NoWhammies

Historically I have been using isopropyl alcohol for cleaning the disc brakes and pads on my bike.

Now that isopropyl is difficult, if not impossible, to find what alternatives are there that can I use? This is a Shimano road bike hydraulic disc brake system if that matters.

Thank you.

Cyclist0108

I haven't ever used anything on the pads, apart from sandpaper (rarely).

The discs give many options: Methanol. Ethanol. Acetone. Soap and water. Dry rag. Nothing.

dsaul

There is no need to clean them unless they get contaminated with oil. I use acetone to clean rotors when I install them.

dsbrantjr

Brakleen automotive brake cleaner or equivalent; keep it off your paintwork. https://www.crcindustries.com/produc...-brakleen.html

Tony P.

Of course there are commercial products available. Dawn is good for safely cleaning brakes and most anything else. Just rinse with water afterward.

WizardOfBoz

This is a theoretical viewpoint, but may be useful. In cars, you have pretty high heat in brake rotors sometimes. They are thick, and you are stopping a vehicle that weighs a couple-few thousand pounds. So there's some buildup of things that results from high heat. I would suspect that these would be resistant to soap and water, so Brakleen and other strong solvents are used.

If isopropyl alcohol is what you currently use, then I suspect that you don't need the strong solvents (like acetone or perchloroethylene). I'd try soap and water and see how it works for you first.

If you do use brake cleaner, keep it off the rubber in your tires (as well as following the advice to keep it off paint as dsbrantjr mentions above).

NoWhammies

Thanks for the suggestions folks.

DaveSSS 

Isopropyl alcohol is not a great grease remover and it usually contains 10-30% water. As others have noted, aerosal brake cleaners have more suitable solvents. Mineral spirits won't hurt the paint, doesn't dry as fast and won't bother paint. When acetone is added to mineral spirits, it's lacquer thinner. Acetone may damage some paints. Naphtha/white gas/camp stove fuel dries faster.

dsbrantjr

The nice thing about Brakleen is that it is very effective at removing oils and grease (including finger oils) which can cause squeaking and squealing and impair braking effect.

WizardOfBoz

No argument here - Brakleen is going to dissolve a lot of non-polar substances like oils and grease. I guess my hypothesis is that if IPA works, then soap and water should work almost as well, and is less toxic and expensive. Or it was - not sure what the deal is now. One other factor: folks may have dish soap at home right now, and a smaller percentage have brakleen (I'm guessing you and I are both in that percentage).

Vodka with some soap, or neutral grain spirits might work. But you might want to reserve those products for other purposes.

bikebikebike

Gasolines have a lot pretty toxic components, even white gas, and a stray spark can change your life.
All need ventilation and many are absorbable through the skin.
Toxicities are not always immediately apparent
Generally I avoid anything linked to renal failure and killing bone marrow, like benzene, contained in a mix
Use care. I spent 2 years in a burn unit putting skin back on folks, none of whom planned to be there.
The lucky think they are smart.
The smart know they are lucky

sweeks

Denatured alcohol works as well as isopropyl alcohol, and doesn't contain anywhere near as much water.

cyccommute 

The blend of chemicals we call “gasoline” has very little in common with the blend of chemicals we call “white gas”. Gasoline is a mixture of hydrocarbons including a significant amount of BTX...benzene/xylene/toluene...that greatly lowers it’s flash point. Gasoline’s flashpoint is -45°F (-42°C). “White gas” (aka “Coleman fuel”) is a mixture of hydrocarbons with vanishingly small amounts of BTX and has a flash point of 24.8°F (-4°C). It’s still flammable but not nearly are easily ignited.

I kind of object to the “all”. It’s more like “both”. White gas isn’t as nearly as easily absorbed nor as toxic. Of course use white gas (or mineral spirits or acetone) with adequate ventilation, away from energy sources, and with adequate protective equipment.

DO NOT use gasoline outside of a gas tank for any reason. There are other, better, alternatives that won’t result in your house burning down as easily.

