Sadly for me, as someone (well 4 others actually) previously owned my bike it will never reach the status of 10/10 IMO. The best i can realistically expect is an 8.

Well i'm now up to over 5 hours of cleaning to get this right and i rekon i'm getting hear the end of the job.
Only real tasks left are to get the wheels off and discs off so i can give the hubs and spokes a proper clean. That will probably wait until i get some new rubber fitted and do both jobs at once.
Today i whipped the exhausts off and managed to get access to a lot of little places i couldn't get before... Also the front sprocket cover... JESUS there was a lot of crap in there... more than i thought possible... even on the engine side, i was amazed the sprocket actually moved LOL.
So just waiting for my exhausts to arrive, my bracket to come back from painting and my tank decal to arrive and we're once again good to go

Your not the only one. I've come to the XT from sports and muscle bikes and even though I bought mine online after seeing a couple of pictures where it looked good it still wasn't my kind of clean. I've a way to go with it but as she'll never be used off road or in the rain (like any of my bikes) she'll get severely tidied up.

My cars get just the same treatment. I'm a clean and tidy nut. Always have been. My bikes previous owner liked his maintenance but didn't like to wipe excess lube away leaving it to just attract more grit. That kind of thing nags me to high heaven along with poorly maintained drive chains and so on.

My dear old Granddad used to say "Look after her and she'll look after you" something I've never forgotten to this day. My wife thinks I'm obsessive as I spend more time cleaning than riding but I find it kind of therapeutic too.

I don't suffer from this infliction...
My XTR is a dirt/ADV bike & thats where it lives..
The only clean roads it sees is getting to the dirty ones..
80% clean & 99% mechanicly perfect and I'm a
happy camper...
All the scraps/scratchs etc are proof of good times...

You really don't want to see my bike... :D

I'm a pain in the arse when it comes to fettling a bike, after 4 previous owners my XTX has its fair share of 'commuter' wear & tear battle scars & accumilated crud filled nooks & crannies. All will have to be replaced, re-painted, stripped, polished & cleaned. Yep.......pain in the arse.

France can be damp to
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-M...o/P1000130.JPG

Does any of you find these bikes harder to keep clean than other models? I have bought three brand new bikes in recent years and the XTR is much worse to keep tidy.
Is it surface finishes, bad materials, additional spray due to the D/S design, rough tires etc?
There was never as much or as sticky grime on my Honda Shadow or Yamaha XJ6 as on the XTR. Same commuting riding, same speeds, same weather.

Starting from when I first took it down a muddy trail within 30 miles of buying it, my XTZ has only ever been really clean when I took the engine out last winter and built it back up again from a bare frame.

Drowning the bike in ACF50 every winter, it's not corroded/bad finish/bad materials.

It's just there's so many nooks and crannies in and around the engine that it's impossible to wash all the dirt off without taking the entire bike apart.