Can you use isopropyl alcohol to clean carbon rims?

[Ross]

Or will they dissolve/explode?

[Duck!]

Cured composite, especially with the polyurethane clearcoat is pretty well impervious to any general-purpose solvent.
Isopropyl won't really do anything to it when it's not cured, and nothing after it is.

[DavidS]

I use it to clean records, admittedly vinyl is very tough and I do drag a diamond through the grooves to listen to music, but isopropyl shouldn't be a problem on carbon.

DS

[Tim]

Isopropyl alcohol is probably okay but just as an aside I wouldn't use Metho (ethanol/alcohol).
In a past life I used to lay, sand and finish timber flooring. Most of the floors were coated with clear single or two-pack polyurethane. We used water, oil and solvent based products.
On previously coated floors we wiped them down with Metho to clean and soften the existing surface prior to re-coating. The softened coating enabled a better scuffing and cutting from light sanding for the new poly to key into.
To clean mixing buckets and tools of hardened poly we soaked them in Metho. The poly turned a milky colour and then lifted off the buckets and tools.
Occasional use of ethanol probably won't hurt but repeated or prolonged use definitely degrades polyurethanes.
Be careful using some products like Windex which have a high ethanol content.
In the context of a bicycle we're only talking about the clear polyurethane finish coat/s. The underlying epoxy matrix is resistant to ethanol, I think, but minus the surface coating the epoxy is then vulnerable to UV degradation. How vulnerable? Probably not much, but I wouldn't do it.

[Warin]

As cleaning agents;
isopropyl alcohol is very good - leaves a clean surface contributing nothing to any remaining contamination. It also does the least amount of harm to various sensitive things. Preferred cleaner for expensive electronic things.
metho is very good at removing water. It can leave a residue but I prefer it when water contamination is involved.

[Ross]

Thanks for the detailed replies