As a chemist, I go through the exercise of educating myself about any chemical I haven’t used before. I would suggest that for anyone who is going to use a solvent for anything. If you don’t know what the MSDS says on the solvent, don’t use it. If you don’t know what an MSDS is, don’t pick up any bottle of solvent.

And, finally, DO NOT USE GASOLINE FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN POWERING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES!

cyccommute 

Maybe, maybe not. It would depend on how the denatured alcohol was produced. There are ways of making “absolute alcohol” (100% ethanol) but 95% ethanol is easier to make. 2-propanol is made with various percentages of water in it. Even off the shelf, it can contain 70% 2-propanol or it can be 96% 2-propanol. If you buy cans of it at a hardware store, it is more likely to be 96%.

cyccommute 

I agree. Mineral spirits would also work on the rotor. I wouldn’t use anything on the pads other then some sandpaper.

That said, bicycle rotors and pads shouldn’t need a lot of cleaning in the first place.

sch

Someone suggested red bottle HEET, which is basically 96% isopropanol with 2% or so of proprietary stuff as a
source for isopropanol (to make home brew sanitizer). In a pinch this should do but I would use neoprene
gloves to minimize skin contact if used as cleaner as the 2% unknown makes this a bit problematic as a sanitizer.

AndreyT

As long as you are paying attention to what you are doing, acetone will clean much better than IPA. Just don't pour it over everything.

canklecat

Acetone and denatured alcohol are still readily available here, even in some grocery stores. The only "paint thinner" I'm seeing now isn't mineral spirits but some sort of weird, thick, milky white stuff. I tried it to clean a bike chain and it was absolutely useless. It made a worse mess.

NoWhammies

This might sound like a silly question, but a) what is denatured alcohol (i.e. is there a brand name I need to look for?) and b) where does one buy denatured alcohol?

SethAZ 

Denatured alcohol is ethanol that has been adulterated chemically to make it non-drinkable. If ethanol isn't denatured then it falls subject to laws and excise taxes and so forth intended for alcoholic beverages.
There are various ways that ethanol is denatured, depending on the intended use. These ways include addition of poisons such as methanol or gasoline, and one method I read about is the addition of an amount of peppermint oil that's so concentrated nobody would want to drink it, but it's not actually poisonous. The denatured alcohol you buy in a can at the hardware store is probably ethanol that's been denatured with methanol.

sweeks

The denatured alcohol I'm familiar with is ethanol with 5% methanol added. Apparently there are other additives to "denature" the ethanol (ie, render it unsuitable for drinking; poisonous), but methanol is pretty common. Ethanol is "grain" alcohol; methanol is "wood" alcohol. These are metabolized to acetaldehyde and formaldehyde, respectively.
Denatured alcohol is sold in pints and gallons at hardware stores.

cyccommute 

There are at least 105 chemicals and 45 different mixtures used for denaturing ethanol.

SethAZ 

Yeah, I was reading about this many years ago and ran into the federal law that stipulates what's allowed for denaturing, which is where I learned that there's the peppermint oil version intended for use on things where a poison can't be used. The context of me reading about this was a violinmaker recommending against people using denatured alcohol when making shellac varnishes for use indoors, due to the braincell-killing power of some of the chemicals used. I went out and bought a bottle of Everclear, and used that for my shellac and for anything else in my mancave that I wanted to use alcohol on that wouldn't wreck my already feeble mind.

Sy Reene

Random question.. I have a bottle of 99% ISO Alcohol. But it evidently expired 2 years ago per a use-by date on the bottle. Is expiration of alcohol possible?

cyccommute 

From a medical standpoint, yes. But from a non medical use point, no. Anhydrous 2-propanol will form peroxides on exposure to air, oxygen and time. If you were to distill the 2-propanol for some reason, there is the possibility of the peroxide’s concentrating and self-detonating but the chemical would have had to have lots and lots of time to form the peroxides in addition to you being dumb enough to try to distill it. And that’s not evaporating it but actively heating it to boiling.

If you see crystals around the neck of a bottle of anhydrous, that might be cause for concern but short of that just use it. However, adding a little water will interrupt the peroxide formation so diluting it to 90% would solve much of the problem.