I agree. Most cleaning can be done with a hot water rag. What kind of tires do run on that thing @BusyLittleShop?Busy Little Shop's 3 step method of bike cleaning without a garden hose...
1) At the end of the day soak a wash cloth in very HOT water and remove bugs
and road grime... repeat as necessary...
2) Add plastic polish to fairings and gas tank and buff to a shine...
3) Add a little Gasoline to the corner of the rag and degrease
wheels and chain... plastic polish wheels to add a nice luster...
Hitting your bike with a garden hose may be bike abuse because it promotes
corrosion in all the little nooks and crannies... why just look at Pat's RC30 axle
after repeated sprays with the garden hose... its pitiful as the metal is etched for life...
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If your VFR axle looks like this then it is suffering the effects of
corrosion... mainly due to riding in the rain or hitting your prize
with a garden hose... both acts promote corrosion in all the little
nooks and crannies... you might wish to pull the axle and check
the sprocket side as well... the cush drive is another moisture trap...
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After 19 years and 58K miles of perverted highway I've never once hit
my RC45 with a garden hose...
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I agree. Most cleaning can be done with a hot water rag. What kind of tires do run on that thing @BusyLittleShop?
That's what I've started running—the Pirelli Supercorsa SP V4. On a hot day, it's almost impossible to break traction on those things.That thing is a rare and exotic homolgated racer and the best tire to run is the Pirelli Supercorsa SP...
expensive but you can't ask for more at Go-straight-to-Jail-Speeds...
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That's what I've started running—the Pirelli Supercorsa SP V4. On a hot day, it's almost impossible to break traction on those things.
There are a lot of people that strictly follow what manufacturers do and motorcycles coming out of factories are all dry, I suspect they follow what the OEMs are doing.BLS, is that a customer of your's bike?
When I was a teenager in 1983, I knew to put a thin coating of grease on the axle before putting it back in, and that was on a $100 used Honda Express moped.
There are a lot of people that strictly follow what manufacturers do and motorcycles coming out of factories are all dry, I suspect they follow what the OEMs are doing.
There are a lot of people that strictly follow what manufacturers do and motorcycles coming out of factories are all dry, I suspect they follow what the OEMs are doing.
Oh I do the same, but I've had many used bikes and most didn't have any grease on the axles at all and were hard to remove and they must've been serviced at some point because many of them were 20-30 years old.Don't disagree on that. My point being, as a kid I was already aware of the issue we are talking about and a very thin coat of grease on the axle prevents it with no downside. It also makes it easier to get the axle out the next time by avoiding said corrosion. Manufacturers will save every bit of oil or grease they can, across hundreds of thousands of bikes it adds to the bottom line. Because manufactures do it doesn't mean it's the best way for longevity and protecting parts in a case like an axle.
I agree, for the traditional axles all the service manuals that I dealt with also called for a thin coat of grease. But a single sided swing are is more like a car wheel hub, so it may not call for anything.In the factory service manual for the CBR1100XX I used to own, it states to apply a thin coat of grease to the axle(s). Now that's not a VFR, but it is a Honda.
The same recommendation is in every service manual for other brands I own.