How To Clean Carbon Wheel Braking Surface

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Join Date: May 2010

Location: Bucharest, Romania, Europe

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Bikes: 1989 Krapf (with Dura-ace) road bike, 1973 Sputnik (made by XB3) road bike , 1961 Peugeot fixed gear, 2010 Trek 4400

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As for gasoline as a cleaner, depends what you clean. Here is not the best use (as I said it leaves some oily stuff as well) but a chain dipped in gasoline makes wonders.
As for safety it really depends, even nitroglycerine may be safe if treated with care. And for that matter in older days I used to wash my hands with gasoline or paint thinner to get rid of a lot of oil after I worked on cars/engines/etc where some % of my body was literally black - I would advise against touching gasoline or other "heavy stuff" but it's no biggie if you do though.

I'm quite fond of isopropyl alcohol* because it is fast dry, leaves no residue, dissolves both oily and water based stuff, dislodge any dust/gunk, etc. I use it anywhere as a final clean from wiping clean a mirror from the telescope, to just clean some parts that have a lot of clogged dust/oil (chainring bolts, brake calipers, etc).
Acetone** works much like this alcohol, but I like the alcohol better.
Paint thinner also works but it's not so clean, and is not very fast drying.
The only downside of this solvents is that is not that cheap to can give a bath in it, and does not move a lot of the oily stuff. So for cleaning a lot of grease oil like in chains, bearings, cogs, you would use a lot of solvent, so better to start cheap (gasoline/mineral spirits/paint thinner/etc - take your pick)
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*-electronist's alcohol, 99% pure alcohol, no mixtures with other stuff found in rubbing alcohol that may even not contain this type of alcohol.

**- pure acetone found in some older nail polish removers, but nowadays is being diluted and mixed with a lot of other stuff. I buy pure acetone from the chemical store 99% pure sold at liter.