A Lesson in Brillo

Well surprise surprise surprise... If you leave anything sit long enough it starts to rust. Rust is an awful kin of thing, think of it in a very real sense as the metal burning slowly away beneath you. You wouldn't ride a bike made of flaming timbers (at least not more than a mile or two) - so why should you ride a pile of smouldering pig iron? And chrome! You though chrome would protect you! and zoom - through that plating the rust did go, and pitted now the metal is so - what to do?? I didn't know. Then I discovered BRILLO! Yep - those pre-soaped steel wool pads your wife uses in the kitchen to fix the pot you scorched burning water. Those pads are the stuff when it comes to making your bike look new - they strip oxidation, grime, old fuel, and RUST right away! I haven't had them scratch my chrome - and I doubt if your chrome is in bad enough shape to resort to this that you really would be picky about a scratch among the pits. Though it won't suffer microscopic inspection - it will suffer that usual look over at the bar or rally. It even takes that bluing off the pipes! I bought the "el-cheapo" brand at Winn-Dixie and saved myself a ton of money with a lot of elbow grease. Now, after the rust is gone you need to keep the fire from starting back up - S-100 makes some kick-butt corrosion preventative spray, it smells of ass as it burns off your pipes but ensures that you aren't making whoopee with Brillo pads after every summer shower, or muddy puddle. And none of this is any excuse for not hardly ever washing my bike... Just a way to make it look like the diaper people's rides at first glance - which is as long as they'll see me if I'm moving anyway ;)