There's a long version of this and a short one. This is how we'd do it, in the order we'd do it, with the two products we make.
TLDR: rinse the bike, foam it, leave it five minutes, rinse again. Wash by hand with a mitt and a brush for tougher bits. Rinse, dry it properly, then seal it with a ceramic spray. About forty minutes on a cool bike, out of the sun.
Before you start
Let the bike cool down first. Warm metal dries water and cleaner off faster than you can rinse them and you'll be left with streaks on the surfaces you most wanted clean. Hot headers will discolour. Twenty minutes usually does it. Keep out of direct sun for the same reason.
The one rule underneath everything below: never let anything dry on the surface. If a panel starts going tacky, rinse it and go again.
Worth saying before you open anything: the Concentrate is a concentrate. Keep it out of eyes and away from children, and read the label before you dilute.
The full routine
1. Rinse it down
Loose grit is what scratches paint. For bikes that are lightly dusted our products are designed to work safely on dry surfaces too. But for anything more, a rinse first is advised.
2. Foam rinse
Dilute The Wash Concentrate at 1:10, so 100ml per litre of water, and one capful is 10ml. Run it through a foam sprayer, bottle or hose-fed, and cover the machine.
Then leave it alone for about five minutes. The surfactants lift road film off the surface while the lubricants in the formula hold the grit in suspension, so it rinses away instead of grinding in. Rinse it off with clean water before it has a chance to dry.
This step protects your paint but the wash is not over.
3. Wash it by hand
Mix up another batch at 1:10, in a bucket or a spray bottle, or reach for The Wash Ready to Use, which is the same formula already at working strength. Both are pH neutral.
Apply it generously and give it a few minutes before you touch anything. Then work top to bottom, mitt or sponge on the panels, soft brush everywhere a mitt won't go: spokes, fins, linkages, under the hugger, behind the exhaust. Two buckets if you have them, one for the solution and one to rinse the mitt is also a good idea to keep grit away from the solution.
The Concentrate and the Ready to Use Washes are safe on paint, wax and ceramic coatings, chrome, anodised parts, plastics, rubber and bare metal.
4. Rinse again
From the top, thoroughly. Anything you leave behind turns into a streak the moment it dries.
5. Dry it properly
Sheet the water off with a plush microfibre towel, working downward, then blow out the crevices. A leaf blower or an airline is the right tool here and it gets water out of places a towel can't reach.
Don't just ride it dry. It pushes water further into the joints instead of removing it, and dries into mineral spots.
6. Shield it
The Shield is a spray sealant infused with silicon dioxide polymers that bond to the surface and leave a glassy, hydrophobic layer. Water beads and runs off, dirt struggles to get a grip, and you protect your effort of washing the bike.
Mist it evenly over the bike. Dry is best, damp is fine. Give it about a minute, then buff it off gently with a clean microfibre. It finishes like a polish, without the polish. Keep it off brake discs, calipers, tyre tread and extremely hot areas like the headers.
Reapply after every wash.
We don't believe in contactless washing
Contactless was a moment, and it passed. Somewhere along the way the internet decided that if the foam isn't taking every trace of dirt off before you've touched the bike, the foam has failed. It hasn't. That was never what it was for.
Snow foam is a pre-wash. It softens road film, lifts the abrasive stuff off the surface and buys you a safer contact wash. Same with 'spray-on, rinse-off cleaners'. They only go half way without some manual work.
The weeknight version
Not every wash needs the full treatment.
- Rinse the bike down.
- Spray on The Wash Ready to Use, or the Concentrate at 1:10 in a spray bottle. Be generous.
- Give it four to six minutes, then agitate anything stubborn with a mitt or a brush.
- Rinse, dry, and seal it with The Shield.
When the trigger bottle runs out, refill using 1 bottle of Concentrate will make 10 more.
Can you jet wash a motorcycle?
Yes, carefully. Our take is that a pressure washer is for rinsing, not cleaning. Keep the lance at least 30cm back and ideally 45 to 60cm, wide nozzle, low setting, and keep it moving.
Keep it away from wheel bearings, chain links, electrical panels, spark plugs, or air intakes.
How often should you wash your motorcycle?
Frequency beats intensity. A gentle wash every week does more for a bike than a savage one every month, and it's a lot kinder to whatever protection you've built up. Go by exposure rather than the calendar.
| How you've been riding | How often | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Dry roads, weekends, fair weather | Every three or four long rides | Dust and fly-strike. Etching is the only real risk and it's slow. |
| Commuting, wet British roads | Weekly | Road film and brake dust build fast and hold moisture against metal. |
| Winter, salted roads | Rinse after every ride, full wash weekly | Salt plus water equals corrosion. Getting it off quickly matters more than getting it perfect. |
| Going into storage | Once, properly, then check monthly | Whatever's on the bike when it goes away has months to work on it. Dry it thoroughly and seal it. |
Why pH matters more than it sounds
A bike has far more bare metal, anodised aluminium and polished alloy on show than a car does, and those are the first surfaces harsh alkaline cleaners and traffic film removers go after. There's no bodywork hiding any of it. Motorcycle degreasers should be used in a targeted way, carefully on small areas to remove stubborn grime that is too much for the Wash on its own.
There's also not much point spending two minutes laying down a ceramic layer if you strip it back off a fortnight later with something strong enough to remove wax. You end up buying protection and rinsing it away, over and over.
The WASH and SHIELD work together.
FAQs
Can I use car shampoo on my motorcycle?
A good pH neutral car shampoo won't hurt the paint. It's everything else that's the problem, because a bike puts anodised parts, bare metal, rubber and exposed fasteners in the firing line and most car products are formulated for panels. Traffic film removers are the ones to avoid outright.
Can I wash the bike while it's still hot?
Better not to. Warm surfaces flash the water and cleaner off before you can rinse them, which leaves streaks, and hot headers can discolour. You might burn yourself too! Twenty minutes of cooling sorts all three.
Do I need to plug the exhaust?
On a standard silencer with a hose, water rarely gets past the baffles and what does will evaporate on the first ride. A bung or a rolled-up rag costs nothing though, and it's worth it with an open can. Take it out before you start the engine.
Should I re-lube the chain after washing?
Yes. Soap and water shift chain lube along with the grime. Use a degreaser or chain cleaner once the bike has been cleaned, then lube the chain and leave it to settle before the bikes goes anywhere
Is The Shield the same as a ceramic coating?
No, and we wouldn't claim it is. A professional ceramic coating is a booked-in job with paint correction, a cure time and a bill to match. The Shield is the maintenance-grade version of what detailers use. SiO₂ in a spray, on in two minutes at the end of a wash, topped up whenever you like.
That's it
Wash it. Shield it. Go and get it dirty again.
The best part of this was never really the result. It's the time with your hands on the machine, when you find the fastener that's worked loose, the pad that's nearly done, the scuff you don't remember earning. We wrote about why that hour feels like a luxury in the first journal post. The products just make it a better hour.