Evaporust has become my go-to solution most of the time, especially for small parts. I've never had it do any damage to chrome but it will removed zinc or cad plating. I just pulled two old forged chrome stems from a can of Evaporust, they were solid brown, my thought was that they were likely to far gone to save but I had a batch in a mayo jar for something else so I stuck both of them top down in the jar over night, to my surprise, both stems came out looking fantastic.

For rust removal by hand, I use a mix of bronze wool, brass tooth brushes, and steel wood. I only use steel wool with oil or soap.
For steel rims, I use hydroflouric acid wire wheel cleaner, along with a soapy piece of steel wool. It makes short work of rusty old chrome wheels but it can't be left on for long. I generally do it over a sink or old plastic tub with a garden hose at hand outdoors.
You just have to work quick, the acid will strip the chrome off of spoke nipples and eat the galvanizing off the spokes pretty fast if you leave it too long. I wet the wheel down, spray the chrome with acid, agitate it a bit with a brass brush or steel wood, and rinse. Usually it only takes one shot. Then they need to be dried and polished quickly to prevent them from flash rusting right away. I only use acid for wheels that are really bad.

If Evaporust was cheaper, I'd likely fill a large tub or parts washer full of it but it would cost far too much to fill a 50 gallon soak tank with the stuff. I've got a 55 gallon parts washer tank in the garage, it would be great to make use of that for something. It was originally used as a transmission dunk tank in a repair shop years ago. Now its a storage bin in my garage.
It would be nice to be able to soak a whole rim or handlebars though. When I checked last, the best price I found was $724 for a 55 gallon barrel of the stuff.
It would save a ton of original parts though.