Diary of a Winter Rider: Part 2 – Motorcycle Cleaners

Dear Diary,

As forecast, winter has arrived, and with it comes the need to clean the Suzuki … again.

While drinking tea and letting the motorcycle cleaner soak in, as the instructions said I should, I decided to look at what was in the cleaner I’d sprayed over the bike.

It is a pretty colour, which I’m sure has nothing to do with how efficiently it works. I also have one that smells nice, which is most welcome but not relevant to the job at hand.

I am cleaning the V-Strom because rock salt has been used to keep the roads clear after winter arrived quickly. We have had snow, rain, and freezing temperatures for the last week.

Rock salt (Halite) is the mineral form of sodium chloride (NaCl). It is the same stuff table salt is made from, just in unpurified form.

I remember my school chemistry teacher teaching me about acids and alkalis, the pH scale, and how the stuff in the middle, with a pH rating of 7, was neutral. The further the pH rating is from the middle, the more corrosive it is.

I also remember that NaCl (Rock salt) plus H₂O (water) produced a pH-neutral (#7) solution. Since it isn’t an acid, what is all the fuss about rock salt, rain, and my motorcycle corroding?

Corrosion

Left alone, my motorcycle will corrode. It might take time, but it will corrode. Oxidisation occurs when metals come into contact with oxygen. We often see it as that white powder that builds up on brake fittings and other unprotected metals.

Introduce sodium chloride in the form of rock salt, and the oxidisation process kicks into high gear.

When spread on the roads, rock salt lowers the freezing point of snow and ice (which is how it melts). In doing so, ions are released, which accelerate the oxidisation process and even turn the pH-neutral salt-water mixture acidic when reacting with hydrogen from the water (H₂O).

And now my brain hurts, and I no longer want to think about the double chemistry lessons, last thing on a Friday afternoon, I endured at school.

It all boils down to rock salt and water, plus heat and my motorcycle are not a good mix.

Back to Motorcycle Cleaners

If I’m cleaning my motorcycle to remove the salt water and other road crap, why does the motorcycle cleaner I’m using contain salt?

Nearly all of the motorcycle cleaners I have, list TETRASODIUM EDTA as an ingredient. When mixed at less than 1% with water, EDTA has a pH value of 11. After reading this, I noticed that the common strength for EDTA in a motorcycle cleaner is listed as 5%.

EDTA is used as a chelating agent, which is a fancy way of saying, this is the stuff that gets in and separates the muck and road crap from the motorcycle by doing some fancy chemical bonding shizzle with the metals, so the road crap can’t stay connected.

It’s a frustrating realisation that I’m resorting to stronger, more volatile chemicals to remove the road crap created by the rock salt. It’s a vicious cycle of using chemicals more harmful and aggressive than the winter road crap to clean my beloved motorcycle.

Fair is Fair

All of this is happening while I’m waiting for the motorcycle cleaner I’m using to do its thing. The instructions on the label say I should wet the motorcycle, spray on the cleaner, and wait 10 to 15 minutes before washing it off with copious amounts of clean water.

This 15-minute contact period is shorter than the two days or more that the road crap has covered the bike. That didn’t sound too bad until I realised my answer to the road crap attacking the finish on the V-Strom was to use an even stronger chemical to clean it off. Bollocks.

Answers

At this point, I decided to stop torturing myself with the labels on motorcycle cleaners. I finished washing the V-Strom and then covered it in FS365, ready for the week ahead.

What I need is a motorcycle cleaner that doesn’t contain EDTA, NTA, or other salts. These are typically used in traffic film removers, and I wouldn’t spray that stuff on my motorcycle.

Washing up liquid seemed like a good place to start, but guess what it uses to shift the dried-on cornflakes …  Sodium laureth sulphate and Sodium chloride … which look to be worse than the stuff they put in motorcycle cleaners.

MotoVerde

A couple of months ago, I investigated Ceramic Coating as a different way of protecting my motorcycle and came across the range of MotoVerde motorcycle cleaning products.

The company specialises in making motorcycle cleaners that shift dirt and road crap without using salts and other harmful chemicals. For example, their Bike Wash and Snow Foam products have a pH rating of 7—neutral.

What was meant to be a two-minute phone call to obtain a copy of their product safety sheet so I could see what was in the bike wash turned into an engaging half-hour conversation about motorcycle cleaners. If you had asked me, I wouldn’t have thought I’d find the subject interesting. But here I am, surprised by my own curiosity.

Anyway, MotoVerde Bike Wash and Snow Foam are closely related. The snow foam is formulated to explode into that lovely white foam, while the bike wash is formulated for traditional cleaning methods.

Both contain a mixture of 12 detergents, and surfactants, none of which are EDTA, NTA or any other salt, yet both will shift the muck and road crap. I may need to apply a little more elbow grease to get the best results because there is nothing in the cleaner “burning” the road crap off my motorcycle.

MotoVerde also manufactures a salt-free Drive Chain Cleaner that doubles as a wheel cleaner. I wonder if that is better for O-ring chains than paraffin?

I remembered that I bought some MotoVerde bike wash and put it in the back of the cupboard, ready for when I’d finished using the other motorcycle cleaners. Now I need to get the V-Strom dirty again (that won’t be difficult) to see how good the MotoVerde cleaner is, even if I need to put a little effort into it. And it is that effort that seems to be the difference.

If I want a spray, rinse, and go cleaner, I need something with a high pH value and a lot of salt, sodium, or EDTA.

These chemicals take the effort out of cleaning the bike, but the corrosive ingredients can’t tell where the muck stops and the surface of your motorcycle starts. They just rip into everything.

If I want to clean my motorcycle, remove the road crap and also preserve the finish, then avoiding salt-based cleaners in favour of something that is pH-neutral is the way to go. It just might take a little manual effort.

The week’s forecast is warmer than expected, and there is even a chance of some sunshine before the rain returns.

To be continued … but so far, I think winter is just messing with me.