I need to find a good wax. My last NEW bike was a red MZ 500. It had a plastic fender. I waxed it with Mothers, and within weeks, the fender was cloudy, never again to be bright shiny red. Seems the wax (or whatever base) soaked into the plastic and dulled it. I do not wish to do that to my plastics on My Terra. Anybody have a good recommendation? How long have you used it on your Terra/Strada? Thanks, Dave
Funny guy LOL. I am not willing to "try" things on the finish at this time. I want someone else to try it and let me know how it worked. Where's Mikey, he'll try it. Already wrecked one bike finish trying things from great companies.I guess I could put it on the underside of some panel for testing. Have you used this product on your TR?
Use "Honda Spray Cleaner & Polish" sold at Honda Motorcycle shop. Great stuff for plastics....even windshields & face shields. Comes in an aerosol can. Spray on, wipe off & buff. It's not waxy, doesn't cause any fading.....quite the opposite. It restores a brilliant finish very easily. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it. HF
Most of the sprays out by the big names will do well.best advice I think woukd be to watch what you use when rubbing on the plastic. Make sure and use lots and lots of water(when washing) ...knock off all the big chunks of dirt so you don't cause scratches yourself. Then always use a nice soft towell...watch crazy stitching ...even the label that's attached can cause surface scratches you'll later have to buff/rubb out. Especially on black! Watch out for anything that removes any paint..NO COMPOUND! It'll eat away the shine and you'll have a mat Finnish. I bought some clear 3m tape and placed on my Strada underneath the tank bag straps to prevent scuffing up the black...it's worked well ao far.
Not sure if my approach is right or wrong, but my bikes are quite lucky to get soap and water. Never even considered wax, especially when I want to grip the tank with my knees much of the time offroad. dunno...
Thanks guys, them are some great tips. I was going to just live with the wear on the tank bag straps, battle wounds, so to speak, but that sure is an easy cheap remedy. Any suggestions on keeping the motor from oxidizing? I have Flitz for the rims, that should still be a good thing.
Used to use Meguiars Plastic Polish on airplane canopies and it worked great. Never had any turn cloudy. The scratch remover works good too.
Nothing quite like a freshly treated seat... Swing your leg over and end up on your back on the other side holding on dearly to the handlebars
What types of plastics are we dealing with? Have you used it on a Husky plastic? I think that the turn lenses and fenders are different types of plastic. The bezels on my car, yellow real bad. That seems to be yet another plastic/acrylic/polymer.
I suppose I'm more concerned with getting the bike dirty than with getting it clean. I didn't buy it for a living room conversation piece. I bought it to ride in the dirt, lather, rinse, repeat.
My dirt riding lacks such credibility that I aim for puddles to splash on my bike just to get it dirty and then I dodge the rain, lest it wash away the precious dirt.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FILFkHr02g And tons more like it out there. I doubt I will try pivot turns on the Terra, but who knows with a bit of practice what this bike can do.
Motul Shine & Go works well on plastics on the 511. It's nasty stuff tho, only use it outside and stand upwind.
Both of these work great on my stock 08' TE510 UFO plastics. I use the turtle wax ice more than the meguirs because you can easily spray a microfiber towel and clean and polish at the same time. You can see the shine on the red plastic. No adverse effects from either.
Thanks for the link. I've seen a few instructional videos on youtube but that one is particularly well done and helpful. I'm afraid you well overestimate my abilities or even my ambitions. I'm happy enough riding graded dirt roads, and and getting to the top of an occasional 15% grade is quite an accomplishment. I don't really have any ambitions to ride any road that I couldn't pass an oncoming car on, or which has ruts more than a few inches deep. enough of the hijack.. back to cleaning products
Can't say I have ever waxed my 630. Been using Turtle Wax Ice on my ZX-14R since I got it with good results.
Let the inner adventurist out Nev. It's in there waiting for some encouragement. Wash and wax, become one.