Redant Rocket Rescue – We review Redant’s new bike cleaners…

For bikers wanting to keep their machines gleaming, things are never easy. In winter, there’s road muck – that ghastly grey-brown gunge that sticks to every part of your two-wheeled pride and joy. The adhesive element of this unholy cocktail is molasses, blended with the frame-rotting salt. In rural areas you can add mud, manure and agricultural diesel. Nice.

Things don’t get that much better in summer; – is there actually anything stickier than high velocity bug splatter? The there’s the dust thrown up by tractors, rain and the bleaching of sunlight on plastics. And if you wonder what that grey powdery stuff that gets everywhere is, it’s a far from subtle blend of carbon from unburnt fuel, brake pads and tyre rubber. Up against this, keeping your two-wheeled beloved like new can feel like a struggle.

For people with cruisers it’s worst of all – with acres of chrome and masses of dirt-catching detail, it’s enough to put some riders from going out, except in perfect conditions. (Harley riders perhaps? No we didn’t really say that. Ed).

Of course you can just not clean your bike – which is fine if it’s a hack, but the penalty for being lazy can be tarnished fasteners, discoloured chrome, dull paint and forks pitted with value-sapping corrosion. Your cool machine can end up looking like a wreck and will have lost value too.

But while polishing the bike on the occasional summer afternoon is one thing, doing it regularly is a chore. You want the job done, but not spend all day on it – right? We gave Redant’s new cleaners a tough test – tarting up our recent acquisition – the huge Triumph Rocket III – and doing it fast.

1. It don’t look good….

It doesn’t take long to get the entire bike covered in crud… leave it there for too long and the damage will be irreversible…

The first thing to do is get the gunge off. After that, it’s about driving out moisture, protecting against corrosion, and then polishing to look good and repel dirt and water. Finally we always give the brakes a quick clean, not only to keep them crud-free, but also to remove over-spray of cleaner from the discs.

Thinking it through like that, you realise you need several products, each to tackle part of the process. Having a specialised helper for each task saves time and gives a far better result.

2. Choose your weapons…

For our Rocket Rescue we used three Redant products; Their standard orange label Motorcycle Cleaner, their Motorcycle Protector (blue label) and the Redant Motorcycle Wax (yellow). There’s a whole load more they do though -check out their site HERE.

3. Spray on Cleaner….

We gave the bike a good squirt with the cleaner…. making sure it got everywhere while avoiding anything electrical.. A full clean used about a third of a litre – but then again, the Rocket is a huge machine. Redant do a concentrate that will work out cheaper than the ready mix. The stuff is just powerful enough to act as a de-greaser undiluted, and it’s ph neutral (unlike washing up liquid for instance) so won’t attack the paint.

Wait three minutes, agitate with brush, then wait another 30 seconds before washing off. Then dry quickly using chammy.

With the road muck off, the bike looks better, but a bit dull… and beads of water hide in every crack, ready to be brought out if you start to polish now.

4. Drive out the Damp

The crud may be off, but if you try to polish now you’ll pick up moisture beads that will smear the polish. You can wait for it to dry, but that can take ages, especially in winter. This is where the Motorcycle Protector spray saves time. It drives out water and dries fast. You can use it on plastic as well as metal, and it brings up black plastic like new.

Now buff that off, and you’ll see an instant shine – but we’re still not quite there though… this shine protects against corrosion but the gloss will fade quickly.

5. Add the gloss…

This is where you apply the finishing touch – Redant’s special yellow-label Motorcycle Wax. This is a blend of Carnauba wax and PTFE, and actually fills minor imperfections and scratches. It’s also the only wax we know that can be applied in direct sunlight with no problems.

6. Apply Sunglasses…

The polish gets to a shimmering shine very quickly and without a lot of elbow grease..cool.

Last of all, we always give the brakes a quick blast with brake cleaner… polish does nothing for good braking if it gets on the discs… Same goes for the tyres. You can use the Motorcycle Protector on the side walls, but don’t go anywhere near the tread…

Time for coffee..

Conclusion

Restoring the Rocket’s glory took about half an hour – much quicker than it used to. And it looks simply stunning… having the right gear certainly helps. There are many types of cleaner on the market and most of them work. Redant is right up there with the best….a good value ally in the battle to keep your bike looking good.

Total cost of the items used above was £29.40. The cleaner will do about 3 washes, which is not cheap, but the rest of the stuff ought to last a full season, if not more. The concentrate will lower the cost considerably. In any case, thirty quid a year is not much outlay considering how much you’ve probably paid for your bike. The price difference between A1 and ‘Fair’ for our Rocket III at 3 years old would be £500 – so a few quid spent on cleaners is no bad investment