Ceramic Coating – Time To Talk To An Expert

Winter is coming, and inevitably, we’ll start to think about protecting our motorcycles during the damp and soggy months.

Over the years, I have tried most of the products – ACF-50, FS365, XCP etc –  and as long as I remember to reapply the protection after cleaning the bike, my motorcycles have made it through winter relatively unscathed.

The only way to avoid cleaning a motorcycle in winter is not to ride it, which isn’t an option for me. But if I can reduce the time I need to spend freezing my nuts off cleaning the bike, I’m interested.

Ceramic Coating

As ceramic coatings have gained popularity—especially in the car industry—there are now endless products available. There are good, bad, and excellent ceramic coatings available, and even stuff that calls itself ceramic coating when it is just lacquer.

Chemically, ceramic coatings are silicon dioxide (Si02), which originates from quartz and sand. Add a hardening agent, and when applied to the motorcycle, it bonds to the surfaces to create a hard, road-grime-resistant layer that repels water (hydrophobic).

The ceramic coating will bond to just about any surface and can be used on wheels and brake callipers if it is kept away from tyres, brake discs, and similar surfaces. (MotoGP Ceramic Brakes and Ceramic Coating are not the same thing!]

It is applied as a liquid and fills small scratches and differences in the bike’s surfaces. When dry, it leaves a smooth outer coating that is very resistant to the ravages of winter riding and—most importantly—is much easier to clean.

Ceramic Coating Isn’t

Ceramic coating isn’t bulletproof. It is a strong outer coating, but a stone hitting your bike at speed will leave a mark.

Neither is it a one-time deal. The early ceramic coatings lasted a year, and as the technology has improved, there are now ceramic coatings that claim a ten-year life span.

In the right circumstances, these coatings may well last ten years, but use the wrong cleaners (yes, you still need to clean the bike) or ride through a hard winter where the council has used an excessive amount of salt, and the life span of the ceramic coating will be reduced.

A good quality ceramic coating, correctly applied, will typically last five years.

Clean

Having never used ceramic coating before, I opted to take some professional advice and spent an excellent day talking to James Ricardo – Shiny Side Up Motorcycle Valeting – while he cleaned and coated a Suzuki that had been through the wars.

The road painters hadn’t coned off the section of road they were working on, and the Suzuki’s owner had ridden through the fresh paint. James had spent the previous day cleaning the road paint off and was now preparing the bike for ceramic coating.

James: “Before the ceramic coating is applied, the bike needs to have all the polishes, waxes, and previously applied protections removed. Even a brand-new bike, fresh out of the showroom, needs to be cleaned. The ceramic coating must be applied to the original surfaces, not a layer of wax.

Old ACF-50 layers are perhaps the most troublesome. The spray gets into every corner – which is a good thing – but cleaning it out of every nook and cranny so the ceramic coating can protect the same space takes time.

You can’t coat over it. ACF-50, FS365, XCP and similar products protect your bike, but they also retain the dirt mixed with the base product. The ACF-50 sticks to the bike, and the dirt, salt and road crap sticks to the ACF-50.

Even the spray some dealers use (it comes in a silver and purple can) is basically furniture polish. Dealers spray and wipe, but it remains tacky, and microscopic grit gets embedded in it.

Before ceramic coating a motorcycle, it all has to go.”

Cleaner

The Suzuki has gone through a basic wash and two rounds of snow foam and is now getting another wash and rinse in clean water to remove any residue the cleaners left.

James: “Cleaners are a whole different subject. Some well-known brands are essentially either weak acid or alkaline solutions with dyes that make them fancy colours and perfumes to make them smell nice.

A good general rule is that if your cleaner has a HazChem warning on the label or has a contact time in the instructions, you are using a very aggressive cleaner, which will attack the finish on your bike as aggressively as it attacks the road grime.”

Cleanest

Despite several different washes and a couple of thorough rinses, the Suzuki is still not ready for ceramic coating.

James: “The top layer of the paint on cars and motorcycles oxidises and loses that gleam they had when the paint was new. It happens faster as the chemical composition of paint has changed. Most motorcycle paints are now water-based.

