ACF-50 Anti Corrosion Treatment.
Winter is fast approaching and its that time of the year a lot of bikers put there bikes away till the summer time, but there are still some of us that use our bike throughout the winter too, but which ever type of rider you are ACF50 time is here.
So what is ACF 50 you may say, well its a specially designed liquid that was originally for the Aero Space Industry to stop corrosion and dispels moisture. When applied correctly (as explained below) it will help combat the damage of our winter roads and the salt treatments our governments do to help combat ice and snow which can really damage our pride and joy. Thankfully it is a simple job to do by applying ACF50 to your bike and then you are protected from any future worries for the winter season, not only will it protect your bike from the harsh conditions but it can also help turn back time on the current damage like rust.
ACF50 is available in a few different formats, from aerosol cans to pump spray bottles, and you can buy it in most car/bike dealers, as well as online shops like eBay and Amazon and prices range from around £15 a can to £30 for larger reusable pump action kits. I personal prefer the refillable pump action setups, as you do get better value for money over the cans and the pump action side works a better as less can be more of this stuff.
So how do we apply this purple gloop ? Well depending on what you brought, its a case of first covering your bike components you want to avoid covering with ACF50, and this is items like brakes, grips, tyres, foot pegs, and seats, as it will be a thin layer of this once wiped off and you don’t want these items covered as it a very much a slimy slippery liquid and will make you slip around on your seat and your feet slip off your pegs, as well as stop your brakes being effective. So once you covered these areas with old cloths or towels, then the next stage is to heat up the liquid so that it sprays better, now the best way I found is to put your can or pump spray into hot water (not boiling thou) and leave it for 5-10 mins to allow it to turn from a thick gloop into a liquid more. Once it is ready then it is down to covering your bike in ACF50. Just spray pretty much all areas of your bike (apart from above listed items), it is safe to use on all materials so plastics, and metal, as well as electrically wires (works great to proceed them), once you cover all these ares’s I will use a dedicated paint brush to allow me to work the ACF50 into harder to reach ares, like suspension and in to some of the bolts and harder to reach places, specially around the engine and exhaust system as these get the salt from the roads more when in use over the winter time.
Once you covered your bike and got into all them hard to reach ares, it is time to let it do it’s magic.. Some people leave it on for an hour, but personally I have found an hour is plenty but I like to make sure so I will leave it on for 2-3 hours and then come back to the removing of the excess of it. Just use a new microfibre cloth and wipe over the whole bike and take off any over sprays and kind of polish the bike wit hate cloth. Once you done that you’re all set, it will leave a thin layer of ACF50 protecting your bike from now onwards, and will last the winter season if you take care of it.
So now your protected what happens… Well if you plan to store your bike, then just go ahead and store it as normal in a garage or shed, or if outside with a cover over it, but if you plan to still use your bike then this is the time you need to use your bike and not clean it as much :O Yep you heard me right, you don’t want to be washing your bikes so often as using chemical will remove all your hard work protecting it, so limit the washes now, and if you really need to clean your bike then just use water to remove any road salt, and dirt as much as possible. I will just use a hose pipe as it is low in power (not jet wash) and clean any surface dirt after a ride and then once dry I will re use the same cloth I wipe the ACF50 off during the application stage, as this cloth will still have some of the ACF50 on it and I will wipe the bike over again just to remove the real bad areas of dirt but at least it helps re coat the ACF50 again on my bike.
So that’s pretty much all you need to know about this stuff, it’s something all bikers should be doing, and something every biker should own. Amazing stuff that really will help protect your bike for many years from one can or bottle of this stuff, worthy investment.
