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got back from a road ride yesterday, too tired to clean the bike. tackled it just now and it took 20mins to clean the grime off the rims with a soft, pan scouring pad and washing up liquid and water.
fingers nearly frozen off.
should have done it yesterday but...what are your secrets for speeding it up?
Wipe it with a solvent, WD40 works, then rinse with soapy water.
muc off pink stuff is great with road dirt and brake rubber.
Even if you've only got soapy water -
Lather up, get the rims wet all round, go off do something else, repeat a couple of times, come back and finish the job after the soaking period.
Baby wipes immediately after the ride while still wet. Occasionally take the tyres off and use a cloth with disc brake cleaner or IPA or other solvent. Enamel rubber also works occasionally.
Reason to get a cheap set of winter wheels so it matters less?
I just started using cleaning wipes, does speed up the process a bit.
Used to use a potato brush and bowl of soapy water.
Tar spot remover.
Spray on, wipe, rinse off.
Then wash the rest of the bike.
shimano hydraulics seem to remove the problem 🙂
Quick hose, the spray with cleaner. Quick once round with the brush then rinse. 2 minutes including hubs I reckon. When dry I wipe them over with a WD type stuff covered rag. Makes them easier to clean next time.
Ah, the benefits of disc brakes 😀
Hmmmm, tries to think if i've touched my road rims in the last year.
some good tips, thanks. should have said, they're rim brakes.
tempting for a bad weather bike.shimano hydraulics seem to remove the problem
But at 1000-1200 to save about 60 seconds per ride, even if I ride daily (ha. Some chance!) Is difficult to justify.
Especially as my rim brakes work well anyway.
I wipe them first when dry using some clean rag, then wash with warm soapy water and they come up spotless. Otherwise I find you chase the crud round and round the wheels smearing it everywhere.
Hmmmm, tries to think if i've touched my road rims in the last [s]year.[/s] decade.
Degreaser, that ridiculously strong stuff swarfega do ~£8 for 5L, shifts most things even diluted down to sensible levels. But if you just want to do the rims yeah baby wipes, they are good for bike cleaning, I miss having a constant supply to hand.
If you can still buy one, the Mavic Rim Rubber was a great way of cleaning the brake track.
bucket, water, soap, sponge as infrequently as possible.
Muc off and cold water does it for me