Chrome, Paint and Leather Care

The bottle under your kitchen sink is what is pitting your chrome.

The fastest way to ruin the finish on an expensive motorcycle is household cleaner. Ammonia-based glass cleaner attacks chrome plating, and the abrasive "polish" in a lot of general-purpose products removes the thin top layer that makes chrome chrome. Once it is pitted, no amount of polishing brings it back — it is a re-plating job.

Tools

• Two buckets
• Microfibre cloths and a wash mitt
• pH-neutral motorcycle shampoo
• Chrome polish
• Separate metal polish for bare aluminium
• Leather cleaner and conditioner
• Soft detailing brushes

They are not the same metal, and they do not take the same product

CHROME is a plating over a base metal. It is hard but very thin, and the enemy is anything abrasive or ammonia-based. Use a product sold as chrome polish, applied with a soft cloth, with no pressure.

POLISHED ALUMINIUM — many engine covers, some wheels — is bare metal with no plating, and it oxidises. It takes a proper metal polish, and it genuinely needs one: a chrome product will not cut the oxidisation.

Using the aluminium polish on chrome will scratch it. Using chrome polish on oxidised aluminium will do nothing at all and make you press harder. Two products, two cloths, labelled.

POWDER COAT AND PAINT take shampoo, then wax or sealant. Never an abrasive.

If you are not sure which a part is: chrome is mirror-bright and cold-looking; polished aluminium is slightly warmer and duller, and a clean cloth on it will pick up a faint grey residue. That grey is the giveaway.

Washing without scratching

Rinse first, thoroughly, before any cloth touches the bike. Almost all wash scratches are grit that was already on the paint being dragged across it.

Two buckets: one shampoo, one plain water to rinse the mitt. It is the single biggest difference between a clean bike and a swirled one.

Wash top down, and use a SEPARATE mitt or brush for wheels and the lower engine. Brake dust is abrasive and you do not want it anywhere near the tank.

Never wash a hot bike or one in direct sun — water and shampoo dry onto the surface and leave mineral spots that then need polishing off.

Keep pressure washers away from wheel bearings, the steering head, shock seals, switchgear and any electrical connector. A pressure washer will push water past seals that keep out rain perfectly well.

Dry properly with microfibre or a blower rather than letting it air dry, especially around chrome fasteners where standing water starts rust.

Protecting, and the bits people forget

Wax or sealant on paint after washing. On chrome, a light wax gives a real barrier against road salt and is worth doing before winter.

LEATHER — seats and bags — needs a cleaner then a conditioner, not shampoo. Dried-out leather cracks and cannot be undone. Keep silicone-heavy "shine" products off a seat you have to sit on.

NEVER get polish, wax or tyre dressing on the brake discs or the tread of a tyre. Tyre shine slung onto a disc is a genuinely dangerous mistake and it is easy to make.

Exhaust: clean while cool, and do not wax a pipe that gets hot enough to bake it on.

After winter riding, rinse the underside and around fasteners even if the bike looks clean. Salt does its work where you cannot see it.

Other Harley how-to guides

This guide covers procedure and judgement. Torque figures, fluid capacities, gaps and tension settings are specific to your model and year and must come from the factory service manual for your motorcycle — we deliberately do not print numbers we cannot stand behind for your bike. Independent aftermarket retailer, not affiliated with Harley-Davidson, Inc.