Treating polished aluminum as a practice really depends upon your climate zone and how you store the bike and when you ride it. In Upstate NY, you’ll have winter road treatments remaining until late Spring. You don’t generally have very high concentration of salt air so that’s in your favor.
Understand, aluminum oxidizes immediately and perpetually. It slows but still continues. A quick treatment with a polish will help its luster, but it does not remove the oxide layer nor prevent it from returning (only a paint or powder coat/cerakote will do that).
So if you want high polish and little maintenance, powder coating is probably your best bet. Otherwise, period and thorough polishing is needed. The transition from polished to shiny is gradual and you’ll wake up one sunny day and look at your bike in the parking lot and say, “It’s lost its luster…” Par for the course with aluminum I’m afraid.
