All Year Biker - clean and protect

SilverFish

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The problem with being the sort of biker who likes to rider their bike all year round is that it can sometimes be a constant struggle to keep it clean and free from corrosion. I don't have an endless supply of money, or a six figure city bonus to rely on each year, so looking after my bike is not only part of ownership, but essential if I'm to continue to afford my hobby.

However, as I'd much rather be riding than scrubbing those b*****d spoked wheels for the umpteenth time, I took particular interest in the post on another regional forum advertising the services of All Year Biker.

They charge £60 for their cleaning and protecting service, which at first sight sounds like a lot, especially as there isn't any mention of glamour models or bikinis to be seen on their website anywhere.

However, for this outlay (and discounts are available from this very forum) your bike will undergo an the kind of transformation and catharsis normally reserved for butterfly's and transvestites...

I'll summarise here and try to illustrate with some iPhone snaps, but do please check out their website or go along to one of their demonstrations to see for your self. It's one of those things that don't sound much on paper, but see it in the flesh and its a whole other story. Like reading about oral sex, and then getting a blow job for the first time... :D

I took a bit of a gamble as over the years I have collected what I consider to be a good and effective variety of potions and unguents to use on my bike such as Autoglym, SDOC100, Plexus and ACF50, but do not consider myself any kind of expert in their use or application. And that I think is the point of the All Year Biker service - expertise of using and combining the right set of products to achieve an outstanding, professional result.

I arrived at the Pitstop Café at Stockton and Roy from All Year Biker was there waiting for me with a mini marquee and collection of hoses, sprays and buckets.

First thing first - a quick rinse to get rid of loose dirt:

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Followed by the application of a foam which is similar to SDOC100 but much more pervasive and encompassing:

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The foam is able to release dirt from every surface it touches - so you can spray into the crooks, crannies and recesses your sponges, brushes or fingers cant normally reach.

The foam is the rinsed off and dried using a warm air blower:

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The bike is shrouded in preparation for the ACF50 treatment (so as to protect the brake disc's and control where the spray lands):

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The professional application of the ACF50 is the real point to all of this. I've been using ACF50 for several years now, and it is excellent stuff, however, the best I can do to put it onto the bike is to spray it into a cup and paint it onto the bits I think need it, like the front engine cover. It certainly works, but I'm left with a thin purple residue which although I know is doing good, nonetheless looks a bit of a mess. It's also tough to reach the nooks and crannies with a brush, and it comes out of the spray nozzle way too thick to spray on directly.

All Year Biker use some kind of spray gun/atomiser to achieve a very fine mist which is then sprayed onto the bike so as to coat every desired surface, seam, bolt and screw you want it to - no matter how deep into the bike it lurks:

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Roy then goes around the whole of the bike with a cloth damp with ACF50 and pays particular attention to areas such as those blasted spoked wheels:

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At some point the bike is also cleaned with a special kind of synthetic polish (nano technology and PTFE based - whatever that means!), but there is no denying the end result is simply stunning, these pics aren't good enough I know, but go see for yourself if you can if your the empirical and demonstrable type :)

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The whole process takes about 1 and 1/2 hours from start to finish, and Roy was helpful and willing to offer tips and explanations of the various techniques and products he used, and that are used by others too.

The fact that its scrupulously clean and silky smooth to the touch is not the point though; that's just a by product achieved on the way to making sure that when I continue to ride my bike through the Winter, it will come out the other side looking as shiny and new as it does now. And that's worth £60 of my money anytime.

Mike

NB: I have no relation or interest in All Year Biker, but I have been impressed with their service enough to commend it to others. They have been in operation for several years now and have hundreds of satisfied customers to their credit.

PS: Some of the pics have displayed on their side - apologies for any neck or cranial pain incurred! They're the right way up in Photobucket so I don't know what do to do I'm afraid!

Mike
 
I went to Nigel at Newbury, not with a GS, but my current beast.

Basically the service cleans your bike (very well) and then coats it will a fine layer of ACF50, this uses the same stuff and method the US Navy use to stop Fighter Jets on aircraft carriers rotting. Check out the website for full details of process and ACF50.

