I live in an apartment, and I wash my bike there. I wash my bike about once a week in the summer.
When I go out to wash the bike, I have 2 buckets, a spray bottle, some clean microfiber was rags, a short bristled scrubber of some kind that I have it might be a horse hair pet comb not sure it work well for scrubbing the swingarm and rims without scratching, some clean wash rags made from sturdy bath towel strips, a bottle of car wash soap, some wax, dry towels, chain lube, simple green, armor-all type plastic protector crap and I can't think of anything else right now.
In one bucket, I dump some soap in there and put a microfiber wash rag and sturday towel wash rag and scrubber in. I fill it up with water. I fill the other bucket up with clean water after I rinse it out to make sure it's clean and put a clean rag in there. I fill the spray bottle up with clean water.
I go out to the bike with all my stuff, and I put it on the center stand, take the seat off and take the stuff out from under the seat. I take a soapy rag and squeeze out suds all over the bike kinda as a pre-soak. Then I start at the top with a microfiber wash rag and work my way down the fairing, front fender, gas tank, side pods, and tail section. Then I set that rag aside, it may have nothing or only have some bug guts in it, but no sand/dirt from anything, and I want to keep it that way so I can easily clean it and next time use it for the same so I don't scratch the paint on those surface and they stay nice.
Then I take a sturdy wash rag and start on the sides of the engine and frame, and then work underneath the tail on the hugger, underside of scorpions which left one gets some chain goop sometimes, rims and swingarm. Oh, I usually use the scrubber and clean the sides of the chain with some suds before I use any simple green because I don't want to get that near the chain. If there is a filthy residue on those parts, I use the scrubber I have to get at it, and if needed, I use a little bit of simple green, and then immediately rise off with some suds. Then I take the rag and put a little bit of simple green on it, and I clean the header pipes. Then I was them off with some more suds.
This is a time consuming process, and if it's hot out, the top of the bike will start to dry as you go on, this is why during this process I periodically dump some suds and water all over everything by squeezing some out of a rag over the bike.
Now that everything is clean and sudsy, I get the clean rag that's in the bucket of clean water and start squeezing clean water out over everything, rinsing the bike off. For the areas where you cannot do this, I use the spray bottle, which has an adjustable nozzle where you can have a stream or a spray, and I get the soap out of everywhere.
Once it is rinsed off I let it dry, and put it on the side stand so any standing water falls off. After a while when it's dry I take a clean dry microfiber rag and go under the edges to make sure the droplets are gone. Then I wax it which gets rid of any water spots, and use the armor-all type crap on some of the plastic parts, mainly the inner fairing. Then I put it back on the center stand and lube the chain up good, and it looks as good as new, and it is nice and clean.
Oh I do all of this under a carport out of direct sunlight. Otherwise the soap would really dry on there and would be a real pain to get off. I think that bikes should be washed by hand, and by doing this, touching all of the parts, you can physically tell if something is loose, broken, etc. Also, you don't run the risk of pushing water into somewhere it shouldn't be by using a pressure washer. If you have a pressure washer, they're good for standing a distance away and misting the whole thing, and soaping the whole thing before you use a rag and wipe it down, and to rinse it off from a distance, but never close enough to use any pressure on it.
good luck!
Oh, and you should NEVER NEVER NEVER apply any sort of shine/protect/gloss tye product to your motorcycle tires. Even if you're careful to only do it to the sides, they can get wet and that stuff will run all over your tire, and you'll have a really greasey tire just wating to put you down around the next turn.
......Watch the Radiator with a high speed spray though :thumbup:
