bleaching

[adeshere]

Hi,

I've seen a few posts regarding using bleach to clean wheels etc.

Is this neat bleach  or  diluted bleach ?

[harris]

either strong or weak depends if its for a good clean or to redye

[duncan]

I copied another thread, lined a box with a binliner and used neat thick bleach.
Put it in the bath too incase it leaks.

The empty bottles are handy for putting between the spokes to reduce the amount of bleach needed.

Still needed 10 litres (!!) to cover one wheel, but I probably could have used less if I'd taken the time to block all extra space.
Covered the outer hubs in grease, and going to let them sit for a week. Still to put in the other wheel.

[oberonspacefruit]

make sure you dont skimp on the greasing of the hubs. i warn you. you will rue the day if you do. i did.

[adeshere]

Looking forward to see how well they improve.

You will have to do a pic of this wheel against the un-bleached wheel for comparison

[CD17]

make sure you dont skimp on the greasing of the hubs. i warn you. you will rue the day if you do. i did.

Yeah so did I, it will pit the hub !!   

[duncan]

I put the grease on quite thick - white grease, not the heavier stuff, so it might not be as bleach-resistant.
Thanks for the advice, I'll try to avoid pitting if possible.

I had 4 white Tuffs, but have already thrown 2 away this week - one was cracked and the other had badly damaged hubs.
The front wheel in the tub should also be binned, it has a 1" crack running inside the rim where the spoke attaches.
I thought it was fine yesterday, checked the usual areas on the spokes and round the hub, never thought to look inside the rim.
So only 1 good wheel left out of 4, hope I don't need another 4 to find a good front. At least I got 2 of them for free.

I'm just experimenting to see how the bleaching goes, it'll be replaced as soon as I find a better one - broken Skyways are just asking for catastrophe.
I think I rode around on cracked Skyways and cracked Landing Gears way back when, but I wouldn't like anyone else riding my bike now with broken parts.
I wouldn't even think of using it myself given my weight these days.

The rear coaster wheel seems to be unbroken, so it's a keeper. It has a steel hub, so should be OK in the bleach?

Will definitely take some pics, though they are from two different sets, so not truly representative.

[CD17]

Yeah the steel hub should be fine in the bleach, you will get a little bit of rust come through, but it will polish out with no problem.

[ronnie360]

if you have a look at my thread on here in freestyle i got this today i bleached my tuffs in neat bleach they come out like new they have battle scars but they are old but i dont have any before and after pics 

[duncan]

Checked out your thread, those wheels do look like new.

Took the wheel out and the pitting had started, but only on one side.
Caught it early, so hopefully it should polish out.
Will get some more substantial grease to put on the hubs before the wheel goes back in.

Thanks for the info on the steel hub, that one's in the bleach now.
The one I took out is looking good, back to white except for inside the rim (not that this part matters too much).

First pic shows the pitting which had attacked the alloy in around 18 hours. Second pic shows how white the wheel was after this time.
The rear wheel is coming along nicely. An added bonus is that the bleach is removing surface rust from inaccessible areas around the hub.

 

[ronnie360]

yes they are not to bad they have a few marks on them still but it is hard to see them and i am putting them on a bike i am going to ride so they will need washing alot i geuss 

[duncan]

Both my wheels are out of the bleach now. Both look like new as far as colour goes.
I have a bit of work to do polishing the alloy hubs on the front one due to pitting.

There's two other things I noticed with the rear wheel:
Rather than simply bleaching the wheel, the bleach seemed to be dissolving the plastic!
This was a wheel that had sat outside for years exposed to the elements. It had a rough gritty texture, almost crystalline when examined closely, rather than the plasticky look & feel of a new Skyway.
After removing it from the bleach the surface plastic was softened and could be wiped off! Thankfully it was just a surface layer, and exposed clean hard plastic beneath.

The bleach also went to work as a rust-remover, but seemed to find pockets of rust under chrome plate on (and inside) the steel hub which had previously looked intact.
No, I didn't mistake sulphuric acid for bleach    but  I thought I should mention these points. Maybe the wheel was so weather-beaten that the plastic had started to decay and the bleach hit it harder.
With a better set of wheels, I'd use weaker bleach.
This has been an interesting exercise but I'll probably get myself a new pair eventually, I'm not happy with the overall condition of any of the four wheels I started out with.

I just wondered, if I had left the wheel in the bleach for a few months, could I have returned to it and found nothing but a hub? A bit like a nail in Coca Cola...

[oberonspacefruit]

you never know.

[dordymush]

i bleached a elina seat a few months back.
left it in the bleach for a couple of days.
went to have a look how it was going.
and found the bleach had started to eat its way through the chromed steel under carriage.
i never thought it was that strong.