How to not waste your life away scrubbing caked-on grease. What cleaner do you think works best for cleaning your bike?

Previous Products

For the past 12 years of racing motorcycles, I have tried lots of ways to clean built-up grease, bug guts, and road tar. I used to think that using Chain Degreaser was best for cleaning chain grease because obviously, that makes sense. But it took way too much time and didn’t even work well. I’ve used Brake Cleaner which is nice, doesn’t leave a residue, but it can damage your $400 paint job. Simple Green you have to dilute it and can corrode aluminum, and it doesn’t even clean grease well for me. A solvent tank isn’t portable and can destroy your hands. Goo Gone leaves a residue. Windex, well that’s just Windex. 

What I Use Now

I’ve been using Tub o’ Towels for the past year and a half, and it’s been amazing. I’ve been cleaning my original race bike from 2008 (KX 65) with caked-on 2 stroke oil from god knows how long ago and it cuts through that in two swipes (I was amazed). You can use it to clean your bodywork, sprockets, shock, and everything else. When I am done working on the bike, I use it to clean my hands. Plus it is available at any auto parts store, when you are at Laguna Seca and you run out mid-weekend, at the end of the day you can head into Salinas and buy a tub that will last for another 1.5 weekends. (I don’t use it to clean my windscreen or helmet visor so I don’t damage the plastic, I use a spray polish)

Final Thoughts

I have no association with Tub o’ Towels, they just make a product, unlike any others that I have seen. With these Tech Tips, whenever I recommend a product it is because it solves a real problem for me and I would buy it myself. I’m not going to recommend a beginner buying a $400 product that is too complex for even Superbike teams to use. I talk about stuff that I personally wanted the answers to years ago, but couldn’t find and think other people would find it helpful too.