OK, so how do you.......

[Eck]

Clean your bike cover?

 

I just cleaned mine and hope I didn't screw it up..

 

I put it in the washing machine on the "Delicate" cycle, with a little soap and about a half cup of bleach to kill any mold.

After that I hung it up outside in the sun to dry.

 

How do you clean your bike cover?

[Midnight]

I have the Tour King cover and that's pretty much what I've done. Afterwards it didn't repel water as well. So I went and bought a can of water proofing for tents and sprayed it. Has lasted for 5 years. JR

[Larry1963]

I bought a storage building for mine

[Pegasus1300]

By the time I think to clean mine they are so sun rotted that a trip thru the washer would leave me nothing but rags

[Motorcycle Mike]

Bikes in garage cars in driveway and that's the way it is!!

Some of us actually ride our bikes, take them on vacation and such. I usually cover mine when parked outdoors over night.

It never occurred to me that I could wash the cover.

[Great White]

Some of us actually ride our bikes, take them on vacation and such. I usually cover mine when parked outdoors over night.

It never occurred to me that I could wash the cover.

 

Yup, too true.

 

My 83 will spend at least a couple weeks a summer under it's cover since we're away from home base (garage).

 

Timely topic. My cover could use a wash since it's been put away wet a couple time this past summer before I could hang it dry at home.

[Yammer Dan]

Wash It?? I just leave it on til it falls apart......

[aharbi]

I too keep the bikes in the garage and the cars in the driveway :-) I cover the bikes when I travel to keep prying eyes off them. Only time I washed a bike cover was when a cat jumped up on the cover and peed on it. Washed it in the hotel bathtub to get the stink out, then used the hotel hair dryer to dry it so I could repack it.

[Bert2006]

I would think that NikWax would work just fine.

[Drfrog]

Built as my wife calls it, a motorcycle closet, just for the bike.

[mini-muffin]

So I gotta ask, did you wash anything else with it?

You do have a reputation to keep up Eck.

 

Margaret

[cowpuc]

Tip n I usually use the 100% "natural" method for keeping Tweeks cover cleaned - it's affordable, enviro friendly and probably more fun than any other method. It works like this - if it looks like it is gonna rain while we are setting up our tent we toss the cover over Tweeks so the cover gets cleaned off. This also keeps the dirt, grease and oils that Tweeks has accumulated over the years of touring from getting into the rain water and contaminating the area's ground water..

I do have to admit that this method is not for most sissy bikers though as there are times when a nasty western storm will come up in the middle of the night, which will wake Tippy up enough to need to wake me up to remind me that I hadn't washed Tweeks cover in a while. This normally results in me being the one (I am not the girl/sissy in the relationship between Tip/Tweeks and myself) to crawl outside the tent, face the skeeters (there are ALWAYS skeeters in non-desert places where it rains - remember that if your ever inclined to ask why I LOVE the desert) - pickers that stick into your feet (I dont always remember to put the "its time to take a bath" flip flops in the tent) and the Bears..

,,,, just thought of something here... If there are any of you who dont own a bike cover (I remember those days vividly,, I used to just park under those gas station overhangs and sleep in their bathrooms because I couldnt afford a cover either) and would like a BRAND NEW XXL touring bike cover I can tell you where one is.. Back in '14 Tip/Tweeks and I were riding about 50 miles north of the motel in California where a few of our VR members had stayed for the night.. I think that was Redding or Red Bluff or something like that (I can picture the motel in my mind cause Tip n I stopped and left a note for that group that we had been there and chose to go on up into the mountains to camp for the night).. Anyway, I had purchased a BRAND NEW COVER for Tweeks and was really looking forward to Tippy waking me up in the middle of night some where down in Texas to give the cover its first bath.. Ironic thing was that in over a month of riding before this incident IT NEVER RAINED!!

