Will it break down rubber or plastic? MSDS says it’s made up of Acetone, Methanol, Xylene and Cyclohexanone. It’s got a little straw attachment perfect for getting hard to reach places and dries quickly. Thanks!
Xylene is the potential problem. Attacks many plastic and rubber compounds (see http://www.coleparmer.com/techinfo/chemcompresults.asp) for details if you want more specifics.
Acetone, Methanol, or Cyclohexane individually would be o.k. Of those, cyclohexane would be doing the real work when it comes to grease and road mung but it would be the hardest to find unless you know someone in the chemical business. Acetone (finger nail polish remover) is good for removing adhesives, paints, or inks but not as good on grease. Methanol is of little use in this application.
I think carb cleaner is nasty stuff and I don’t like getting near it for health reasons (but a really good solvent combination if you need the horsepower).
I recommend goo gone or citrus solvent for all your bike part cleaning needs that can’t be met with water.
What about purple degreaser stuff?
SimpleGreen or ZEP BigOrange. CarbCleaner or BrakeWash is awful, awful stuff. If you get a good spray can of citrus degreaser, it’s plenty powerful. If you were to use a solvent, I’d use brakewash over carbcleaner. I think it’s easier on rubber.
No experience with the purple stuff - sorry.
Purple stuff is a degreaser made of ethylene glycol monobutyl ether. It cuts grease and grime very well but leaves a greasy film on things.
Won’t the acid in citrus cleaner eat away at the finish of metal parts?
I’d steer clear of “carb cleaner”. Gunk engine brite works wonderfully well on such parts, however. Spray it on, scrub, rinse. Perfect.
Do not use “Kaboom” or similar shower cleaner type products. They can, and will etch metal parts. I tried it on a chain and it permanently altered its appearance. Time for a new chain.
See thats what I want to avoid. I have a whole new drivetrain coming and I want to avoid oxidizing the chainrings or other metal parts. Incidentally, I have heard two schools of thought on cleaning the chain. One says dont use a chain cleaner or any type of degreaser, just lightly rub and reapply lubricant, the other says go as far a soak the chain in degreaser, dry completely and reapplt lubricant.
Whatever. For 15 years I have been rotating 2 chains in and out of my bikes. While one is on the bike, the other is getting THOROUGHLY cleaned. I use “master link” style quick connecting links to keep things easy. When I am confident the chain is clean enough, I remove the currently installed one, take off the chainrings, and cassettes, and clean them similarly. I even (by hand), wipe off the rear der cogs till they’re squeaky. Then I reinstall everything and the clean chain and each link gets one drop of ProLink. After it soaks in, I wipe as much off of it as possible till the chain feels dry.
Does this degrade my chains more quickly than leaving dirt and grime in them? Show me scientific evidence that a dirty chain lasts longer than a clean one and I’ll reconsider. Till then, I like my ritual.
The nastier the chemical the better! Eventually it gets into my water and I love drinking it!
Carb and throttle body cleaner is designed to quickly remove some pretty tough stuff - burnt on hydrocarbon residue mostly. This is way beyond anything found on even the worse cared for bike. It will work on chains etc but its like hunting rabbits with an M-1 tank. I did use it on my bike for years long ago and it did not do any damage I noticed (to my bike anyway . . .) but it really is over kill. Now I use diluted Simple Green and get the same results without putting quite so many chemicals on my driveway.
(Also of note, if you use carb or throttle body cleaner on a car correctly, it gets sucked into the running engine and burnt up and whats left gets dealt with by your catalytic converter. So use on a bike is not equivilant to use on a car since it puts alot more of the chemicals in the environment then when the car guys use it correctly).
I’ll admit to using brake cleaner occasionally on the chain (only when the chain is OFF the bike). Dirt and grease just melts away!
The reason I like the throttle body cleaner is because of the straw attachment to the can. You can get up under and behind the derailleurs and into the springs where a lot of grime collects, and you dont need worry about rinsing or drying it off. I’m not so concerned with chemicals in the environment. I rehabbed my house last summer using all eco friendly materials so I think I have some carbon credit coming my way.