Cycling UK Forum

Anyone used fairy liquid and hot water to clean disc rotors or are you better using a specific disc brake cleaner like fenwicks or muc-off?

I've used disc brake cleaner,White Spirit,engine degreaser and washer them off with washing up liquid in warm water all without any detrimental effect.

whether any one thing gets your discs clean or not depends on what the contaminant is, exactly.

Also note that the cut edges of the disc can hold a surprising amount of contamination; just wiping the faces of the disc isn't always sufficient.

cheers

foxychick wrote:Anyone used fairy liquid and hot water to clean disc rotors or are you better using a specific disc brake cleaner like fenwicks or muc-off?

Worked for me when I cleaned the spares rotors I had kicking around and wanted to get the spare pair wheels ready to ride at short notice. I now have three pairs of wheels for two bikes and the spare pair have mismatching skewers, thought I had a matching pair till I put the skewers through the frame

My bike gets a quick brush with water and car wash stuff after every ride including the rotors and the frame wiped down with a rag.

Then I give the rotors a clean with specialised cleaner every once in a while when I have more time or before a trip

Is this a big issue?
As one new to discs on a bike I assumed that they were self cleaning as with a car, or cycle rim brakes.
Unless, of course, I should have been diligently cleaning my rims all these years.

I tend to use just a damp cloth. The holes can hold more muck as Brucey says so maybe a nailbrush would be handy to dislodge some of this then wipe with a damp cloth, perhaps with some soap if there's any oil or grease on the rotor.

Much less hassle than constantly cleaning the rims of rim-braked wheels!

Brake manufacturers recommend alcohol only. Brake cleaner leaves a residue.

MikeDee wrote:Brake manufacturers recommend alcohol only. Brake cleaner leaves a residue.

Tried it with a bottle of Corona and decided that it was a waste of good beer

Isopropyl alcohol

If it were me I would start by using washing up liquid with hot water and only move on to solvents if that didn't give a good enough result. What happens if you get these solvents on your tyres, as you will?

MikeDee wrote:Brake manufacturers recommend alcohol only. Brake cleaner leaves a residue.

+1
Methylated spirit.

pwa wrote:If it were me I would start by using washing up liquid with hot water and only move on to solvents if that didn't give a good enough result. What happens if you get these solvents on your tyres, as you will?

You spray/pour some on a square of kitchen roll and wipe the rotor clean,if you've had a particularly muddy mucky ride or series of rides ie;cake on muck,you wash the rotor and caliper first with washing up liquid in water with a soft brush,then clean them with brake cleaner.

MikeDee wrote:Brake manufacturers recommend alcohol only. Brake cleaner leaves a residue.

depends on the brake cleaner. Most don't leave any such residue, but there are presumably some bad ones out there too. It is not at all difficult to test for this before you buy/use any solvent.

If you want a cheap/good solvent for this sort of cleaning in a small quantity an alternative is cigarette lighter fluid. You can get 100ml for £1 in the pound shop.

cheers

I use surgical spirit or isopropyl alcohol, with rags, cotton wool and buds, and sometimes an old toothbrush for the cutouts.

I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my Redmi 3 using hovercraft full of eels.