# Noob Mineral Spirits Question?



## Mattlikestobike (Nov 1, 2010)

Hey all,
After doing a good amount of research on what to use when cleaning, I've come up on Mineral Spirits. 

I was wondering how safe Mineral Spirits are for the bike? (No one really clarified this from my finds).

Also, is it safe to dunk the front or rear derailleur to be cleaned? 

Thanks


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## Osco (Apr 4, 2013)

Don't take it apart, don't dunk anything, ok take it apart at the end of the season maybe.

Hand squeeze bottle spray it down with simple green or good old soapy water.
Brush it off, Hose it off but _*DO NOT USE*_ a High pressure nozzle, you will blow sand into things you cannot get to, like bearings.

Dry it completely, I park mine in front of a strong fan after I wipe it down
and once 110% dry I re lube the chain.....

It's a mountain bike, a dirt bike,, DIRT is good ! Over cleaning a bike can cause many problems.

If its a full squish stand it straight up after a wash to dump water out of the chain stay's. If you've submerged it pull the crank and dump the water,,may or may not be there....

Chain scrubbers are great,, walmarts cheapo misses the sides of the chain..
Parks cleans it all 
Park Tool Co. » CM-5.2 : Cyclone Chain Scrubber : Cleaning & Lube


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## wschruba (Apr 13, 2012)

Mineral spirits used as a degreaser is fine, as a general cleaner (especially undiluted) it will damage (painted) finishes over time.

A friendly piece of advice, true of multiple fields and professions: if you have two different [in this case] cleaners, both work just as well, but one is significantly more dangerous, use the other one. Your health is priceless.

There are many commercial degreasing agents (off the top of my head, WD-40, Finish Line, Park, Progold, White Lightning) that all work just about as well as spirits while also being less bad for your health.


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## deke505 (Jul 29, 2012)

I wouldn't use mineral spirits on my bike, it could eat away at some of the important stuff. Just use the stuff like what wschruba suggested. I personal just use a rag and spray on the rag not ont the bike to clean all the crap off.


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## mjydrafter (Aug 20, 2014)

I reserve mineral spirits for crusty chains, cassettes, and bearing and race clean up. So very little. Generally I use diluted pinesol for cleaning and ms as a backup.

I wouldn't hesitate to dunk a derailleur in some pinesol and water. If it was bad, but you need to get pretty dry right away. You could follow up with a good douse in WD40 to get rid of the water. Then get rid WD40 and lube with your favorite stuff. 

I usually opt to clean up with brushes (for the big chunks) and then general wipe down with damp rags followed with a drying cloth. 

I try to avoid running water for clean up with a bike. Unless you are dealing with thick caked on mud.

I would be careful with simple green as well, it can attack aluminum.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Mineral spirits? Don't use it on my bike.

I use Clean Streak for the chain, cassette, and that sort of stuff. For everything else, USUALLY just a dry rag to brush off junk. I'll use a damp rag if stuff is stuck onto the frame. If I want to polish stuff up, I'll use rubbing alcohol after the dry rag to get any remnant dirt off (since it evaporates quickly), and then after that a silicone-based frame polish (which helps make it easier to get the junk off later).


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## Mattlikestobike (Nov 1, 2010)

Osco said:


> Don't take it apart, don't dunk anything, ok take it apart at the end of the season maybe.
> 
> Hand squeeze bottle spray it down with simple green or good old soapy water.
> Brush it off, Hose it off but _*DO NOT USE*_ a High pressure nozzle, you will blow sand into things you cannot get to, like bearings.
> ...


Is it not possible to deep-clean a rear/front derailleur?

I'm currently tearing my bike apart and thoroughly cleaning/replacing parts since I haven't gotten to it for the past year.


