mtb_addict

so I am living in Asia in teeny tiny apartment in a highrise building. and I am not allowed to bring bike into the building. And I have to work on my old beater squatting down on the side walk next to a bike rack in a busy bus station. Noisy and people walking by all the time.

That is unchangable reality.

I just ordered all the necessary tools to overhaul the bearings. And waiting.

Now, I realaize that the 20 year old bearings are going to need thorough cleaning, because the grease is probably hardened. I dont have a storage room.. And roomates dont want me atoring toxic chemical in the kitchen.



So, what is the best option for solvent in my situation?

I would probably need to buy some cheap solvent, use it once, and immediately throw the remaining unused away. Alternatively, what about stove cleaning? We have a bottle of stove cleaner of some sort under the sink.

i really want to get this beater up and running asap. it sucks having to walk everywhere, I dont have a car. my foot has developed a painful problem with so much walking.

p.s. I havent even been to a hardware store here yet. So I dont even know if I can get basic stuff like mineral spirit. This being an ex British colony...things have different names....and some things may simply not be available.

frankenmike 

I would try a liquid citrus degreaser, shake the parts around in a jar.

am8117

Mineral spirits would likely be called white spirits. If you want cheap and "less toxic", why not use kerosene? If you are talking chain that's absolutely sufficient, if bearings that needs mechanical wipe with a rag and kerosene would be just fine. Just I am afraid in both cases it would be best to rinse in rubbing alcohol. If those are Shimano loose bearings you may be fine with just rags and alcohol. And I do not think storing rubbing alcohol would be any roommates concern.

Don't think going to look for nice "citrus" degreaser or such would be appreciated as being ecological, likely it will just cost way more. The least environment unfriendly way to handle this would be to bin the used solvent in a plastic bottle - kind that it does not dissolve.

Sounds Hong Kong or Singapore, more likely the former. If that's the case these days, make sure you don't look like making molotovs on the street.

elcraft

Can you obtain a gasketed, waterproof container like an ammo box? You can store the volatile substances in them successfully without their smells being noticeable. As for degreasing, citrus based or detergent based cleaners will work. They have household uses, as well.

mtb_addict

The BB bearings are probably caged. The wheel is loose bearing. This is a simple step thru singlespeed townbike.

I should replace the caged bearings with loose beaings.

but the stem bearing is trickier.

am8117

Push out all the balls from the cage, wipe off with rag. Give the cage a good old tooth brush care. Snap them back in, it will be all fine with fresh grease.

Troul 

With all those restrictions, I'd just replace the parts with new parts. Likely be faster to obtaining your end goal while also increasing reliability.

Trakhak

Or you can walk or ride the bike to a less busy nearby street before commencing the repairs. If there's a park nearby, perhaps (if legal) you could use a length of rope to suspend the bike from a tree limb so that you could stand up while doing the repairs. (Or use two ropes: one from the tree limb to hang the bike and the other from the trunk to keep the bike from oscillating.)

mtb_addict

I did a test with rubbing alcohol on the front hub. The RA worked pretty well getting the old grease off.

But one thing I noticed is that RA makes the metal very very cold.
So cold that there was condensation.
I thought the residual RA would all evaporate...but after a few minutes, the metal feels damp.
It think it is best to wait about for the metal to return to atmosphereic temporature before reassembling the hub.
I imagine condensation will cause rust inside the steel hub.

am8117

Sounds like 99% humidity time of the year. The alcohol surely does evaporate but the condensation will stay if the air is very humid. You either need wipe it off when it is same temperature as the air around or use something like WD-40 and wipe off after a while. This would be good for inside of hub bodies if you are very concerned. Are you sure the metal parts are not cold from the beginning, eg you bring the bike out onto street temperature from airconditioned environment?

Tamiya

I've lived all my life in exBritish colonies with an addiction for old British machinery.

You want a solvent degreaser? Here's what I use, in descending order of convenience...

