How on Earth do you clean the grime off wheels?

[W0QNX]

I use lots of stuff depending on how dirty.

Simple Green with light dirt.
Diesel fuel will remove road oil and asphalt chips. Takes a bit of soaking and rubbing. Diesel will also remove boot marks from chrome or stainless exhaust pipes.

Best of all is Mother's Mag and aluminum polish. It makes no sense that mag or aluminum polish would be needed as the wheels are coated. If you use brake cleaner and it sits on the wheel too long you will find out how much coating is on the wheels! It will remove it.

Believe it or not, Mothers mag polish works removing things you would not usually try it on. Bugs that have been on my front fairing for many miles were removed with mothers mag polish.

 

[river251]

Thank you all very much. Simple green sounds good but I decided to try S100 and ordered some. But before it got there, I just tried Dawn dish detergent, and with enough soap poured on the dirt scrubbing with a brush took it off. Unfortunately much of that filth was shock oil. The right seal is going, so I need to do fork seals soon. I also bought breke clen, and other parts cleaners but didn't have to use them. Hopefully S100 will be a safe and faster way to clean the dirty metal parts. I'll try the S100 and report back.
Thanks again.

 

[dbst1300]

Dawn, hot water, paint brushes, bug rag, diligence and hard work. Kerosene for tar spots. X0000 steel wool for stainless or chrome plated surfaces. I just completed a 5400 mile on my Super Tenere…….super filthy which looked great after three quality garage hours of washing, cleaning, and detailing.

 

[ST Gui]

I'll try the S100 and report back.

I've used S100 a lot and like it very much though it's pricy compared to a gallon of Dawn.

BTW a friend took his Lab for a walk along the shoreline and she sneaked off into the water to play. Unfortunately the mud was similar to a clay base and he couldn't get her clean. Dawn was suggested and it worked a treat.

Anyway the beauty of S100 is it's used on a cold bike. No hot engine no hot water. In most cases a little spray and short soak was all I needed to get bikes showroom clean. A soft bristle brushing after a couple of spritzes of S100 removed even heavy grime. I never let it sit too long on painted surfaces because I was told it would streak. Painted surfaces never really got all that dirty anyway.

I never needed elbow grease with it. Maybe some light elbow machine oil on rare occasions.

 

[SMSW]

I use a Kent Industries solvent called Acrysol. It’s made for painted surfaces and works like a charm. Stuff just wipes off. Not cheap, about $30 a quart but it doesn’t take much and it’s amazing.

The stuff is pretty potent.

https://www.kent-automotive.com/media/cache/pdfs/msds/P20005N01_EN.pdf?version=fdce51f1

I particularly do not like the benzene