Good Product for Cleaning Wheels?

 Spoked and chromed wheels, neglected by me for about 4 years.  The rear is
especially nasty, due to castoff from the chain (both lubricant and dirt).

Any miracle product that I can just spray on and hose off?  Elbow grease or
anything resembling work is to be avoided if possible?

Thanks for any lazy suggestions,
DF

 wrote:

Why bother?  You;ve left them to get filthy for four years.  It's
obviously not very important to you, so why would you even bother to
buy and use a cleaning product.  Just leave them grimy, gritty, and
filthy.

   On 9/25/2010 10:54 PM, Tim wrote:

But after all of the comments so far, Dave probably does deserve at
least one half-hearted attempted at a real answer.

What's on those wheels is anyone's guess, but given your part of the
country it's a fair bet that there's a good mix of at least salt, grease
and chain lube, brake dust, and ordinary garden-variety dirt 'n' crud.
I'd probably start out with either whatever miracle-grease-cutter
wheel cleaner is the poop du jour at the local Pep Zone Checker
Napa Dudes store, or even some ordinary dish detergent and
and a Scotchbrite pad, and get as much of the crap off the wheels
and spokes as you can and then see what sort of corrosion you're
left to deal with.  Ain't no "spray on and hose off" that's going to
do that for you; this will need at least a minor expenditure of
elbow grease.  "Hose off" generally doesn't do anything for stuff
like this anyway unless pressure is involved, and around your
wheels and such isn't usually the best place to be directing high-
pressure streams of water, esp. if laced with anything in the way
of a grease-cutter, ya know?

How is it, by the way, that you're so incredibly anal about the
minor-maintenance sort of stuff, and you neglect basic cleanliness?
If you want to maintain any machine, the best thing to start with
is keeping all the bits clean - especially those that move and rub
up against other bits.

Bob M.

 

If brake dust has been allowed to sit on the wheel for several years it
may have embedded itself in whatever coating is present and not be
removable without refinishing the wheel.  

 

Degreaser. Brand names here are Gunk and Jizer, but there must be others
in the US. Apply with a big paintbrush (forget the aerosol ones - you
need to work the stuff into caked on chain lube hard) and wash off with
a hosepipe.

Be wary of its near wheel and (FWIW) steering head bearings.

Finish with chrome cleaner of choice.


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