Tips on keeping wheels clean
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I clean them with a sponge and some shampoo. If there's grease, I use WD40 or an organic degreaser to solve it before cleaning with shampoo. After a ride, i blow the bike with compressed air an use some Castrol DWF spray to protect the metalic parts (rims eg)
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You can apply opticoat to the wheels and by doing that it will make keeping them clean much easier over a long period of time or forever, it think the coating lasts for ever.
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104 Posts
The spokes are stainless steel. Not the highest quality, but if you take care of them, they stay shiny...
Looks like the rims are pretty good. Maybe downpipes and spokes will be hard to keep looking good. I am going to change my collector pipes to Arrow or Termignoni. Advantage with spoked wheels is that they can get re-built if you get tired of them.
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104 Posts
mine remain fine, so far....
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On eBay a dealer is selling what may be their demo bike - manual, red. About £1,000 off the new price. Which is a reasonable deal if anyone is interested maybe.
But what interested me most about it was that the bike appears to have black spokes - not the standard silver ones. Given the bike has done around 750 miles on the East side of England where no doubt there has been plenty of salt on the roads this might be because the original spokes were too bad to sell the bike... Or it could just be because they wanted to change the look...
Not sure it would work on my gold wheels but might be something to look into if our spokes start degrading - although I'm hoping corroded spokes are isolated problems that Honda will address... Call me delusional if you like... Seems bizarre in this day and age to be talking about spokes rusting and corroding though.
But what interested me most about it was that the bike appears to have black spokes - not the standard silver ones. Given the bike has done around 750 miles on the East side of England where no doubt there has been plenty of salt on the roads this might be because the original spokes were too bad to sell the bike... Or it could just be because they wanted to change the look...
Not sure it would work on my gold wheels but might be something to look into if our spokes start degrading - although I'm hoping corroded spokes are isolated problems that Honda will address... Call me delusional if you like... Seems bizarre in this day and age to be talking about spokes rusting and corroding though.
My spokes on rear wheel are showing distinct signs of corrosion after 6 weeks and 1200 miles.
I've always rinsed it down and am quite meticulous at cleaning but it is not good.
I am taking it in to dealer next week and am expecting Honda to sort it. Other than that, oh and sticky 'set' switch it's a brilliant bike.
Nothing can stop that being true but I hope for no major problems, but I have an extended warranty just in case.
I've always rinsed it down and am quite meticulous at cleaning but it is not good.
I am taking it in to dealer next week and am expecting Honda to sort it. Other than that, oh and sticky 'set' switch it's a brilliant bike.
Nothing can stop that being true but I hope for no major problems, but I have an extended warranty just in case.
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Have a look on advrider owner's thread - one guy there has shocking corrosion on his spokes and some on his sprocket and sprockets nuts too.
I was in Wales visiting the brother-in-law today and got talking to a chap at the bikers cafe near Usk who had an RD07 AT. He said he had never seen so much corrosion on a bike as on the new demo AT in Cymbran - made him decide not to get one. Rides his RD07 all winter with the odd hose down and it looks pretty good for a 20 year old bike that's been to the Sahara and the Arctic Circle. No rusty spokes.
How on Earth can Honda go backwards on what is supposed to be a halo bike? It's not like the Honda deity Dave Hancock isn't from the UK and doesn't know the prevailing conditions...
I was in Wales visiting the brother-in-law today and got talking to a chap at the bikers cafe near Usk who had an RD07 AT. He said he had never seen so much corrosion on a bike as on the new demo AT in Cymbran - made him decide not to get one. Rides his RD07 all winter with the odd hose down and it looks pretty good for a 20 year old bike that's been to the Sahara and the Arctic Circle. No rusty spokes.
How on Earth can Honda go backwards on what is supposed to be a halo bike? It's not like the Honda deity Dave Hancock isn't from the UK and doesn't know the prevailing conditions...
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104 Posts
It strongly depends on how you do the maintenance and the cleaning. I'm convinced that de spokes are really fine. But if you drive on salty roads, OR if you use a "wheel cleaner" bought in a car-store, you might have heavy damage. But still then you can solve the problem by polishen the spokes with the right products and a lot of courage... It seems to me that the spokes are just the same materials als those of the old AT, the Transalp, the XT1200z, all bikes that I had before. I clean them this way : first of all I use a protective spray (Castrol DWF, which isn't so degreasing as WD40 e.g.) After a wet ride I clean them with degreaser and a metal polish. And again, protect them with DWF... so far so good I must say
The spokes are NOT stainless steel of any grade.
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After not cleaning my bike for months, my wheels and spokes have attained the classic patina of an abused dirt bike.
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