Tool Time

Tool Time

Motorcycles may be small compared to automobiles, but they nevertheless often have more than their fair share of nooks and crannies that can be tough to clean. Joints at bodywork segments, closely spaced cylinder fins and mounting hardware set deeply into recessed mounting holes are just a few examples. A toothbrush can be an invaluable tool for getting unwanted material out of these hard-to-reach areas, and the SonicScrubber (www. sonicscrubber.com) takes that idea one step farther: It's sort of like an electric toothbrush for detailing bikes and cars. The basic unit is the Pro Detailer ($15), which includes the 4-AA-batlery-powered handle and a quick-detachable, all-purpose brush head. A separate package of three different brush heads (one large, one soft and one cone-shaped) is available for $10.

I was a little skeptical whefli first gOt my hands On this tOol, but I soon came to appreciate it when I saw how quickly and easily it cleaned old, dried wax out of the crevice around the gas-filler housing on a Kawasaki Versys (pictured) and removed some unidentified mung from the very outer edges of the mirror glass on my own Honda VFR. The brush heads snap into and out of the handle with less than a quarter-turn, and the four brush styles work well for various kinds of cleaning. Plus, should I ever get food stuck between my teeth while in the garage...

Signs in most gas stations warn of the toxins in gasoline, so it makes sense that you should not drink it. But you can do so very easily if you run out of gas in a remote area and have to use a little hose to siphon fuel out of a donor tank on another bike or even a car. You need suction to get the fuel flowing up out of the tank, and the most common method of providing it is to suck on the end of the hose until gas arrives—usually in your mouth. But not so if you use the E-Fill Siphon (part #4986; $24) from Aerostich (www. aerostich.com). It consists of a 68-inch-long piece of neoprene hose with a special little oneway valve at one end, and an adjustable clip that can be positioned anywhere on the hose.

To prime the hose, you just submerge the valve end into the fuel in the donor tank and give it a few up-and-down pumps until gas starts flowing readily, just as though you had sucked on the end of the hose. Since getting the donor tank higher than the receiving one usually is difficult if not impossible, you can use either half of the E-Siphon’s two-piece plastic carrying case as a receptacle. When the case is full, you pinch the clip to shut off the flow and then dump the gas into the tank of the receiving bike. The clip allows the hose to maintain suction so that if you need more fuel, all you have to do is put the hose back in the receptacle and release the clip. The kit even includes a nice, absorbent towel for

clean-up after the transfer of fuel is complete.

Though the entire E-Fill system weighs just 4 ounces, the carrying case is 10 x 2.6 x 1.25

inches, so it takes up more room in a saddlebag, backpack or fanny pack than a simple piece of hose. That’s a small sacrifice, in my opinion, for not having to ingest a dead-dinosaur cocktail.