Kawasaki Versys Forum banner

Love Bug Madness

3K views 15 replies 12 participants last post by  Brate 
#1 · (Edited)
This happened to me yesterday while on a 350 mile Texas coastal tour. It's going to take forever to clean this up. May also have to remove radiator to unplug the fins. Luckily I have a full can of Honda Spray Cleaner & Polish. Not sure 1 can is going to do it though.



There are bugs in every crack and crevasse imaginable:




I had already cleaned my face shield twice before this picture was taken:




 
See less See more
3
#3 ·
I often ride in some pretty damn cold weather here in Canada. I try to push the bookends of my riding season as much as possible to include March and November. People think I'm crazy for that, but I always tell them the same thing about riding in the bitter cold..."No bugs!"
 
#4 ·
#5 ·
That's impressive! I have to cross two bridges that cross a lake on my way to work. Early in the mornings I get hammered also, but not to that extent. I just use warm water and old rags first to get most of it off. That way I don't waste the Hondaline spray and use it as a final polish.
 
#7 ·
I ran into a grass hopper swarm in the middle of South Dakota one time and I must have gained 5 lbs in bug guts...........use a spray bottle with hot water/Dawn dish soap mix, spray a largish area, wait two minutes and then wipe the bugs off. Works good.
 
#11 ·
I can't imagine how much that would suck on a motorcycle. I've hit a swarm(more like cloud) of grasshoppers with a truck and I had to pull over right away to clean the windshield... couldn't see at all. It sounded like I went through the worlds quickest hail storm >:)

I've hit swarms of bugs but nothing that comes close to that.
The mosquitoes up here are almost as bad but I bet you can feel those buggers as you hit them :surprise:
 
#8 ·
I live in Mississippi, and love bugs are extremely bad here. The best thing I have found to remove them is coca cola. put coke in a spray bottle. Spray the dead bugs with a lot of coke, wait a few minutes, then spray them off with a water hose. Then you can wash the bike as normal to remove the coke. If dead love bugs stay on the paint too long when you wash them off, there will be specks of paint missing. I've always been told this is because of the acid in their body. Here in the south, during love bug season, we wipe the front of our cars and trucks with petroleum jelly, that way the bugs don't stick to the paint, and are easy to wash off with soap and water. Some people wet a bar of soap, and rub it all over the front of the auto, which makes it easier to was them off. We also buy bug screens to cover the grill to keep the bugs out of the radiator. People that don't live in love bug areas have no idea how bad they are. Nor do they know how bad fire ants are. But that's another story.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Anybody have a good way of cleaning bugs from radiator fins? There are parts of my radiator that are so full of love bugs that the openings are completely blocked (I estimate at least 15 to 20% of the surface area of the radiator).

Right now, I plan on spraying the radiator with hydrogen peroxide. I've never used this method to get rid of bugs. I'm hoping that it will dissolve them well enough that their goo flows out of the openings of the radiator. I really don't want to have to poke them out of the openings as I'm sure I would wind up bending some of the fins. I'm hoping to avoid having to take off the radiator to clean it.

Any other methods to do this?
 
#15 ·
Anybody have a good way of cleaning bugs from radiator fins? There are parts of my radiator that are so full of love bugs that the openings are completely blocked (I estimate at least 15 to 20% of the surface area of the radiator).

Right now, I plan on spraying the radiator with hydrogen peroxide. I've never used this method to get rid of bugs. I'm hoping that it will dissolve them well enough that their goo flows out of the openings of the radiator. I really don't want to have to poke them out of the openings as I'm sure I would wind up bending some of the fins. I'm hoping to avoid having to take off the radiator to clean it.

OK, she's clean as a whistle now. I used Honda Spray Cleaner & Polish to get the bugs off of everything except the radiator. I've used this product for years and it works great for cleaning up the fairings & windshield.

For the radiator, I took a small brush and gently flicked as many bugs off as I could. Then I soaked the radiator with Hydrogen Peroxide. I sprayed probably 5 times. Each time I sprayed, I'd wait until the foaming slowed down (about 5 minutes) then I'd take the small brush and gently dig into the fins and flick the remnants out. After I was done with the peroxide treatment, I took a water hose and gently sprayed into the fins to force the remnants out the back side. This morning, just for good measure, I sprayed some more into the radiator and saw no fizzing that would indicate remaining organic matter. The radiator is clean and there is no damage at all to the fins.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Anybody have a good way of cleaning bugs from radiator fins? There are parts of my radiator that are so full of love bugs that the openings are completely blocked (I estimate at least 15 to 20% of the surface area of the radiator).
I cant help you with the problem now, but on my bike I installed a RG Racing rad guard that I bought for my ninja 650 .... the rad on the versys is reversed, so I cut the bolt tabs off and used two sided automotive trim tape to put it on. Oh look, it matches my shock ... LOL I know of some who just went to Lowes and bought some black mesh, cut it to size and did the same thing. .... then again, aint hindsight 20/20.

 
  • Like
Reactions: Turk
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top