Salt cleaning

i use bike now and its a loot of salt on the roads. what is the best way to clean salt from bike??

As soon as you get home thoroughly since the entire bike with a hose pipe and cold water only. Don't use hot water as this will accelerate the corrosive properties of the salt and don't use shampoo or detergents as they tend to contain salt which will also add to the problem.

Longer term I would recommend buying a corrosion inhibitor such as ACF 50. It is basically aerospace specification WD40 which will protect your bike against the elements long term.

Rather than spray it on spray it into the lid and paint it on, this way it goes where you want it to go and you use less which is good as it costs about £15 a tin. It acts to repell water and also force out water and give a corrosion resistant barrier against the elements.

is WD40 good? i have one in house

You'll need a can every couple of days as the rain etc will wash it off a lot more readily than the ACF50, as I say that stuff is designed for use on fighter jets and commercial aircraft so it is built to perform well.

£15 investment is surely better that you downpipes and frame rotting away??

It does smoke a bit when the hot bits heat up but that is normal.
Bit scary the first time though.

Are you an advocate of the ACF50 then Rosco??

I am, bit of a bu$$er to get it all off though but well worth it.

stevedj2000 wrote:Are you an advocate of the ACF50 then Rosco??

Have you seen Ross's bike????

When it does eventually get a clean I do put on the acf50 once I'm done.
Made by the lovely people at ScottOiler.

A sentence with Rosco, clean and bike in it!!

ACF50 is great stuff, but it's best when you use it to winterise the bike before the bad weather sets in. Properly done (i.e. with the bike clean, dry and resonably warm, which is difficult to achieve in this weather without a heated garage) one application lasts a full winter.

Right now I use Scottoil FS365 which is some sort of emulsifying oil that you spray on while the bike's still wet after hosing off the salt. Works fine but you do need to reapply it very regularly. And it does make the floor slippery if you don't hose it off afterwards.

With any of these things, don't get it anywhere near the brakes! I once put a tiny dab of ACF50 on the disc bolts, and carefully wiped off all the surplus, but some still flung out onto the discs when I rode it. It does, eventually, burn off if you ride along with the brakes lightly applied for several miles, but best to avoid it in the first place.

Also don't forget to dry and re-lube the chain whenever it gets wet. A bit of external rust doesn't do much harm, but over time it will cause premature wear. I know some trail riders who use WD40 to chase the water off, then apply chain lube after a few hours. I've fitted a chain oiler on the bike I use most regularly in this weather, and so all it needs is a bit of a wipe with an oily rag after a wash.

I prefer to let the engine cool off for half-an-hour before hosing off with icy-cold water, to avoid the risk of cracking engine castings - I have heard of that happening on trail bikes that have gone straight into a jet-wash. But this means that the bike doesn't dry so quickly. A mate always runs his up after washing until the fan cuts in, to help it to dry off. I don't normally do this, but I do go round all the recessed fasteners, particularly on the righthand side which is uppermost when the bike's on the sidestand, with a bicycle pump fitted with a nozzle to blow out excess water - if you leave it there it can stay for days. Of course if you've just bought yourself a compressor.....

Oops I'm getting acf 50 and fs365 mixed up. It is fs365 I've used.

I use acf50 and its fantastic stuff
I coat all the bike in it ... for better coverage on engine I have it slightly warm... my tin has done 3years ........... a little bit goes a long way.. I have treated 3 bikes 2-3 times a year and still have some left

i just got acf50. for 16£ its good i start service tomorrow will clean bike and use that thx for advice.
another reason to he happy i am member in here