Originally Posted by capnjonny

No one here has mentioned WD40. I have been using it as a cleaner for a while. Years ago I bought a big sail boat and the roller furling drum was rough I bought a Gallon of WD 40 and used it to flush out the bearings . Worked like a charm and no need to do anything else to flush out the WD40. On my bikes I use it with a small squeeze bottle and a tooth brush to clean derailleurs, and bearing races. It dissolves stubborn caked on dried grease and leaves a waxy surface behind. Unlike paint thinner, which at least here in Ca. is mostly acetone and evaporates quickly. The wd40 doesn't and works well to flush old crud off the bike. When I strip a bike I will wipe the frame down with a wd40 soaked rag. this gets the dried grease off better than simple green.

I buy it by the gallon at Harbor freight. It is more expensive than thinner but with the squeeze bottles I also buy there I don't ever buy it in a spray can any more. They also sell cheap cleaning brushes which work well.

Originally Posted by Mudguts

Jonny, I was just talking to my buddy 10grand Dan last night (10 grand rpm's, not $10,000, that should be obvious) about where he gets his kerosene. He told me to just get some wd40, it's almost as good. And wd40 is mostly kerosene anyway. I asked, what are you, a metallurgist? He said, no, honorary gynaecologist. Anyway, the point is, 10grand Dan uses kerosene on his motorcycle chain and says wd40 is almost as good. So as far as I'm concerned, that's the final word as which is the best degreaser.

Originally Posted by RealOld

Kerosene wins hands down! Petroleum based, excellent cleaner, etc. No need to worry about explosions, immense fire danger, skin cancer, lung cancer, etc. Just relax and use it!

Originally Posted by Jynx

What I want to know is where are you finding Kerosene for that price. I think the last time I checked a gallon was around $8 (In a bottle as I don't know of any gas stations that have a kerosene pump anymore).

Originally Posted by cyccommute

Do you mean 'organic' as in composed of carbon based molecules as a chemist would refer to them or 'organic' as in the colloquial 'It's organic so it doesn't contain chemicals' statement? Assuming that something won't react because it composed of organic chemicals flies in the face of a couple of hundred years of chemical science. Assuming that it won't react because it's 'organic' and doesn't contain chemicals is silly because all substances on the face of this planet...as well as any other planet, star, rock, stray piece of space dust, etc...can be made of nothing but chemicals.