Hello! Not sure if this is the right subreddit, but i'm here looking for some bike cleaning tips. I've got this folding bike my grandmother used to ride to the store, and as you can probably see, she didn't maintenance it well. These photos are already after partial cleaning. I cleaned both fenders, front rim, pedals, and handles.
I don't know how to clean, or fix the rotting front wheel center. I'd like it atleast partially "shiny", so it doesn't look like an absolute wreck. The front rim has been cleaned with ordinary solid hand soap and a plastic brush, and it performed quite well.
I tried rubbing the spokes with ordinary aluminium foil, and instead of scraping off rust, the rust acted as a file and the spoke was dirty with aluminium dust (2nd photo, sorry for the orange tint). Another thing is that the hinge is cracked in half, but it's visible, that someone soldered it. I don't want to spend too much on an already falling apart bike.
Model: ESKA Folding bike, seems like a 70's model, Czechoslovakia
Sorry for this long read, thanks for some tips!
TLDR: Looking for some tips to clean this old folding bike that's in bad shape. Rubbing spokes with aluminium didn't help.
by NationalPlate3629