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Old 11-05-2020, 07:45 AM   #20
yellowfever
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: London
Bike: S2r 1000
Posts: 172
TL/DR - just water on damp rag and elbow grease, gliptone GT12 intensive cleaner then GT11 conditioner.

There are loads of different leather care products out there and even more opinions about them. With motorbike leathers, unlike with fashion leather jackets, horse saddles, your leather sofa etc, beyond effectiveness on cleaning/conditioning there's also the issue about what impact products may have on the protective qualities of the leather and seams in a spill.

Leather care product manufacturers all seem to claim their product is best and many warn against the ingredients used in other rival products

e.g. Some claim petroleum spirits found in some products will damage stitching, others claim 'natural' animal derived fats like neatsfoot oil will go rancid over time and damage the leather.

Some claim thicker products don't absorb well and attract grit and then act like a grinding paste on seam stitching, others that thinner products saturate the leather and weaken it...

Some claim miraculous waterproofing from their products eg with silicone, others say that this is a terrible idea as it clogs the pores in leather that allow it to breathe naturally...

Hard to know what to believe.

For what it's worth I try to follow manufacturers instructions, so my Vanson leather jacket and jeans is cleaned with plain water/a damp rag and then conditioned with a light coat or two of vanson's own leather balm every now and again. For a near 20 years old suit that's been used in all weathers and touring and commuting and with one high speed crash to its name it's still in really great shape, so I guess this regime works well (and Vanson make great kit). I've used the balm on my (non-Vanson) leather gloves too and it's been great on them too.

More generally I also remember a bike magazine article (Ride magazine maybe?) a few years back that interviewed the guy behind scrubbers leathers on how to clean and care for your leathers. This company are well renowned for their motorbike leather cleaning service. They use their own bespoke blended cleaners and conditioners and have special temperature/humidity controlled drying facilities. They get great reviews in various bike publications, so if you want a professional clean and can afford it they could be worth a look. If not they also helpfully gave some home cleaning tips in the article and said you should be careful what products to use. Apart from plain water they recommend gliptone products as they do motorbike leather specific products to clean and condition leathers that won't damage them/the stitching so protective qualities will not be harmed. I got some gliptone cleaner and conditioner on the strength of this and I've used it with success of various bike kit (including giving the vanson a deeper clean) a number of times.

I've also recently picked up a second hand BKS suit (the - originally - very expensive made to measure BKS, not the off the peg stuff). Their website recommends plain water on a damp rag for general cleaning, but if you want an occasional deeper clean/condition they do a care kit. As I got the suit cheap and a care kit is about all I could ever hope to afford new at BKS I got one. It's a decent care kit and made the already in great condition BKS suit even nicer. Using it I had the suspicion it's produced by gliptone and branded for BKS as the products have a similar consistency and the bottles even have very similar shape to gliptone ones despite different labels. Who knows! But anyway I've enough cleaning/conditioning products to last me for a few years now!

Hope that's useful!

Ps I think hideout leathers (who by the by I'd thoroughly recommend for any leather repairs/alterations) also offer a cleaning service for leathers so that could be another professional option...
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