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## Mattlikestobike (Nov 1, 2010)

wschruba said:


> Mineral spirits used as a degreaser is fine, as a general cleaner (especially undiluted) it will damage (painted) finishes over time.
> 
> A friendly piece of advice, true of multiple fields and professions: if you have two different [in this case] cleaners, both work just as well, but one is significantly more dangerous, use the other one. Your health is priceless.
> 
> There are many commercial degreasing agents (off the top of my head, WD-40, Finish Line, Park, Progold, White Lightning) that all work just about as well as spirits while also being less bad for your health.


Very true point about health..

My other option I was looking into was a concentrated degreaser sold in a gallon jug at Home Depot, like Citrus degreaser.

Would it be okay to clean parts with something that mixes with water? I'm worried about the rust in the really hard to reach places such as the the links in the chain.


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## Mattlikestobike (Nov 1, 2010)

mjydrafter said:


> I reserve mineral spirits for crusty chains, cassettes, and bearing and race clean up. So very little. Generally I use diluted pinesol for cleaning and ms as a backup.
> 
> I wouldn't hesitate to dunk a derailleur in some pinesol and water. If it was bad, but you need to get pretty dry right away. You could follow up with a good douse in WD40 to get rid of the water. Then get rid WD40 and lube with your favorite stuff.
> 
> ...


With the water+degreaser solution, as long as I dry it I should be okay with rust, correct?

How is the pinesol + water for you? any bad experiences? Would you recommend it?


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## Cleared2land (Aug 31, 2012)

Simple dish soap and water for everything, including chain. I clean (wipe-down) and lube chain nearly every ride, so it's usually not too gunked up. 

The trick after a wash is to blow-dry every crevice using an air compressor and air nozzle. Especially the chain. Use caution and don't over blow everything. Use discretion. Lube appropriately afterwards and all's good.


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## mjydrafter (Aug 20, 2014)

Mattlikestobike said:


> With the water+degreaser solution, as long as I dry it I should be okay with rust, correct?
> 
> How is the pinesol + water for you? any bad experiences? Would you recommend it?


I can and do recommend pinesol.

It smells nice too. LOL

You have the right idea, if you use a h20 de-greaser you will want to dry it well.

WD40 is not a good lube, but it was designed as a Water Dispersant (formula 40). It is a great solvent/cleaner. So if you clean up with any water you can use it to get rid of the water.

You could also skip the pinesol & degreaser and just use WD40 to degrease, but make sure you clean it up well and lube it with something good afterword.

The nice thing about pinesol is it's pretty environmentally friendly, it won't attack metals, it's inexpensive (say you need several gallons to soak a big carb bank), and you can get it about anywhere.


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## gsa103 (Sep 1, 2014)

Mattlikestobike said:


> Is it not possible to deep-clean a rear/front derailleur?
> 
> I'm currently tearing my bike apart and thoroughly cleaning/replacing parts since I haven't gotten to it for the past year.


It's entirely possible, but you will need to re-grease the jockey wheel bearing if you do an aggressive de-greasing. Toothbrush and basic cleaner does a fine job, doing more is a significant effort.


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## Cleared2land (Aug 31, 2012)

Mattlikestobike said:


> Is it not possible to deep-clean a rear/front derailleur?
> 
> I'm currently tearing my bike apart and thoroughly cleaning/replacing parts since I haven't gotten to it for the past year.





gsa103 said:


> It's entirely possible, but you will need to re-grease the jockey wheel bearing if you do an aggressive de-greasing. Toothbrush and basic cleaner does a fine job, doing more is a significant effort.


My advice, if you should decide to 'deep clean' the derailleur; I would suggest to let it dry thoroughly or air compressor blow dry (recommended) and appropriately, but lightly lubricate all derailleur pivots, spring mounts and movable parts. And yes, the jockey wheels. I use small 1 cc syringes with needles to perform the pivot lube. I like using Finish Line DRY Teflon lubricant. Remember, lightly because you don't want to attract more dirt.


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## tigris99 (Aug 26, 2012)

Dish soap, water, rag. Can use garden hose but just enough for it to flow to rinse no pressure. If something has bearings inside keep compressed air away, it'll force water/dirt past the seals possibly. I refuse yo use compressed air to blow bike off at all because same (though lower) risk of damage as pressure washer.

