Cleaning the rear wheel

[Nice_One_Son]

Me again!

I now have excellent access the the rear wheel, I started to deep clean it with Gunk "green" using a stiff alloy wheel brush and plenty of elbow grease and it is coming up nicely. The wheel seems discoloured in place and I have not been able to completely remove all the crud.

Can I go a little heavier and use a wire brush with the gunk, or should I be using something else?

Thanks folks...

[steve hawkins]

You are probably already past the paint.  If you use a wire brush you definately will be.

Time to get the spray can out if its all discoloured.

Steve H

[Nice_One_Son]

Steve,

I can't see any paint on the rear (or front) wheel. It looks like cast alloy to me.

I got no flaking when cleaning with gunk, the bike has been stored for a long time and it looked like it was not cleaned before storage.

Were the wheels painted on all models?

NOS

[Bob_Roller]

To the best of my knowledge, only the LS version had some bikes with white painted wheels  from the factory .

[Nice_One_Son]

Bob,

That is what I thought.

I guess I just need to keep cutting down through the layers...

I do love doing it though! Is that wrong

[steve hawkins]

The wheels on my R65 were definately painted.  However that is not to say that they should have been.  30 years is a long time.  However they were also discoloured in places as if the paint was very lightly applied.

Even after I painted them again, I eventually replaced them with spoked wheels.

The R100 looked similar, but they were so grubby I just paint them over with some Halfords Satin Black with a brush.  The PFM cast iron discs on the bike soon discolours anything in close proximity.

One rain storm and my wheels turn brown...along with the discs!  Work well though when it comes to the tug, so its not all bad news bears.

Steve H