Bike Forums - Rust??

I guess you also need to distinguish between whether it is "modern era, poor excuse for chromium plating", or if it is decent chrome plating which was common from the Eisenhower Administration until maybe halfway thru Reagan's first term.

Copper pot scrubber mesh thingy and COMET ................ sprinkle a very small ant hill pile of COMET on to a paper plate, or used clean plastic tv dinner tray or something like that...............Then barely wet the ant hill pile of Comet so that is only just wet enough to make a barely damp paste.....don't wet the Comet ant hill pile too much.....only barely...........................then use the Copper pot scrubber after dipping it into the COMET paste pile................. scrub.....scrub. scrub, working section by section of the wheels, fenders, stem, handlebars, crank & chainweel, etc. It takes some elbow grease effort, so work in concentrated small sections, going section by section. IF YOU DON'T HAVE A GARAGE TO ALLOW YOU TO WORK INSIDE IF IT IS COLD, SNOWING, OR RAINING OUTSIDE, you can if your wife permits, do this indoors watching football games, basketball games, auto racing, golf, tennis, or anything else on TV including bowling or soccer.......TO DO THIS INSIDE YOUR HOME, YOU WILL NEED A LARGE PIECE OF CARDBOARD BOX...... like a from a refridgerator box, or a bicycle box from the dumpster of your local bike shop........think big, because protecting your carpet and your house's hardwood floor etc is paramount.......you also want to cover the cardboard box remnant with a small tarp, or old throwaway vinyl shower curtain liner, or just several trash bags duct taped together.......you also want newspapers or throwaway old ragedy towels to cover the already plastic covered cardboard so that no liquid Comet mess flows off of the covered cardboard on to your nice floor or carpet.......Yes, you do want to take every precautionary step to keep your nice home, condominium, or apartment CLEAN & SCRATCH FREE, so your wife doesn't get MAD and so that you do not have to spend remedial time & money Cleaning or Repairing/Replacing Carpet, Rugs, etc...
Keep Pets far enough away, as you don't want them tracking the mess elsewhere in the house, and you don't want them to get copper pot scrubber splinters, etc...
You probably will want to wear thin Kitchen type, rubber gloves, if only to save wear and tear on your fingers and to keep your finger nails clean.

CANOPUS has NAVEL Jelly listed which is probably among the most effective but it requires more thinking and planning in how you go about using it, indoors or outside. CANOPUS' other suggestions are good too.
Other people have mention using Aluminum Foil, which is nowhere near as effective as a Copper Pot Scrubber thingy or Steel Wool. The Copper Pot Scrubber thingy is preferrable in my opinion to using Steel Wool because you don't have nearly as much disintegration into tiny splinters, etc when choosing to use the Copper Pot Scrubber thingies. I know that everyone already has Aluminum foil at home, but you can buy a New copper Pot Scrubber "mesh sponge" thingy for about $2 for a pack of two at grocery store or in the grocery part of Tar-jay or Wallyworld. You'll have to scrub six times as much if you're only using Aluminum foil.

IF YOUR BIKE HAS CRUMMY Chrome (anything 21st Century or certainly post 1982 or 1983), YOU MIGHT WISH TO Go Retro, AND LOCATE certain Schwinn handlebars, and Schwinn Fenders, particularly those seen on 1964 to 1977 Schwinn Bicycles. The 7881 handlebars seen from about 1967 to perhaps 1977 are superb, and very comfortable. MILLIONS of these handlebars are probably still around out there. Obviously they are standard 25.4" stem clamp fit.
Schwinn employed better chrome plating than most other bike manufacturers did. Schwinn had certain requirements that outside suppliers had to adhere to.
There are so many handlebars out there that are reasonably good if not as good as Schwinn's in terms of the plating, but good is good. The SIXTIES & Early Seventies WILL LIKELY BE THE BEST SURVING USED CHROME Bars than those from everybody else. The FIFTIES , FORTIES & THIRTIES are not as good, mainly because of age and certain handlebar designs, but there are so many different ones out there that if you can find something old out there that you love the shape and the chrome plating appears good and in decent enough shape, ----certainly go for it......................but don't pay ridiculous prices because said ancient handlebar is from a Bluebird, Blackbird, Gooney Bird or whatever.........keep searching until you find something nice for a reasonable low price. There are thousands more handlebars remaining that were parted from bicycles that were long ago junked, so there isn't any shortage of possible vintage handlebars.........you simply have to look around on the bay and the other usual sites.........remember that handle bars can be reasonably priced and relatively easy and cost effective for anyone to ship....
Schwinn's chrome and Schwinn's chrome fenders were slightly better than everyone else's chrome from certainly 1963 through the Seventies.
There are other marques that had quality chrome too. The early sixties to about 1974 is where you'll typically find the best, excellent chrome on non-Schwinn, American made bicycles and on Imported European and Japanese bicycles. This is not saying that you might not find something great before 1963 also but time is NOT on your side, and you'll come running back........to Schwinn's from the mid sixties thru mid seventies for great chrome.
Remember if you're seeking, for example, a nice BEACH CRUISER type stem...........in 22.2mm size, Schwinn bikes from 1965 and earlier have this "COMMON" stem size.......................LATER SCHWINN bikes employed a stronger-thicker walled, industry's strongest headtube which required a 21.1mm stem fit size.........
Plenty of others makes employed decent chrome on stems, cranks, and chainwheels, seatposts, handlebars and wheels between about 1958 & 1975 so there will be thousands of possibilities for you to seek out inexpensive used parts if you patiently search around.
Chrome plating is a fairly, low tech, old-timey process, BUT IT CREATES A "Superfund Toxic Waste Dump Site" with the Waste & Runoff, such that such a manufacturing process is BANNED FROM MANY AREAS. It is old timey, low tech, but involves very nasty chemicals and the waste by-product, dealing with that waste can make such a firm go bankrupt if perfection is not achieved with waste containment and waste disposal.