Now I can see the paintwork; it needs buffing to remove that thin oxidisation layer, so when I apply the ceramic coating, I’m locking in the shine, not the grime.

Back in the day, this would have been T-Cut, which, in effect, was liquid grinding paste. If you use that stuff on a modern motorcycle, chances are you’ll wreck the paint. I only want to lift the oxidisation, not the paint.”

The same is true for the metalwork. Most of us will have spotted some form of corrosion on our motorcycles. Rust is one type, but alloys corrode just by being in contact with the air. This all needs to go, although James does offer a word of caution.

James: “The hardest are brake line banjo fittings. The manufacturers outsource the production, and their quality varies tremendously.

It is often better to replace heavily corroded parts rather than try to clean all of the oxidisation from them. Not everyone wants to do this, so I have a value discussion with the owner before starting the coating process.”

After hours of cleaning the bike and preparing the paintwork, it is time for one last rinse to ensure that all the cleaners have been removed before drying the bike with a Bhrul MD1900+ motorcycle dryer. Finally, the Suzuki is ready to be ceramic coated.

Application

You can apply a ceramic coating to almost anything, but some things must be kept clean. Tyres and brake disks are the obvious examples.

You could use ceramic coats on the seat, but as the surface will change shape when you sit on it, it won’t be the best idea. If you have ever tried riding a motorcycle with a slippery seat, you know how awkward it is.

Ceramic coating engine surfaces is no problem, as a good quality ceramic coating, once fully dry, has an operating temperature of up to 1000°c.

James applies the ceramic coating using an airbrush to ensure it protects the entire motorcycle, not just the visible parts.

James: “It is a labour of love and can’t be rushed. All of the work that went into the preparation of the bike would be wasted time if the ceramic coating weren’t applied correctly and completely.

The spray will also get you higher than a kite on a windy day, coat your nose and throat and irritate your eyes. A respirator and safety glasses are an absolute must.

You also need a clean and well-ventilated area to apply the coating, but not one where dirt and dust are in the air.”

Once applied, the ceramic coating will take between 12 and 24 hours to completely dry, depending on the temperature.

The top layer of the coating will be touch dry in a few minutes, but like ice on a puddle, the top layer may be hard, but underneath, it is still a liquid. The ideal situation is to leave the ceramic-coated motorcycle somewhere warm, dry, and dust-free overnight.

Is It Worth It?

That’s a good question, and I’m intrigued enough to ask James the leading question: “How much would it cost to ceramic coat my NT1100?”

James: “Well, that depends. There are several ways of looking at it. The biggest cost is the time it takes to prepare the motorcycle, on top of which there are the equipment and product costs to factor in.

If you have been given a price and they haven’t seen the bike, they are most likely working on a fixed-time basis. They have quoted you for a set number of hours work, at the end of which they will ceramic coat the motorcycle, ready or not.”

At this point in our conversation, another bike arrived, and, true to his advice, it was so James could see the bike before setting expectations and offering the owner a range of options.

I tried not to listen as James tactfully explained that the paint was shot and the metalwork had been cleaned with a scouring pad.

Whereas ceramic coating could work miracles, raising the dead wasn’t one of them. Nonetheless, it could improve the bike’s finish, but don’t expect the bike to look brand new afterwards.

I hear the bike ride off and find James looking at my NT1100. I return to the inevitable question:

How much? …

MotoVerde

While I’m talking with James, the phrase “the right products” (cleaners, degreasers, etc.) keeps coming up. There is no getting away from which products James believes are “the right products”; there is a large MotoVerde sign on the back wall of the workshop.

Having never encountered them before, a quick internet search led me to their website and the details of their products.

I’m not much of a chemist – I think I scraped an O-Level – but I know enough to understand that acids and alkalines are equally bad things to spray onto my motorcycle.

Ideally, I want something pH-neutral (neither acid nor alkaline ), but I don’t understand how that would then shift the road grime, oil and other crap on my motorcycle.

We have arranged to talk to MotoVerde in more detail to understand how they can produce a pH-neutral cleaner, which isn’t the case with just about every other product on the market.

In the meantime, there is nothing better than a practical test, so I bought some MotoVerde Bike Wash and Snow Foam from SportsBikeShop, and now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to clean my motorcycle.