Most good wet chain lubes have rust inhibitors, so proper lubing after cleaning it, same with jockey wheels, and ull be fine. My rd in 2 seasons has seen nothing more than a rinse off except for crud that gets on jockey wheels, scraped that off. Still works like new.

What ever you don't soak an rd in anything. If its really nasty, use a tooth brush.


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## Cleared2land (Aug 31, 2012)

tigris99 said:


> Can use garden hose but just enough for it to flow to rinse no pressure. If something has bearings inside keep compressed air away, it'll force water/dirt past the seals possibly. I refuse yo use compressed air to blow bike off at all because same (though lower) risk of damage as pressure washer.


Compressed air can be effectively used on everything, including close proximity to bearings just as your application of a water hose is. Used gently, it will do a great job of evacuating and dispersing most if not all remaining water without forcing any water or air where it shouldn't go. Exercise discretion.

Even if I were to over do the use of compressed air, my obsessive preventive maintenance regime would compensate. Pulling bearings seals for inspection, cleaning and lubrication is done with such ongoing regularity, any problems would get rectified pretty quickly.


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## J.B. Weld (Aug 13, 2012)

wschruba said:


> A friendly piece of advice, true of multiple fields and professions: if you have two different [in this case] cleaners, both work just as well, but one is significantly more dangerous, use the other one. Your health is priceless.


Sound advice^

My 2 cents from someone who made a living cleaning & detailing a minimum of 3-4 bikes per day for several decades and has used virtually every product and cleaning method possible.

A bucket (or spray bottle) of warm soapy water, citrus solve/rubbing alcohol, a couple of rags and some chain & pivot lubricant are all you need. Chain scrubbers, removing and soaking parts, and overuse of degreasers are time consuming, unnecessary, and usually detrimental IME.

I would never recommend mineral spirits for cleaning any part of a bike.


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## Oldfatbaldguy (Nov 4, 2010)

I think most of us are assuming you're cleaning your regular bike on a regular basis, and so the use of mineral spirits isnt a very good idea. I dont particularly like WD40, either, because most of us will grab the spay cans and get a little everywhere. Past that, for daily/weekly/end-of-season cleaning many things will work well. A friend swears by a motorcycle cleaner that I think looks and smells suspiciously like Finish Line Bike Wash. 

OTOH, if you're cleaning an old bike, especially the greasy, grimy parts of an old bike, maybe a solvent is better. I have used this scenario on ancient relics: solvent to remove old grease, strong detergent (like simple green) to clean up solvent residue, then a trip through the dishwasher when Mrs isnt looking. The diswasher part may not actually be required, but at least the parts are germ-free!


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## Mattlikestobike (Nov 1, 2010)

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

So after careful decision, I opted to buy Citrus degreaser from Home Depot.

Answering and replying to the things said here....
*To clarify, this is not going to be my routine clean. I am in the middle of tearing my bike apart completely and rebuilding it before the season gets a little better and I start riding more often.



Cleared2land said:


> My advice, if you should decide to 'deep clean' the derailleur; I would suggest to let it dry thoroughly or air compressor blow dry (recommended) and appropriately, but lightly lubricate all derailleur pivots, spring mounts and movable parts. And yes, the jockey wheels. I use small 1 cc syringes with needles to perform the pivot lube. I like using Finish Line DRY Teflon lubricant. Remember, lightly because you don't want to attract more dirt.


I will probably end up using a air compressor to blow dry components and will be careful to not abuse the air compressor lol. Agrred!



tigris99 said:


> I refuse yo use compressed air to blow bike off at all because same (though lower) risk of damage as pressure washer.


What method do you use to dry then?



Cleared2land said:


> Compressed air can be effectively used on everything, including close proximity to bearings just as your application of a water hose is. Exercise discretion.


I agree with you.



J.B. Weld said:


> I would never recommend mineral spirits for cleaning any part of a bike.


After reading more deeply into it, with the replies here too, I've changed my mind


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