As we were traveling those mountains far north of where we had left the note for those VR varmints, the cargo netting that was holding Tweeks new cover on must of felt sorry for the unwashed cover and decided it needed a chance at a better life.. If you need a cover and don't mind seeing some of the most GORGEOUS country known to man, you could make a trip up there and probably find that brand new cover!! By the way,, the cover is still in it's BRAND NEW factory carrying bag - Blue in color so it should be fairly easy to find.. If you look at the pic below you will notice the we did stop and look for it but the ick-spress we happen to be on was One-Way and I refused to ride the opposite direction on a one way road for a cover that needed a bath! Its yours if you find it!!

[billmac]

yea no pictures of the cover? How will we know if we got the right one.

[cowpuc]

yea no pictures of the cover? How will we know if we got the right one.

 

OOOPPSSS,, VERY VERY GOOD POINT SIR BILL, my bad!!!! Might take a second here but I will see if I can find a pic of the cover in the netting before we got to where the net ejected the poor thing... Try to have it up here before you folks head out to search for it... Hold on..

[cowpuc]

yea no pictures of the cover? How will we know if we got the right one.

 

Ok,, think this moment of thoughtlessness is solved Bill! Also REALLY glad that you pointed it out Bill cause I had completely forgotten that the bag that contains that new cover did have a silver color section to it too.. Phew,, that could of been nasty if you would have gotten all the way to California and came home with the wrong bag with a new cover in it brother!!!

PS - sorry about the lousy pics too,, I promise to take some good close ups of Tweeks next new cover when we get one!!

PS PS,, sorry bout the hi-jack Eck!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2015 by cowpuc

[videoarizona]

Never even thought to clean my covers.....

[cowpuc]

Never even thought to clean my covers.....

 

Its ok brother,, personally I think keeping the covers covered in sun screen falls into the same category as the rest of us washing ours - your still in good company David!

[XV1100SE]

Some of us actually ride our bikes, take them on vacation and such. I usually cover mine when parked outdoors over night.

It never occurred to me that I could wash the cover.

 

Second this. Mine gets washed when it rains over night and we are travelling. Other than that....roll it up and stash it until the next time it is needed. I've never seen one go moldy.

[billmac]

Just needed to know, found a blue and silver one but no case, think the wind may have blown it out of Cali? Did you have your name on the tag?

[cowpuc]

Just needed to know, found a blue and silver one but no case, think the wind may have blown it out of Cali? Did you have your name on the tag?

 

funny you mention this Bill,, after the friendly cager came flying up beside us pointing at the rear end of Tweeks and we pulled over to see if we were on fire or something is when I noticed the tarp was gone (also noticed @bikerjohn 's extention cord was missing - walked back found it though,,, this is ALL a true story - ask Biker John or Tip - they will vouch for me!). Because the cover was no where to be seen in the 1/4 mile I walked back, I actually wondered if it had hitched a ride on the underside of that Semi you see going past us in the pic where we had stopped. Maybe the cover for the cover is still attached to a brake adjuster on the trailer of that Semi:confused24:.

Yup I did have my name on the cover Bill - now I am glad I was wise enough to do so before we left home. Actually, I cant claim the wisdom for doing so as it is derived from my dear Mother who always put my name in my undies to make sure I got the right ones on after showering when returning from gym class in high school.. Back then I used to go by the name "Fruit Of The Loom". Changed my name since than cause my buddies always called me Fruity.. New name that would be on that cover is XXL Bike Cover - I also always put a return address on my stuff just in case a trustworthy, loyal, honest, clean cut biker finds something that belongs to me and wants to return it - if that cover is the correct one it will have a return addy of "Made in China" = a very small town named Made located in China:witch_brew:

[billmac]

it's in the mail

[Eck]

Second this. Mine gets washed when it rains over night and we are travelling. Other than that....roll it up and stash it until the next time it is needed. I've never seen one go moldy.

 

Well mine is /was moldy and even after washing it in the washing machine the mold was still there. I hung it up on a step ladder and sprayed it with shower mold killer and it is now clean as can be. It looks like new. I will be washing it again tomorrow in the washing machine to remove the spray mold / cleaner so it does not get on my bike..:

 

I'm willing to bet yours has mold on it somewhere or will soon. Anytime you roll up and stash something that is wet it will eventually get mold on it.