Cleaning aluminum alloy

[Grandpa Bill]

Was taking the old tape off a my handlebars and noticed how shiney the aluminum was on the area of the brakes that was covered with tape. Any way of restoring the old exposed areas back to the original shine?

[trevgbb]

from what I remember from the little bit of metallurgy I did many years ago, al. forms an oxidized surface when exposed, this is dark grey and stabilizes at a very thin layer, it is not detrimental and will not cause any problems, if cleaned off it will re-oxidize unless the surface is protected.
treatments such as anodizing? can be used to protect and colour the oxide layer.

[KC-Steve]

One of the guys here is using Silvo, a Brasso type polish. Same company makes the two, but I can't find Silvo around here. I am going to try another silver polishing product though.

Steve

[Bill]

Right the Silvo can only found in the United Kingdom area. Here is the thread of the gentleman who uses it... http://forums.bicycletutor.com/thread-896-page-3.html