Step nine: Finishing

By this time, you’ve spent a couple of hours and you’re tired. But you should have a good sense of reward. This is a good time to lube the chain, because chances are you’re not going to ride straight away, and again overspray will come off easily with the polish. As always, there’s no need to drown the chain in lube. It’s best left overnight after lubing, to work into the chain – if you ride straight away it’ll get flung off.

A final polish will bring the clocks and switch gear up to the same standard as the bike but leave the grips alone.

If you’re not going to use the bike in the near future, leave the polish on and store it up. Kept out of the elements (i.e.: in a garage) the polish will last indefintely. In the open, it’ll need re-doing about every six weeks to maintain a protective layer. Otherwise, you can buff the polish off now and stand back to admire your gleaming-like-new bike.