I can't not throw in my dos pesos on these.
There are other water based cleaners that are as good or better at disolving bike gunk than Simple Green that are also much less agressive on surfaces. I don't know if SG is acidic or alkaline--the latter seems more likely, but I think that has something to do with why it interacts with anodizing--any experts who can add something here?
Try PK200. It's a somewhat obscure "environmental" (marketing anyway) cleaner that is fairly oderless and very gentle. It won't damage metal finishes or paint and it cleans many things better than SG. Great stuff.
Oh yeah--we talked about this a few times this year--ammonia works wonders at loosening stuck posts and stems. A small dribble around the orofice, let it soak overnight. It still will require patience and lubes but it will come loose.
Tying and soldering: I had always heard about it as something that made wheels stronger, or stiffer but I never had any personal experience with it. Then I got this wood rim obsession (about 25 years ago) and built various pairs of wheels and for a while I rode wood rims pretty much exclusively. I learned that they are very sensitive to humidity. When it gets damp they swell up and the spokes get REALLY tight. When it gets dry, they shrink and the spokes get really loose. You have tension the spokes on the soft side or they'll get so tight sometimes that eventually the rim can de-laminate. Even with the spokes so loose that the wheel feels spongy, the rims, due to the incredible resilience of wood, are very strong. They'll never flat like aluminum rims would in similar circumstances. So I learned to keep the spokes kind of loose. The ride and wheel strength are fine but the noise is obnoxious. Tying and soldering eliminates this and does stiffen the wheel over what it would feel like without. It could be (I wasn't around then) that it originally started when most rims were wood and carried over into aluminum rims.
cheers,
Bob Schenker