[gremlin]

A stiff brush, some warm water, and Dawn dish detergent also work wonders.  There's a reason they use it to clean oil spills off sea creatures.

Scott

+1

[D the D]

+1

+2.  Won't harm an engine, works great at removing grease from parts or your hands/nails/forhead/chin.....

[Arizoni]

By "stiff brush" I'm assuming you guys are talking about a bristled vegetable brush?

I sure wouldn't use a wire brush on that area of the engine.
It is painted and the hardened wires will scratch the hell out of it.

[Ducati Scotty]

Yes.  Plastic bristles or something like that.

[D the D]

Never a steel brush!  Well, ok, I use little stainless steel "toothbrushes" on the bare aluminum head to get the stains off.  But that's a one time deal if your gaskets are good.

[Arizoni]

Like I said, I figured you were not talking about a wire brush.

The reason I questioned it was we have a lot of people who are new to the world of working on their own bikes (and cars) and when they see things like "a stiff brush" some of them might think we're talking about using one of those wire brushes on our engines to scrub off some hard to remove gunk.

[Blairio]

To remove grease from a (cold) engine, natural turpentine works well, also good for baked on road tar.

I guess there are two groups of folk responding to this thread: the ones that use their bikes through the winter, and the ones that don't. If you belong to the first group, the fact that there is a waxy protective coating available that saves your brightwork from winter ravages, is a real bonus. There are any number of non-aggresive ways of removing it when Spring comes around.

[mattsz]

Yeah.  Depends, though, on what it means to whoever you are - is "winter" simply a time of year, or is it weather?  It's hypothetical, don't answer! 

I'd love to ride all winter; the cold doesn't particularly scare me, but the snow- and ice-covered roads are bad for me, and the copious quantities of solid and liquid ice-melting treatments used around here are bad for my bike. 

No sense in potentially shortening the lifespan of either!

[GreenMachine]

Mattsz: + 1 .  Is it really worth having all that salty chemicals eating away on your precious machine...I usually just give mine a wax on every part that I can reach and I sill have to keep a eye for pitting (It sits in a unheated garage all Winter).. Sometimes I swear it seems the state/local govts have to get rid of their year stockpile of salt and chemicals to keep their budget intact for the next season (Is their a shelf life on this stuff) ...Throw in their excess at each intersection and curve in the road and it's like riding on glass beads....I gave up any serious winter riding after the 1st year I had my bike..IMO it's not worth the hassle.....GM

[D the D]

I'm with Green!  Once a layer of salt goes down, my bikes are in the garage until after a couple of good Spring rains.

[High On Octane]

So what?  You guys don't wash your car when there's salt on the road?  It's just salt, wash it off when you're done.  Geeeesh....   

Hey Mattz - Take this for what it's worth, but I learned something last.  I was putting the bike back together last night and cleaning up after my bikes auto-anti-rust-inhibiting-self-oiling-sytem and had quite a healthy coat of oil down the entire left side of the bike,  a lot of which was starting to bake onto the chrome cocktail shakers.  I normally use brake cleaner for such messes but was kind of low on it and I didn't feel like going to the store.  So I looked around at what I had and instead grabbed some charcoal lighter fluid and squirted a bit on a couple of folded up paper towels.  Figured it works good at removing sticker adhesive so why not.  Holy Crap!  EVERYTHING just came right off.  I didn't even need to clean the lighter fluid off other than just wiping the chrome with a clean rag.  Actually polished it up quite nice as well!  I definitely will be using it again in the future for cleaning off oil and road grime.

Scottie

[GreenMachine]

So what?  You guys don't wash your car when there's salt on the road?  It's just salt, wash it off when you're done.  Geeeesh....   

I hear ya and I keep my wife Hyosung charged for that winter fix..I'm just playing the odds and rather ride vs skate....Once they start salting here it flys all over the place and heaps up in most unusual spots....Both of you salty fellows must be from long winter cabin fever blues...Here it just a 3/4 month window of down time...I tend to think of it as time to do the things I need to do like replace the rear deck and other BS ... GM

[High On Octane]

So what?  You guys don't wash your car when there's salt on the road?  It's just salt, wash it off when you're done.  Geeeesh....   

I hear ya and I keep my wife Hyosung charged for that winter fix..I'm just playing the odds and rather ride vs skate....Once they start salting here it flys all over the place and heaps up in most unusual spots....Both of you salty fellows must be from long winter cabin fever blues...Here it just a 3/4 month window of down time...I tend to think of it as time to do the things I need to do like replace the rear deck and other BS ... GM

I lived in Wisconsin for the first 31 years of my life and live in Denver now.  And I must say the winters are MUCH more pleasant in Denver.  Actually, the average temp in Denver for January is about 40*F, plenty warm enough to ride and you're used to riding snowmobiles in -20*F before the wind chill.    Never rode a street bike in the middle of winter in WI but I used to love getting on the 4 wheelers and dirt bikes in 12" of snow!  We'd also go down to Lake Pepin on the Mississippi River in the winter and go raise hell on the ice.  Those were good times.  Cold times, but good times. 

Scottie

[Ducati Scotty]

The uncoated aluminum on the UCEs can get destroyed in one ride with some of the new deicers. One rider here posted some terrible pitting.  I'm glad I live where they hardly ever use it.  I can ride most if the year itg I don't mind the rain.

Scott

[mattsz]

So what?  You guys don't wash your car when there's salt on the road?  It's just salt, wash it off when you're done.  Geeeesh....   

I hear ya', Scottie, but it's just not worth it.  There's no easy way to clean it and dry it at home here in the winter.  And if I do it at the car wash, then it's covered again by the time I get home.  I do wash my car in the winter, but it's rarely ever salt-free, and honestly, even when I do wash it, I don't kid myself that I've gotten all the salt off anyway...