Grease me up! (Degreasing)

[JCH]

OKie...

SO I did the search option and read up on some degreasing options.   See its gonna rain this weekend so I want to take some time to detail the girl and get her back into shape here.

A part of this detailing will be cleaning all the nasty road grime.   I hear simple green works pretty well.   I have a can of .... "Citrus Engine Brite - Engine cleaner / detailer".  Is this stuff bad news?  The posts I read were somewhat unclear.  

Thank ya thank ya

[crash]

i use simple green to wash my bike.

it does the job well for most types of dirt, but i'm not so sure about grease.  when i have to clean grimey oil off the rear rim (sometimes i get overzealous oiling up the chain), simple green doesn't work too well.  i usually end up using the stuff they sell for cleaning mechanics' hands.

[sprint_9]

I cleaned my engine off with WD-40, same thing you use to clean chain lube off your wheel.  It really worked suprisingly well on my engine, I have black engine and it took most of the crap off with a little srubbing.  After I did that then I waxed the sidecovers so they shine real nice.

[weaselnoze]

i use simple green to wash my bike.

it does the job well for most types of dirt, but i'm not so sure about grease.  when i have to clean grimey oil off the rear rim (sometimes i get overzealous oiling up the chain), simple green doesn't work too well.  i usually end up using the stuff they sell for cleaning mechanics' hands.

simple green kicks ass.  hardly anyone knows what it is tho..

[JeffD]

Citrus engine bright works well.  I haven't used it on the bike, but on the VW I had (read as 30 y/o grease & grime)   We just took the car to a manual car wash.  Spray the can on everything, and let sit for like 5 minutes.  Put in a buck and spray everything off.   Got a heck of a lot of the stuff off with almost not hassle.


I think my bike has gone almost 3 years, and 24,000 miles without a bath.  Just afraid of water I guess.   :dunno:

[Scott_DC]

My bike isn't afraid of water - it's soap that scares it.

That being said - 409 works pretty good for getting crud off the bike too.

[mp183]

Watch those degreasers around your chain.  I have heard that some of them will swell the o-rings on the chain and cause the chain to fail.  I think that has happened with prolonged contact.