I look for a long time and tried many different products to clean the dried mud off the bike. I have to say, for the price, simple green cleaner is the best! After a muddy ride I had put the bike away dirty (I know, bad on me). I pulled it out 1 week later, sprayed the bike down with simple green, washed it off with water from hose only and it takes the dirt right off! Great stuff!
I've tried using it on my bike before, but did not think it was significantly better than Dawn dishwashing liquid... However this year it has come to my attention that Simple Green is about the only cleaner I have ever tried that will remove tree sap from my hands.
Considering the cost of products who's names I won't mention that are made to specifically clean dirt from bikes, Simple green is a great product!! Yes it works great on tree sap, oil, grease, dirt, etc... and it leaves the plastics and motors clean without that oily shinny film other stuff leaves.
Simple Green is a pretty strong alkaline in the 9.5 PH range. Be careful on aluminum or any other soft metal as it will corrode over time.
Extreme Simple Green Aircraft or Extreme Simple Green Motorsports cleaner works better without etching aluminum. Well if you leave it on long enough it will etch any soft metal. But it works great on aircraft AND bikes.
Simple green is not good for rubber stuff high Alkiline Huge no no for cleaning stuff that has rubber
Nothing better than this stuff. Truly a hands free wash. I buy it by the gallon and comes out to about $1 a wash. http://www.cyclegear.com/eng/product/wash/web1004976 _
The best stuff that I ever used (that's eviromentally friendly) is called Bean Clean. It's as tough on grease as carb cleaner but with no ill effects on plastic or rubber and is nice to the paint.
I've used that too. Works very well, but not quite so environmentally and user friendly like Simple Green.
I use purple power to clean cylinder heads that I rebuild, and tried it once on a bike. That stuff is nasty. Maybe diluted (by a lot) it's ok, but it will definitely etch aluminum, and left permanent marks on my swing arm.
Guess I don't really understand what the 'drain pan' is for? Assuming the stuff will not hurt the driveway / yard, then why not use a rag or newspaper instead of having to have (and store) the extremely large plastic thingamajig?
