I bought a new AT last month and had been hoping to garage it for the winter (fair weather rider) but plans to rent garage space have fallen through. If I give it a good coating of ACF-50 and put two covers on it (along with any other winterising process) do you think it will be okay?

Many thanks.
Joe

Plus a big lock!


ACF50 will be great, just make sure your bike can breathe and not sweat

What about a corner in the lounge ?

ACF50 is really good. I have filed metal test pieces to bright metal , coated then in ACF50 then left them outdoors for weeks. Still bright bare metal.

I'm sure if you are going to simply store it over the winter then a coating of acf50 will work fine. It's the high speed jet of salt water from the roads that causes the problems. It tends to wash the acf50 layer off and you need to keep reapplying it throughout the winter - if you ride. You can acf50 the complete bike in about an hour with a small paintbrush, because you only need to do the bolt heads and poor quality steel brackets. Most of the bike is well finished (so you don't need to do rims for instance). If you have one of the newer bikes with stainless spokes, it's worth doing the spoke nipples(?) where they go into the rim, as these are bare plain steel. I have found the rear sprocket and bolts is pretty bad for corrosion - not red rust but a sort of grey/black corrosion that is impossible to get off once it's established. ACF50 should help there if it's not going to move, but I have some Honda Moly60 grease which I have painted on and so far seems to be doing the trick.
Mike

I would find a way to bring it inside rather than leaving it under a cover for a month or more.

I'm a big fan of ACF-50, I just bought a new can of the aerosol. Unfortunately my AT lives outside so I'm just trying to get in the habit of regular cleaning - particularly when it's been out on the dirt roads - and always keeping it covered. And yes, big lock is mandatory!

I have washed mine but not throughly cleaned it after the last two wet/salty rides and I am impressed with how the moly 60 Honda grease looks. I have painted it on to lots of places - in particular the whole of the rear sprocket and spocket nuts, the rear wheel slider adjsters and all the brake banjos and hydraulic pipe connectors and their stupid mild steel brackets. I did this about 6 weeks ago and expected the grease to turn a dirty furry colour but so far they look like a blue steel colour. ACF50 is good but needs re-applying regularly. I think the moly60 is going to last all year.
Mike

XCP rust prevention is probably one of the best I have used and would probably suit you well. It leaves a soft coating on everything and doesn’t wash off quite the same as ACF50. The down side is it takes more time and effort to remove when cleaning however is it is great at stopping rush and long lasting. I still use ACF50 as I don’t like salt sitting on the bike and wash weekly. It keeps corrosion at by and easy enough to remove when washing. Best way to buy is in bulk and put on with a spray gun, this covers brilliantly as uses hardly anything due to the high pressure/ low volume spray gun.

Don’t let the bike sweat under the covers, it will cause more problems than solve. Would be best if you could knock up a lean to for it to sit under.