There are all kinds of good high gloss products Like Zaino, Klasse, Wekstatt, and others and their all just reformations of the same product. But Klasse went a slightly different route with theirs and made theirs more of a sealant, while Zaino is more a polish. But you can't mix the two together. Either way you should use Carnuba wax to make either shine but it will need to be reapplied every month.

But for the average person Mothers Synthetic or Meguier's NXT, with a layer of Carnuba either Mothres or Meguier's on top is plenty good enough.

 

Mothers has a product called "Back to Black." It looks like liquid car wax, bu it's specifically made to be used on flat black surfaces of cars. I don't have a flat black bike, but I use it on the cars & it works very well. You might want to give it a try on an inconspicuous surface. Just a small aside...if you accidently get wax on a surface painted with matte or flat paint you may find it hard to remove. Something that works well is a pencil eraser.

 

I use turtle hard wax on mine. Lasts all winter and makes it so much easier to keep clean.

 

I've used something called Kleen 'n Shine and also Meguiar's mist & wipe auto detailer. I don't spray the bike, just the rag. Follow up with a dry rag and wipe dry.

 

I've been using Pledge for years. "It cleans while it shines."

I'll share this tidbit though, DO NOT use Armor All Car Wash Detergent to wash your bike. It has some sort of finish polymer in it that will contaminate your brake pads and greatly reduce your braking power. I discovered this quite by accident and it took my a while to figure it out.

 

Yeah.....sorry about the derailment.

Does the Pledge idea work for matte finishes? It says, "furniture polish", so it isn't a wax, right?

 

I don't know. I think it's wax & I use it on my shiny bikes all the time. Try it on the underside of the bottom bracket & see what it does.

 

I got turned on to some Pedro's Bike Lust when I brought my steel bike home. So far I really like it, spray some on a claen rag and wipe. Once you get a coat on, it repels water really well and makes for easy clean up as you build it up.

PEDRO'S USA - Total Bicycle Care | Bike Lust

Peace

 

Pics! Pics! Where are pics of the 'supposed' new bike with said car wax ?!!

 

Note the dirt on the tires... but not on the frame:

 

What does all this have to do with car wax and bikes?

 

Nothing, but since the original poster got his answer we side tracked. If you have something to add about wax an bikes then feel free.

 

Unfortunately the sales world is a hit and miss trying to find a good sales person that knows what their talking about and knows how to find what you need not what they want to sell. But I would try going back to Redibike and try again, spend sometime on your own looking at the ones that interest you in price then ask for help once you have it narrowed down. The people at Redibike are very nice and not elitist in any way like Summit, and Outfitters I found the sales people to be very young and too laid back, the girl there has no idea about bikes and just pretends to know!! At least that's the way she came across when I was there.

If you do decide to buy a bike, no matter what shop you buy from, do not just ride in the parking lot to test the bike, take the bike for at least a 5 mile ride to see how you'll like it. Back in the day when I bought my new 80's models you could tell in a short distance how good a frame was by hammering it and seeing if you get the chain to rub the sides of the front derailleur, and or get the rear wheel to rub the brake blocks, if either or both happened I rejected the bike; today that won't happen, but you need to find out how the bike's systems feel to you and how the road feels on the bike, and how the fit is, a lot of modern road bikes put the seat way too high then a sharp downward angle to the bars for most people to ride comfortably for long distances. So they buy these bikes because the bike shop only carries those type of bikes and besides racers ride them, but they never get use to the bike and after 3 months or so the bike becomes garage art. So test ride whatever bike.

 

I'll see your Klasse and raise you a Zaino.

Not only do I apply a few coats of Zaino on my bike's finish, I actually ordered a roll of custom-cut Xpel Xtreme clear bra film and applied it to almost every part of the frame and fork, and apply Zaino on top of it. The clear bra film is great stuff, by the way. Virtually invisible on glossy finishes and absorbs scuffs and scratches from day to day use, leaning against a brick wall, etc.

 

I'll see your Klasse and raise you a Zaino.

Zaino is the best auto polish, ever. Works very well on clear coat bike paint as well.

 

By the way, a poster mentioned Pledge wax for furniture, that stuff works great on nude titanium, it cleans smudges off and shines the metal; but it doesn't hold up on painted metal surfaces, it's no where near as durable as car wax; though it is better then nothing. But most modern TI bikes now come with a clearcoat over the TI so their no longer bare, thus I would use a non abrasive car wax like the Klasse product or Mothers or Meguiar's. I use what ever I have in the garage! Usually it's Klasse.

 

Bike Lust is pretty good... on my CAR.

 

Matte black finishes are tricky. You don't want to use a wax that's for sure. So you either have to clean it a lot with some sort of soft mitt; or to prevent frequent cleaning you can use a product called "Dr Beasley's Matte Paint Sealant" This stuff will not fill in the matted surface but does protect the matte paint. But this stuff is expensive at about $80 a bottle!! But believe it or not that's cheap compared to another product I heard made by Swissvax that wanted over $200!!!! I have heard of some people with old hot rods that they put a matte finish on seemed to like the Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Detailer...not the Ultimate Quik Wax. That is the cheaper way to go obviously. Another thing you could do is contact Harley Davidson because they sell some motorcycles models that have that black matte finish and see what they recommend to keep it up.

 

Good for you. I never use bike specific products when I can avoid them. They're just too expensive. The spray on stuff sounds good. I always use Pledge furniture polish. Super easy to use, dries invisible, & gives your bike that fresh lemony smell.

 

I use nothing but car liquid wax on my bikes, in particular I use Klasse High Gloss Sealant Glaze on my cars with modern synthetic paint, but with natural paint I use Deep Crystal System Carnauba wax to allow natural paint to breath. On my newer cars I put the Klasse on then apply a coat of the Carnuba wax to get a deep shine, the Klasse will last about a year, but the Carnauba will last about a month. Mothers also has great waxes.

What's all that got to do with bikes? The same thing! On modern bikes their all painted with synthetic paints so the Klasse would be the best for protection and shine, then once a month apply the Carnauba for deep gloss. Both apply very easily, and you could have both put down on a bike in about an hour, then once a month touch up with the Carnauba will take about 20 minutes.

Any car wax will work better then any bike specific wax and the car wax is way cheaper and not any harsher then the bicycle waxes.

 

Oh sweet! Thanks! I'm gonna put on the Klasse twins and P21S carnauba.