Starts of with a good clean using a variety of chemicals and foams, this is then followed up by a "blow dry" to get the bike completely dry in every nook and cranny.

After this the bike is covered over, the tyres / are wrapped in a sheet to stop them getting oiled up, then the ACF50 is applied as a mist from a high pressure gun.

The result was a very clean bike, bits you normally cannot get to should now be protected by a fine layer of ACF50, I reckon it worked as everywhere I looked the bike gleamed, the whole under-seat area looks like new, even the insides of fairing panels and all sorts of tucked away parts of chassis and suspension now look much better.

Lastly the whole bike gets a polish with some nifty stuff that works on all plastics, metals, the screen and exhaust - they are hoping to get a retail bundle for this stuff soon. Nigel also does the Puncturesafe treatments (Had that too) and is a re-seller for pro-bolt and offers 5% discount over standard web prices from factory.

I think there claims of protecting electrical connections is true as when I get back on I notice the Autocom is far louder, I thought it used to be better when new, but thought my rechargeable MP3 had lost power over time, not sure how this happened, I guess some moisture / crap in a connector somewhere was disturbed, I can now hear music clearly beyond a ton again.

I am convinced this has made the bike look much better and 3k on it still does, perhaps it could do with another treatment soon, and would have got one next spring if it was not up for sale.

Only thing I would say is the tyre gel causes front end patter past 140mph, I think they actually claim it is good to about 130 so fair enough and I guess with a GS it would never be a problem, on the ZZR 140 is as easy as 80 on a GS so it can happen a lot, still better than a puncture half way up the Splugen.

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Then another Rinse

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Blow Dry (This thing was LOUD - but got huge amounts of hidden water out of the bike))

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Cover-up

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ACF Treatment

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You'll need to update this when you've ridden it through a UK winter though!
 
Have...

I went to Nigel at Newbury, not with a GS, but my current beast.

Basically the service cleans your bike (very well) and then coats it will a fine layer of ACF50, this uses the same stuff and method the US Navy use to stop Fighter Jets on aircraft carriers rotting. Check out the website for full details of process and ACF50.

you any contact and cost details for this fella....:D
 
Thanks for the write up Silverfish and Rasher, always nice to have your work mentioned in such glowing terms :beerjug:

Mick_rw, cost is £60 for the full treatment, all the details plus what we hope is helpful info on ACF50 is on our web site http://www.allyearbiker.co.uk/index.html. There's also a 'Contact Us' form on there, if you get in touch I'll forward you the direct contact details for Nigel at Newbury.

Big Nick, around 80% of our customers re-book the following year so guess that says something about how well the treatment works. Have a look at some of the reviews posted on Rate Point which is an independent review system we signed up to a while back: http://ratepoint.com/seereviews/9533
 
Just had a read of the reviews and its apparent this is a good service

Once the bikes been treated and coated is the idea to ride it all year, leave it cacked up and not clean it yourself at all and then take it back a year later and get it cleaned up and treated again??
 
That's apparently what some of our customers do, and they do clean up again well despite that.

However, we don't know all the variables, was it garaged? was it ridden a lot? what conditions did they take it out in? so it's not what we'd recommend. Apart from anything else we think a bike it something you really should get up close and personal with every once in a while if only to check everything on it is ok.

Our advice is just to hose it down with water (blast over with the garden hose will do) fairly regularly to prevent dirt from building up on it, and especially when the salt is on the road. Water on it's own will do virtually nothing to shift ACF50.

Once a week/fortnight/month whatever your regime is, give it a shampoo down with a mild car/bike shampoo to get rid of the more stubborn dirt and re-wax any paintwork panels.

Only on those areas directly exposed to your cleaning chemicals/shampoo and the elements would you need to 'top up' the ACF50 coating with a quick wipe over using an ACF50 dampened cloth. Literally takes minutes to do. As an indication, my bike will usually go 3-4 months of regular washing before I need to do this. Other areas that are less exposed, under the tank, electrics, electronic etc. the coating is good for 12 months.

