Bicycle Mechanics - Rim Cleaning

Hi, I posted in Clydesdale forum but I thought I might get some response here as well. Every once in a while, I'm not putting on a lot of miles yet but I take a Scotchbrite pad or the same and give the rims a good scrub. To get the brake pad stuff off, lessen the noise / chatter and improve braking performance. Take a single cut bastard file to the pads too.

After I did that today I thought I'd take out my battery powered dremel with a moistened felt polishing pad, add some toothpaste (Toms Peppermint) and give it a mild polish. Then I dampened a shop rag, wiped 'er clean, then dry, very vigorously and took 'er for a quick spin.

Very nice! No noise from the dirty rims and great braking power.

Any input?

tnx

nice. but if my rims didn't cherp and make alosorts of loud noises none of the pedestrians I share the bike path with would hear me coming.

Ain't that the truth! Getting pretty peeved myself at folks that walk 4 across and wait till I yell EXCUSE ME! to move to the right. They didn't chatter / make noise that bad though :)

I have just been enlightened by an old wrench that the best way to clean rims is with Scotchbrite and denatured alcohol. I have not tried this yet. I use to clean my rims with Scotchbrite and Simple Green, and when I told him this, he almost had a heart attack.

His thing was to make sure no residue from the cleaning agent is left on the rims post-clean. Denatured alcohol leaves no residue, and he has been using it for the better part of thirty years, with much success. So next time I clean my rims, Scotchbrite and denatured alcohol will do the job.

Regards,

That's pretty damn interesting about no residue. Denatured alcohol is great stuff and the old 'Everclear' booze is pretty potent as well. I think you hit the nail on the head with the residue factor. When I wiped it clean w/ a damp shop rag I again almost dry polished it again with a dry one. Good point.

tnx

Denatured alcohol works quite well for getting the grime off. Watch it though, because it can take the print off of some rim labels in a heartbeat. It happened to the labels on a vintage Matrix rim on the back of my Trek. :(

I used to use acetone, but switched to isopropyl alcohol (91%).

Dunno' if it's any better or worse than denatured, but it seems to do a good job.

I used to use acetone, but switched to isopropyl alcohol (91%).

Dunno' if it's any better or worse than denatured, but it seems to do a good job.

acetone is better, funny ,I almost posted the acetone idea the other other post like this that the OP eluded to. I decided not to. NO comparison, alcohol works for some stuff, it's light-weight,acetone ei. nail polish remover takes anything off, carefull with the paint though.

Scotchbrite?? :eek:

I dont know. I may be a little skeptical using alcohol to clean rims. There's no doubt alcohol would be great cleaning brake pads and the rim's braking surface, but I would be worried about it fading rim decals. Other than that I dont see a problem.

I just use warm soapy water on my rims, followed by a good wax job to protect the anodise (and decals).

I scrubbed my rims but my disc brakes still squeal.


Seriously, Simple Green and Scotchbrite works wonders and is less likely to cause any damage to tires. The Dremel/toothpaste thing seems a bit OCD.