The washing has gotten more difficult as the water restrictions increased last year to a present stage 3 in our town. Water the lawn twice a month, hand watering and watering of the foundation allowed, and NO vehicle washing!!!
I don't wash my bike often unless I ride in the rain, and get all the road junk everywhere on it. Once it is nice and clean, I cover it in my garage to keep the dust from settling on it when I am not riding. If I am cruising around town, I will carry the cover with me and toss it over the bike, especially in summer - keeps the dust off and the seat from heating up too much. On a road trip, I will only clean the windshield and remove large bug splatter. That is time to ride, not be cleaning.
When washing, I will remove the bags, but leave the side covers on to keep water out from where it should'nt get into. I will remove the seat, and backrest (when attached) last so I can use leather cleaner to both clean and protect those investments. I then can dirt off of the frame too. This is my first bike with side covers, but I could only realistically see myself taking those off after a rain ride.
In order to get around the water restrictions, I have gotten creative with my hand watering, so I can wash my bike. I pull my bike up on the grass, put down a kick stand puck. Fill a bucket with water and use a soaked washing mit with my cleaner liberally applied. I set in on the paint to moisten before moving it around. I do a section at a time, so I can rinse with another non-soapy mitt to rinse the soap off. Once I have it completley washed, I will use a battery powered leaf blower to blow off the large pools of water, then take a shammy to her in order to remove every last drop of water with no spotting. I hate water spots! I will only wax 1-2 times a year - and I use another wet based product for this.
Every month in the warm weather, one of the dealerships will have a few bikini girls hand washing bikes - a good alternative when I don't feel like messing with it. I still find myself doing a better job of drying the bike afterwards, but it is a nice alternative.
The bike definately get's way more attention than my car. I have to take that to a car wash right now - the code enforcers cruise the neighborhoods on the weekends looking for water violators. (not a cheap ticket)