Just to give an idea on the value, we've talked to dealers up and down the country and the overall response is that bikes lose at least £200 a year in value (on top of ordinary depreciation) due to owner inflicted damage or neglect with cleaning and maintenance. Higher value bikes a lot more. It's not at all unusual to find a 2 year old plus 1200 reduced by over a £1000 on trade in just because of overall condition.

Obviously there are some folks who aren't too bothered, keep it a couple of years chop it in and buy the newest model. Minimum fuss and work, maximum pleasure :) . But given the current climate it's making more sense to look after your investment and try retain the best value in it. Again most dealers we've spoken too say that although sales are down this year (some as much as 40%) service work is up dramatically as people are hanging on to their bikes that bit longer and looking to keep them in better nick.
 
Just read that thro. Should point out it's not my intention to shove our business down peoples throats, we offer the service if people feel it's of value to them.

What we do hope is that we can become a source of info for cleaning and looking after your bike, it's what we do for a living.

The new web site which I hope will go up early next year will have pages and blogs aimed at giving advice and tips on cleaning. Also happy to answer any questions emailed to us and if anyone wanted to drop into one of our events or treatment session just to watch and pick up some tips it's an open door :)
 
You'll need to update this when you've ridden it through a UK winter though!

I just did. A few bits on the discs and brake calipers went orange (expected) and the winter gunge has got into some hard-to-reach places, but overall I'm impressed.

I didn't wash my bike at all over winter, but I did hose it off every day to the worst of the crud and salt off.

My bike is 10-years old btw, with 65,000 on the clock.

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Having our Kawasaki & Yamaha done on 17th Jan..hopefully it'll stop them dissolving in the garage :)
 
However, for this outlay (and discounts are available from this very forum)

where can this discount be found (and how much is it) ?

I realise the post quoted above dates back to 2010, but there's only one way to find out .......

Used AYB twice or thrice now on my 1100 and great results every time and recommended. A discount would make it better still, though :D
 
If you have a hosepipe and some decent weather its easy to do all this stuff yourself and save pounds. Having said that the service offered is suprisingly good value if its still £60. (2012). Its the sort of money I might charge for an afternoons work by me to clean a bike.

I do it myself nearly every week. Bikes look good And everyone comments on that. But its just so easy to do yourself.

No reason why a GS should look corroded and dirty just because its a GS. BMW certainly haven't found out how to produce an ever lasting bike even at the prices they charge (All bike manufacturers have museum examples of their range from years gone by. So BMW are no exception here). They do use some strange materials on whats supposed to be a a rough-y toughie bike which costs a Kings ransom to buy.

Some people like dirty GS's. For me no bike should ever be dirty. Thats what cars are for.

Live the dream and clean your GS.
 
I just did. A few bits on the discs and brake calipers went orange (expected) and the winter gunge has got into some hard-to-reach places, but overall I'm impressed.

Off topic and I apologise but is that Stahlkoffer pannier frames you have?
 
where can this discount be found (and how much is it) ?

Asked about the discount & was told it was only available on the promotion days that were held, however as I having 2 bikes done at the same time the price offered was £110

£55 per Bike ...seems good to me
 
Ive just had mine done by barrysmobilevaleting.co.uk. Exactly the same thing. He comes to your house cleans it and treats it with ACF50 all for £60. Amazing transformation. He,s based in the Wirral I think but will do most of north west. You can also go the treatment plan where every 12 weeks he does it all again for £30. Money well spent on a £10k bike I reckon.
 
Reviving this thread to recommend Connor of AllYearBiker in Burgess Hill, Sussex. I am ashamed of the ‘before’ picture so here is the ‘during’ and ‘after’. This young lad is meticulous and very thorough. California Special ready for wales next week. Highly recommended. Give him a go.

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Got my R1200GS done on Monday. For the amount of work done £70 is a very good price. Will get it done before putting the bike away for winter. I think most of the damage on my 1150GS happened during winter storage.
 


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