I feel a little hesitant to post this as I feel as though everyone may have known about this already. Bottom line up front: I dry rubbed all my chrome with 0000 steel wool and now my bike shines more than I ever remembered it.
Detailing my bike the other day, I noticed that my chrome just wasn’t sparkling like it used to. I tried Capt Richards, Bug Slide, HD Chrome polish, Rubbing Alcohol, Acetone and no matter the method, I wasn’t seeing a difference… no scratches, just dullness. I would rub my finger along the heat shields and just feel (and hear) the grittiness from road gunk. I took to Google (something I don’t know why I never researched before) and looked for basic chrome cleaning and came across this video from V&H (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3kR3Uekw2U). Here, they showed before/after using 0000 steel wool. WTF?? I never imaged taking steel wool to anything chrome as I assumed it’d scratch the sh!t out of it… but there was proof.
I decided to go remove one of my saddlebags and found a nice part of my muffler that wasn’t exposed in the event this experiment was a mistake. Around 2 hours later, every bit of chrome on my bike was sparking like a mirror in the sun. All the pitting, grit and dullness was gone and NO MICRO SCRATCHES AT ALL. I brought it out in the sun and shined a light on every angle possible looking for scratches – nothing. Running my finger along the chrome and it felt like glass. I ran over and grabbed my neighbor to tell him about it (20+ year motorcycle cop) to which he replied, don’t ever f#cking take steel wool to your chrome. I left a little spot under my other saddlebag for him to see with his own eyes… that’s all it took.
You all might already know this little trick, but I feel as though I want to share with the entire world. If this is news to you… give it a shot and thank me later.