Bike Cleaners?

[Mike]

What do you guys use to wash your bike? I have heard lots of things,but most of them dont sound good to me,like windex for example.

[mrhello]

you can use Hondas spray cleaner, lots of guys swear by that. Pick it up at the bike shop or through a catalog. This is what I do.
I use car cleaning liquid and water, (duh)
Use one of those soft ass wool gloves to scrub.
Use either a soft towel or chamois to dry.

I use spray on wheel cleaner for my wheels, careful when you get that stuff on aluminum. Some wheel cleaners are strong and will discolor aluminum, polished and anodized finishes. And dont get it on your chain, try to avoid that.

THE CHAIN! careful and try to avoid getting on any detergents or oil eating cleaners on the chain. The cleaners will dry out the O rings (most chains are O rings or X rings if your fancy).

I use wd 40 to clean the chain, just scrub it with a towel with wd40 till it shines clean. Some people are wary of wd40 they think it may be bad. WD stands for Water Displacent, and thats what you want to do to your chain, no water, no rust. Then use a chain wax to lube the chain, just follow the directions on the chain wax. Chain wax comes in many forms, liquids, foams, etc. Get the kind that doesnt fling, and follow the directions. If it says, WIPE TOTALLY CLEAN, do it. Or when you go for a ride you will find black chain wax all over your fender and rear wheel.

Umm, try to avoid getting water on the electrics like the gauges and controls. I usually will also wipe down my controls and plastic parts with some wd40 too.

You can spray down the whole bike, just dont get water in the carbs, or air ducts. Also, its not always a good idea to use one of those car wash pressure sprays. If you can use it with out spraying the delicate parts like the chain and stuff its OK, but often you get carried away, and shit could go wrong. But if your bikes engine is a mess, spray it with degreaser and spray away.

Sometimes I would remove the all the farings off the bike, till it is all plastic-less, and I would clean the whole bike, and hand wash all the plastics. Takes a long time, but thats the most thorough way to clean. I mean I would take everything off too. The guages, light brackets, chain cover, sprocket and clutch, rearsets, all of it. And I would hand wash everything with strong ass oil eating cleaner.

The windscreen, well its not good to use towels, they will scratch the surface after repeated use. You can get soft "towel" things for that, or the chamois. Or buy a plastic polish to remove the swirls. Or just plop down 50$ and get a new speedscreen, or buy a new used one from ebay.

Some stuff like your brake calipers for example, on a bike like yours with the age, you will likely see lots of old caked on brake dust. Get some cleaner, and a toothbrush. You can remove the calipers from the discs and clean it even better.
You dont have to take the whole claiper off and remove the brake lines, just take it off from the front end leave the lines on.

And mike, there is a cbr message list, join it. Trust me, you will find 1000 times more info on that list about your cbr than you can ever find here. Not too mention parts and cbr specific help from fellow cbr riders.Im not sure where the list is, I think it is a yahoo based group, try yahoo or just do a cbr search.
good luck.

[Mike]

That was pretty detailed...thanks! Ive heard a lot about the Honda cleaner,and plan on pickin some up this weekend. Im on about 5 other sportbike message boards, I like postin on the SRO bike section cuz not that many people do...We need more bikers on here! Oh well...what do you ride mrhello?

[mrhello]

I had several bikes, my last was a ducati748, and now I have a fzr600 streetfighter. Finances got kind of tight for abit so the costly toys had to go. I plan on getting something a bit newer soon, maybe a 6r. I saw one for a great price. But who knows if it will be round when I finally have the cash.

This message board is kind of small, but I like the guys here. I have been to some other car sites with message baords, and the people there arent as cool as they are here. Plus alot of guys here are from the Bay so thats cool too.