Cleaning Wheels

[BSA]

I have steel wheels on my road bike (how modern am I!).

I have looked at the tutorial on bicycletutor.com and it recommends using a light oil and some wire (or brass) wool to clean the rims.

My question is what would you call a light oil? I currently have finish line cross country and wd40 would either of these suffice or do I need to purchase something in particular? if so what?

Thanks for listening!

 

[02GF74]

what exactly are you trying to do?

wheels will be chromed to stop them rusting so avoid using abrasives.

for road muck, a nylon tooth brush and washing up liquid in solution should suffice.

if you are trying to clean up rust bumps, then you need something more aggressive, like that stated - although all that does is remove more of the chome leading to more rust, hence presumably the need to use oil.

 

[BSA]

Sorry, it is to remove surface rust. They seem to rust very easily, which is why I wanted to use the "light oil", but I did not know what is classed as light.

Is there a better way?

 

[02GF74]

is there are better way? yes, fit alloy rims.

otherwise I would use emery cloth to remove the rust, paint with rust killer followed paint in your choice of colour. ideally you would remove the spokes to make it easier and then spray to avoid brush marks - depends on how much effort and money you want to throw at what are probably not fantastic wheels.

 

[tyred]

If it's only light surface corrosion, use one of those scouring pads from the supermarket (the synthetic rather the wire wool type) with a little 3 in 1 or similar soaked into it. Then polish with autosol if you're after appearances or rub over with Hammerite Kurust or Jenolite if you just want to prevent rust in the longer term.

For more severe rusting, use a fine wire wool with some added oil.

To clean road muck, old oil, grease etc, use carburettor cleaner.

Try not to use a severe abrasive like sandpaper or coarse wire wool as you will ruin the remaining chrome. A small soft wire brush of the type used to clean spark plugs can be useful as well.

 

[zacklaws]

I recall when I was young my Father always stuck a small dog collar on the spindle's of our wheels on our bikes to keep them clean. Not seen any one do it for ages but been tempted to try it with pipe cleaners and just go for a short "cleaning ride" to give my spindles a polish.

 

[jimboalee]

Don't laugh. I have steel rims on my commuter.
Even after a miserable day like today with mist and road spray, there wasn't ANY brake block mess on the tyres.

These rims had some rust when I acquired them. A brillo pad, oily water and some Jenolite got them gleaming.
Apply some silicone based solid polish to the rims, spoke nipples and rim holes. This stops them filling with crud and also keeps the spoke threads clean.

I use hard rubber blocks. No mess!

 

[Ivan Ardon]

I'll see your steel rimmed commuter, and raise you a rod braked roadster.

The rims and brake rods were plenty rusty when I picked it up, so I used fine wire wool and engine oil to scrub off the rust. Used through last winter, the rust hasn't come back.