1, electric contact cleaner in spraycan. Dissolves grease like nothing else, evaporates away even faster. Aerosol can squirts exactly what you want where you want. Put your bearing in a jar and squirt enough to cover, give it a shake and soak and they're clean. Dab the fluid from the jar with papertowel and wipe out the races, spray some fresh cleaner to finish. -Ve Its expensive.

2, Lighter (zippo) fluid. Sold as liquid in little squirt cans, not the butane type. Same as naphtha camping/Coleman gas, shellite, petroleum spirit. Also a great degreaser, minimal smell. Reasonably cheap.

3, paint thinners, preferably not turpentine. Could be anything from xylene to acetone, so won't be paint or plastic safe... but dissolves grease fine. -Ve Stinky

4, petrol. Yeah just buy the cheapest grade petrol. -Ve pretty stinky

5, find a paint supply shop and they'll have rubbing alcohol or isopropyl alcohol or methylated spirits... they don't eat grease as well as above though. And might have water dissolved in it.

6, kerosene, turpentine... still eats grease but leaves residue. Real stinky.

7, if you can't find anything else but WD40 or Selleys RP7... that stuff is probably a better cleaner than a lubricant. Yeah I've used it to clean bearings before. Stinky.


If you worry about rust, douse eveything in WD40 unless you've got something better... I like Reducteur H72, others swear by Boeshield T9.

squirtdad

are there any local shops? might this be a case of pay to have it done, no matter how much that bugs the DYI genes?

tFUnK

If you don't have a home garage or otherwise access to a good workspace or tools/supplies, then I suggest just taking it to a shop.

If this is a beater bike I would just take WD-40 to the obvious parts without taking anything apart. It should loosen up some of the hardened grease and provide a slight lubrication.

bwilli88 

Cheap dish soap does a good job particularly if you use warmer water with lots of soap.

sweeks

"Rubbing alcohol" is a mix of isopropyl alcohol ("isopropanol") and about 10% to 30% water. The alcohol evaporates before all the water, which is why the dampness remains. The evaporation of the alcohol absorbs heat, which accounts for the coldness.
Isopropyl alcohol is not a great solvent for grease and oil because it's a "polar" solvent, and doesn't mix as well with "non-polar" materials like grease and oil. Kerosene or mineral spirits would be more appropriate.

WizardOfBoz

I won't scream NO! but I want to. Suffice to say that my experience (50 years of cleaning parts) and training (BS and PhD in chemical engineering) both ARE screaming NO!. There's no way in hell that I'd use petrol/gasoline to clean stuff. Too many carcinogens and yucky residues. And as you mention, ketones like acetone and methyl-ethyl ketone, or brake cleaner (which contains ketones) these chemicals will strip paint.

Let's make this simple: use mineral spirits, or very hot water mixed with something formulated to be an aqueous degreaser. Use gloves to avoid exposure or being burned by hot water. If there's crud that neither of these removes, you can try acetone or methyl-ethyl-ketone. Use thick chemical-resistant gloves to avoid removing the grease and lipids and breaking down cell walls in your skin. Minimize the amount used. If you have stuff that's already pretty clean, you probably can get the last bits of crud using a q-tip moistened with acetone.

Last, I'll mention that you have a disposal problem after you clean. For this reason, you may want to stick with hot water and an aqueous degreaser.

Last (really!) be aware of just how flammable some of this stuff is. Working with a pan of petrol on the street, with an idiot flicking a cigarette butt could incur a lot of pain.

Gresp15C

Here's a possible alternative method. If the bearings really are dried out, then whatever waxy substance is left in there, probably isn't doing much harm, and has been pushed away from the actual contact surfaces. Leave it alone. Overload it with grease, and ride. Over time, the new grease may soften the old wax, so it becomes easier to remove. A wooden stick makes a good scraper, that won't harm the bearing surfaces.

ramzilla

I liter diesel fuel. Plastic leftover food bowl with snap cover lid for primary solvent container. Open plastic tray for secondary solvent container. Elbow length nitrile gloves. Goggles. Toothbrush. Shop rags. Plastic zip lock bag for containing oily rags. No spills. No smells. Everything nice & neat.