How To Clean and Protect Your Windshield
As appeared in
WING WORLD Magazine
October 1996

With very few exceptions, little by little, Gold Wingers clean their windshields to death. 
Take a stroll around the parking lot outside a restaurant where a Gold Wing Road 
Riders Association Chapter gathering is going on. Look through all the windshields. 
Except for the brand new machines, almost every windshield shows evidence of 
well-intentioned abuse by the bikes' owners. (While that's what keeps those of us in 
the business of supplying aftermarket windshields and accessories in business, its 
largely unnecessary and can be avoided with a bit of care) Sure, you need to keep 
your windshield clean, both for appearances and safety, but you don't need to go 
about it the wrong way'

First of all, you should know a bit about your Gold Wings windshield. Unlike most 
automobile or truck windshields, its not made of glass. The original equipment 
Honda Gold Wing GL1500 windshield is made of hard coated polycarbonate. 
While polycarbonate is great stuff, if you use cleaner containing alcohol or 
ammonia (including Windex® or Pledge®), you start softening the hard coating 
exposing the windshield to greater tendency to scratches or pitting. Windex, Pledge 
and other alcohol-based household cleaners work great on glass, but aren't meant for 
synthetics.

WARNING:Do not use Rain-X® on any coated windshield!
Second if you grab one of those service station scrubber wands, you don't know 
what kind of abrasives are imbedded in its spongy or squeegee surfaces. It's worth 
it to carry your own cleaning materials. At service stations, the temptation is to do 
a 'final wipe-off' with those handy paper towels. Resist the urge! Paper is processed 
wood pulp. You're essentially scrubbing your windshield with a handful of ground-up 
twigs! Is it any wonder your windshield quickly goes from crystal clear to a crazy-quilt 
pattern of swirls and whorls that's especially annoying when riding in the rain or n the 
glare of on-coming headlightsl

Alcohol or high-petroleum-content cleaners are even more destructive to aftermarket 
windshields made of Lexan®. Spritz a little alcohol on one of these windshields and it 
immediately turns milky white, had a customer tell me he destroyed his windshield 
while refilling his fuel tank "'he hose nozzle sprung loose, gushing gasoline all over 
the inside of his Lexan windshield. Was he angry!
 Here's how I tell my customers to clean their windshields.

Step 1. Use a wet, not damp, wash cloth or hand Towel you keep for that purpose in 
a plastic zip-lock bag inside your Wings travel trunk.  Allow the water to soften the 
dried-on bugs. Work crosswise and up and down; if you use a circular motion, you 
tend, unconsciously, to increase the rag pressure and scrub harder than you need to. 
Also, if there's any grit on the cloth to gouge the surface, circular scratches are more 
annoying to the eye than straight ones. (By the way, I don't use diaper material 
because the tightness of the weave tends to pick up and retain grit.) Soft terry cloth 
is the best for the initial soaking and wiping.

Step 2. With the windshield still wet, sparingly spray on some of Sumner Laboratories' 
product called 210®. Using clean tee-shirt material, gently wipe the windshield dry, 
gain, using straight back-and-forth motions. Sumner's 210® is available through many 
motorcycle and plastic supply houses (and Tulsa Enterprises carries it too!) It's 
specifically formulated for use on Lucite or Lexan. Besides being anti-static and 
anti-fog, it helps seal the pores of plastic and leaves a protective coating. From 
Tulsa Enterprises, a seven ounce can of 210® costs $5.50 plus shipping. Sumner 
Laboratories' 210® Plus scratch remover (7.5 oz., $6.50) can improve lightly 
scratched surfaces. As with any product you've not tried before, do a test sample 
in a small (preferably out of the line of sight) area of the windshield to see if it makes 
things better or worse.

Of curse, in the final analysis, for severely scratched and pitted windshields the best 
thing to do is start over with a fresh one, promising yourself to give it better care than 
you gave the last one. Just as investing in a fresh set of motorcycle tires makes a 
world of difference in how your motorcycle rides, by making the relatively small 
investment for a new windshield, you can improve your whole outlook on life!