DRD Shining

I frequent numerous vehicular forums and notice that car forums tend to have detailing sections to discuss how to make your car look its best, but rarely do motorcycle forums address the detailing portions of ownership. Is it because bikers are tough and dirt adds "street cred" to our lifestyle of riding dirty? Maybe it's due to motorcyclists thinking a wipe down with the "magic" clean and shine sprays from cycle gear equals the best you can expect to ever clean a bike. This was my progression through 20 years or motorcycle ownership, but after spending a lot of time researching to maintain a proper shine on my Scion FR-S, its time to take the next step with the bikes!

Since investing some money earlier this year in a Griots dual action polisher to clean up the windshield on my 188k mile E320 I have done extensive research on polishing techniques and decided to try out polishing the Derbi DRD SM50 body panels.

As a sample of how amazing the polishing process made the Derbi shine here is a close up of the tail panel before cleaning, polishing, and waxing.

Not too bad, but there are numerous tiny scratches and the finish just looks dull even though its really clean and it has been regularly treated with the "Magic" clean and shine, yea I was talking about myself earlier :) So after assessing the current condition of the finish I got started with an all purpose cleaner by einizett to remove all dirt and any other protective products. I then went with a clay bar to remove embedding contaminants and started the polishing process. First up  was a cutting pad with mezerna jewelers polish, followed up by Klasse all in one. With polishing complete it was time for wax and a final buff with a super plush micro fiber and this is what it looked like!

The results speak for themselves! It looks better than new now with a mirror like shine and is also more protected from dirt and scratches now with the protective layer of wax. I went ahead and gave the same treatment to all the other panels on the bike and plan to do the frame in the near future!

Needless to say all of my bikes will be undergoing this process going forward and I will be sure to keep you updated with pics of all the shiny results!