Maintaining your bike properly means cleaning it after every ride, which can be a hassle, especially after a long, hard day or weekend of riding. While you could simply take your bike to the local coin-op car wash and blast off the mud and dirt, in doing this you are likely to blast mud into areas where you don't want it, such as your bearings. The solution is to find a good, powerful cleaner. We tried the new, environmentally friendly Powersports Cleaner, specially formulated for the powersports industry by the makers of Simple Green, to see if it had enough cleaning power to remove the grease, grime and mud on our bikes.

It is fairly easy to clean a bike's plastic, seat and other large areas with just soap and water, but the hard parts¡ªsuch as the area around the countershaft sprocket, where residue from the chain lube can hide, or the inner portion of the hubs and spokes¡ªcan be too difficult to clean with soap and water. The Powersports Cleaner solution worked much better in these areas, and little scrubbing was required. We tried the cleaner on the entire bike and, afterward, found no tarnish on the plastic or hard parts. We even used it to clean a pair of boots. Yes, the directions say, "Not recommended for leather," but we tried it anyway. The cleaner made our yellow-stained boots bright white again, and we could see no damage. It leaves a fresh smell, too. Not that fragrance is very important for your bike, but if you happen to use it on other areas in the shop, such as your tools or work bench, you will have a fresh-smelling garage.

The Powersports Cleaner is an excellent alternative to cleaning your bike with a power washer, and it comes at a great price. Its ready-to-use spray formula is available in 4- ($2.25), 32- ($5.95) and 128-ounce ($11.90) bottles. Powersports Cleaner can be found only at your local Powersports dealer.

DR Tested: 9.8

Powersports cleaner: Distributed exclusively by Tucker Rocky Distributing; www.powersportrider.com