The Anti Corrosion Lubricant
Today I was too hungover to ride out on my beautiful new GSX-S1000GT, so I chose to do something at least bike related. Before I do any more than the 100 miles that are currently on the odo (my baby is so young!), I thought I’d better apply some ACF-50 to its tender parts to protect against corrosion. I am ashamed of the state I let my GSX-S750 get into and have promised myself that I’ll be a better parent in future. Just give me another chance social services!
The bottle of windolene that I’d spotted in the kitchen gave forth an impressively fine spray, which I thought would be ideal for ACF-50 application. As my partner was away for a few days, I emptied the contents of the windolene bottle down the sink and rinsed it, readying it for its new purpose in life.
The ACF-50 in the garage is about 3 years old, and I don’t know whether its effectiveness deteriorates with age, but I noticed that it was a bit gloopy at the bottom when I transferred it from its original bottle to the windolene sprayer. Being of quick mind and nimble fingers, I deftly put the kettle on and was soon sitting the ACF-50 bottle in some freshly boiled water. This made the sludge at the bottom a bit more pliable and made it possible to pour it into my new wonder-sprayer. All the best bits are in the sludge at the bottom, I intuitively know.
Now that the ACF-50 was in its new bottle, I started applying it very liberally to anything on the GSX that looked remotely metallic. I wasn’t even bothered about getting small amounts on plastic components, as it damages neither plastic nor rubber (so I read). Once a coating had been applied to an area, I would spread it more evenly over the surface with a cloth, trying to make sure it covered absolutely everything.
I did notice that the spray being emitted by the windolene bottle eventually started, what’s the word, coagulating for some reason. i.e. it wasn’t the extra fine mist it had promised. Obviously, this makes me wonder whether it's worth all the effort of transferring the ACF-50 from it's original sprayer to the windolene bottle. The original ACF-50 bottle would probably have done a similar (if not better) job! As I was spreading it with a cloth anyway, it didn’t matter so much. I did have a small paintbrush handy to work it into tight areas, but I actually managed without it with my (not so) super squirter.
Job done. Can’t wait to take the bike out again now that I’ve coated the tyres in ACF-50. I’m sure it will be OK. Or at least, exciting.