Best cleaning fluid

tommybat
tommybat Posts: 667
edited August 2010 in Workshop
Anyone recommend good cheap cleaning solution for the worst salt/mud/crap caked winter bike in history?
Team Chronomaster FB page
Chronomaster
Team Chronomaster

Comments

  • balthazar
    balthazar Posts: 1,565
    Degreaser for the chain and sprockets, car shampoo for everything.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    For the drivetrain I get this and dilute it in an old window cleaning spray gun-

    http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?a ... earch=true
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    NapoleonD wrote:
    For the driveway I get this and dilute it in an old window cleaning spray gun-

    http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?a ... earch=true

    fixed it for you :wink:
    Whats wrong with diesel? As far as I know it getteth the crud off.. lubes.... cleans... protects... 5 litres of it lasts an eternity and you can start this years bonfire/next summers bbq with it as well
  • balthazar
    balthazar Posts: 1,565
    JGSI wrote:
    Whats wrong with diesel?
    It's just not very nice having it go into the watercourse. That said, degreaser isn't very nice either, but it's probably the lesser evil. I use white spirit to clean chains, but it's in jars which I let settle out to use again. Very little ends up in the drain.
  • Weejie54
    Weejie54 Posts: 750
    Whats wrong with diesel? As far as I know it getteth the crud off.. lubes.... cleans... protects... 5 litres of it lasts an eternity and you can start this years bonfire/next summers bbq with it as well

    You would need to vaporise it before you started a bonfire with it.
    The additives are probably not good for the bike and it stinks.
  • rhext
    rhext Posts: 1,639
    Fenwicks is really good.

    http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Fenwi ... 360019463/

    You can use it neat as a degreaser (just brush it on and work it into the grime, wait for a minute and rinse). Or you can dilute it in a spray gun to get the frame nice and clean. I suppose at £9 a bottle it perhaps doesn't seem cheap, but because you're either only using a few drops (as a degreaser) or diluting it 10:1 (as a general cleaner), a bottle lasts a long long time!

    There's also a lot to be said for really hot soapy water: I find car shampoo is good if you happen to have some lying around.

    And if you've got a really horribly greasy drive train, Muc Off degreaser works like magic.
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    balthazar wrote:
    JGSI wrote:
    Whats wrong with diesel?
    It's just not very nice having it go into the watercourse. That said, degreaser isn't very nice either, but it's probably the lesser evil. I use white spirit to clean chains, but it's in jars which I let settle out to use again. Very little ends up in the drain.

    Who said anything about flooding the local drainage system with diesel????
    Common sense says wash off with plain hot water first if it is that badly caked.... but regular cleaning routine should avoid having to spend hours cleaning the bike after use and of course using any degreaser sparingly... I just wince at spending the guts of £10 on branded stuff that does not do any better job
  • balthazar
    balthazar Posts: 1,565
    JGSI wrote:
    Who said anything about flooding the local drainage system with diesel????
    Common sense says wash off with plain hot water first if it is that badly caked.... but regular cleaning routine should avoid having to spend hours cleaning the bike after use and of course using any degreaser sparingly... I just wince at spending the guts of £10 on branded stuff that does not do any better job
    No-one wrote anything about flooding anything, that I can see. Whatever you use to clean your bike invariably gets rinsed down the drain. I don't advocate "expensive branded stuff" – I use degreaser bought cheaply at supermarkets and motor factors. As I wrote, I don't like the idea of that draining into open water either, for the sake of the wildlife, but it has to be better than diesel.

Categories