Can Cleaning & Katana Shock Avoidance Maneuvers

[cWj]

On this day that I wish I was somewhere less-frigid enough to ride, I present a question, a two part question and a Daily Double:

1) What's people's personal faves for cleaning tarnish/blemish off of the chrome on the stock can?

2) Are there year ranges of Katana rear shock that anyone considers "to be avoided"?
    b) Is there an age at which you simply wouldn't mess with a used shock purely due to age, regardless of purported pristine condition?

DD: For any remaining stalwarts with Progressives up front who've changed the back, which of the several rear swap options do you consider to be a good (or bad) match?

(From the great northeastern tundropolis...  )

[AnonRider]

I don't have any answers, but I do want to rabble with you about how damn cold it is. I'm a new jerseyan and it's going to be <30 degrees for the next foreseeable future.

[radodrill]

1) What's people's personal faves for cleaning tarnish/blemish off of the chrome on the stock can?

Are you sure it's chrome; I think it's just polished stainless steel.  For a thorough cleaning (a lot of dust, grime etc), wipe off the bulk with some alcohol then a cloth buffing wheel and some polishing compound will clean it up nicely; you can follow up with some Simichrome and a polishing cloth for a bit more luster.  For routine cleaning, any auto polish will work just fine.

[cWj]

I don't have any answers, but I do want to rabble with you about how damn cold it is. I'm a new jerseyan and it's going to be <30 degrees for the next foreseeable future.

I usually make fun of the natives about how much noise they make about cold during winter, but this is really, really cold. You don't even have bad snow clean up to blame. It's just so cold you don't want to go outside. Single digits and triple digits in the same place just doesn't seem fair ...

Thanks, Rado.

[robfriedenberger]

SOS pads work nicely, very little force required.

[noworries]

Remember being in Moscow one December years ago. About 15C below. And you'd walk around a corner of a street and there - in a sheltered corner of a building - would be some Russian git, shirt off, soaking up the rays from the palest of pale Sun high in the sky. And then, other gits mooching around in the same temperatures slurping on an ice-cream cone. Don't think they were even noticing it was a bit chilly like. Funny world.....

[radodrill]

I've also found that for baked on oil/grease, you can use a scotch-brite pad (possibly with some Oops, Goof Off, Acetone, etc) and some elbow-grease to get it off; then use the cloth buff to really git it shining    Fastwax also seems to be great once you've got it polished up.