Hi,
So, what's the best stuff to use that won't kill me with fumes or harm my precious Enve rims ?
Different rim cements responds differently to various chemicals but here's what I use:
Use an acid brush and plain household petrol/diesel oil to wet all the tubular tyre cement and let it soak in overnight.
Repeat the next day on the rim section you want to remove the cement from. I find it easier and faster to work one small area at the time. One section could then be a strip of rim inbetween spoke holes.
Rub with an old piece of cotton cloth to remove the cement. Do not waste time on small recalcitrant dots of cement, move on to the next section.
Once all sections are covered we'll now remove the remaining small amounts of cement by reapeting the step as described above using another cotton cloth soaked locally (finger tip area) with White spirit (aka Stoddard solvent) until the rim section is totally devoid of cement.
Repeat until the rim is clean. Wipe the entire rim clean as you'll have solvent on spokes, rim and so forth. Make sure to clean the spoke hole and nipples.
You don't want to waste time here should the wheel need truing some day.
Watch out not to damage wheelstickers. If you're in doubt cover the inner side with some old cloth, it will soak up the spilled solvents.
Wipe the rim bed and brake track with acetone, you want these aeras the be particularly grease free. The remainder of the rim and spokes can be cleaned with a dry cloth.
1/ Vittoria Mastik One: Diesel oil, White Spirit.
2/ Continental (both alloy and carbon specific): Same as above but responds best to White spirit.
3/ Tubasti: does not respond well to diesel oil but solves quickly in White spirit.
4/ Tufo tape: all of the above plus tons of elbow grease. Do not use it in the first place.
I only mention it since sooner or later you'll buy a set of secondhand wheels from someone and it will have this nice surprise on them....
Ideally modern formulated cements should dissolve quickest by using n-hexane but this is not available in useful quantities.
What turns out to work well but isn't cheap to use is Schwalbe's rim cement remover which you just brush on and it will have dissolve 95 % of the cement when left to work for a couple of hours.
Not sure what it contains but it seems (and I say this with some caution) less aggressive to the skin than the other chemicals.
Either way always use these chemicals either outdoors or in a well ventilated room. Use nitrile gloves to protect yourself.
Ciao,
P.S. Incidentally, I'll be stripping a Hyperon rear wheel this afternoon. I hate that .......
Being a snob is an expensive hobby.
