washed him at least once as that involved messing about with a greasy rear wheel from an over-active Scottoiler. Yet that doesn’t explain why Silvano looks like I’ve been throwing mud at him or worse still – using him as fly paper! (Looking around at the bikes about I can see I’m not the only one which is why I’m polling opinion – see the end of the post to take part 😛 )

When I had my Fazer I was rather pedantic about chucking a bucket of water over him on a regular basis, lots of soap and plenty of degreasing the chain before spraying it again. I always finished up with a healthy spray down of ACF50 – that wondrous spray for stopping aeroplanes rusting! It certainly explains why after four years of riding all year round the bike was only just starting to show signs of corrosion.

Yet my beloved Silvano has been left to his own devices! It’s not that I don’t love my bike – it’s more a case that with the full fairing on I just don’t see the dirt and whatnot building up 😉 It made me wonder just how often bikes do get washed properly. Upon asking a few mates I was met with everything from blank stares “wash the bike? why would I do that?” to ” a clean bike goes faster!!”.

Yeah and I’m Valentino Rossi! To be fair I do remember my CBT teacher telling me it was easier to spot a fault if the bike was clean as you weren’t trying to peer through inches of dirt.

I’ve decided that my beloved Silvano is in need of specialist care (ok I just want an easy way out!) and am having him professionally cleaned and then misted with ACF50 by All Year Biker! I’ll let you know how we get on. In the meantime, here’s a poll – why not take part and share your thoughts on how often you get all scrubbed up … or not.

Ride Safe

Lil Miss Bump 🙂