08-03-2017, 05:07 AM
I love the look of the four chrome headers on my CB1100 EX. But they catch bugs when I ride. Bugs will wash off other parts of the bike with car wash soap and water. But the headers will fry them until they become as impervious as shellac. 
After trying a number of solvents of increasing environmental nastiness without success, I fell back on an old favourite used in the retro years of motorcycling: Autosol. The tube looks the same and the white paste still smells as nasty as ever, but like everything else the cost is not like I remember.
I spread a line of the paste down the front of the closest header and spread it with the finger of my nitrate glove. Yes some form of plastic gloves will be required. This stuff is not user friendly and creates a black mess on anything you may touch. I move onto the next header and repeat the procedure. That gives the Autosol on the first header a chance to do its chemical thing (technical term).
Now comes the hard part where a little elbow grease is required. Sorry kids this can’t be done with the push of a cell phone button. The old school way it to use an old sock, and I still have not found anything better.
Fortunately I just happen to have 12 new pairs of Fruit of the Loom white socks I bought on sale at Walmart in “the states”. Canadian for the United States of America. These were supposed to fit someone with size 12 to 16 feet. Unfortunately you would have to have awful skinny legs or the spandex would crush the flesh of your calves to pulp. But they were only $10 which is pretty cheap for 24 disposable polishing rags.
These cheap socks really stretch, so I wrap the sock around the first header twice. Grabbing the ends, I pull them back and forth tightly, moving the sock up and down the header as I do. When I felt any resistance, I just stopped and spun the sock a little tighter.
Tadah! One clean header and one real grubby sock. I repeated the process for the other header. Then rolled to the other side of the bike and did the other two. Oh! I forgot to mention. Having one of those little mechanics stools on casters really saves the back. After all four are done, I chuck the black sock in the garbage, then sit back and admire all that glittering chrome.
After trying a number of solvents of increasing environmental nastiness without success, I fell back on an old favourite used in the retro years of motorcycling: Autosol. The tube looks the same and the white paste still smells as nasty as ever, but like everything else the cost is not like I remember.
I spread a line of the paste down the front of the closest header and spread it with the finger of my nitrate glove. Yes some form of plastic gloves will be required. This stuff is not user friendly and creates a black mess on anything you may touch. I move onto the next header and repeat the procedure. That gives the Autosol on the first header a chance to do its chemical thing (technical term).
Now comes the hard part where a little elbow grease is required. Sorry kids this can’t be done with the push of a cell phone button. The old school way it to use an old sock, and I still have not found anything better.
Fortunately I just happen to have 12 new pairs of Fruit of the Loom white socks I bought on sale at Walmart in “the states”. Canadian for the United States of America. These were supposed to fit someone with size 12 to 16 feet. Unfortunately you would have to have awful skinny legs or the spandex would crush the flesh of your calves to pulp. But they were only $10 which is pretty cheap for 24 disposable polishing rags.
These cheap socks really stretch, so I wrap the sock around the first header twice. Grabbing the ends, I pull them back and forth tightly, moving the sock up and down the header as I do. When I felt any resistance, I just stopped and spun the sock a little tighter.
Tadah! One clean header and one real grubby sock. I repeated the process for the other header. Then rolled to the other side of the bike and did the other two. Oh! I forgot to mention. Having one of those little mechanics stools on casters really saves the back. After all four are done, I chuck the black sock in the garbage, then sit back and admire all that glittering chrome.