If you’ve had your T700 for even a short while, you may have noticed various places where rust is already beginning to form. There are literally hundreds of posts on various groups and forums highlighting problems with corrosion on wheel spokes, rust on the underside of the petrol tank and various other places including the brake discs, frame and silencer, amongst others.
Bikes coming out of certain factories in certain countries may seem to suffer worse with corrosion, especially that found on the tanks, but no T700s appear to be completely immune. On the 14th of April last year (2022), I published this short post, highlighting the formation of a fair bit of rust on my 2020 T700’s brake discs, as well as corrosion on the rear spokes. I had come across a product called Bilt Hamber Atom Mac Migratory Contact Corrosion Inhibitor. Unlike ACF-50, this liquid is nowhere near as thick and is easily sprayed on or wiped over a surface. Once it dries it does not attract dirt like ACF-50 does and is completely invisible, so keeps the bike parts looking as you’d want them to. Most importantly, however, after 10 months of testing, this product works a treat!
From the product description:
- atom-mac is a migratory and contact corrosion inhibitor that is diluted in water before use.
- It provides protection against corrosion in both open spaces and hollow voids.
- The powerful migratory phase corrosion inhibitors are liberated from the product and are carried in vapour phase to form an invisible atomic shield against corrosion of ferrous metal.
- Protects vehicle undersides, water collecting voids, braking surface, suspension, bicycles, garden equipment and machinery – wherever corrosion may occur.
- Can be added to rinse water to prevent flash corrosion of grit blast or surfaces chemically cleaned with deox C or GEL for example. Safe on painted surfaces.
The instructions suggest adding 2-5% to your rinsing water. Because I wanted to test just a small area of the front brake disc I just poured a small amount neat onto a cloth and wiped the disc over. That was enough to prevent ANY rust re-appearing on the brake disc for 10 months. The bike has been pressure washed several times during that 10 months and no further application of the product was made during this time, so just one wipe in 10 months. Yesterday it was time for another jet wash and whilst there was still zero rust on the discs, I wiped them over once again in the same fashion as before.
I will now apply this to my spokes and all other metal areas on the bike that might pick up rust or corrosion. My spokes are not terrible but the rear ones are definitely worse than the front, as would be expected. To see if I could remove the corrosion I tried some WD-40 on wet 320 grit sandpaper and that removed all the corrosion very easily, so I will now laboriously clean off all the affected spokes and then spray them with a diluted bottle of the Bilt Hamber and I strongly suspect that the corrosion problems will disappear, as they have done on the brake discs.
Amazon currently have this at £25 per 500ml bottle on an 11% discount, so worth grabbing a bottle now. It’s not cheap but when diluted to 2-5% it’s very economical and on a motorcycle really should last a few years. Well worth it in my book!
Amazon Product Link
Bilt Hamber Atom Mac Migratory Contact Corrosion Inhibitor