Bike cover

[Brown Cat]

I need to leave my bike outside unsheltered for 8 hours which could mean
it's left outside being rained on for 8 hours. I was thinking of getting
a cover to put over it. I'm not really bothered about me having to sit on
a wet seat but I'm concerned about any damage caused by the elements. Is
it worth getting a cover for this purpose or is it good enough to give it
a clean when I get it home?

[Simon Mason]

"Brown Cat" > wrote in message
...
>I need to leave my bike outside unsheltered for 8 hours which could mean
> it's left outside being rained on for 8 hours. I was thinking of getting
> a cover to put over it. I'm not really bothered about me having to sit on
> a wet seat but I'm concerned about any damage caused by the elements. Is
> it worth getting a cover for this purpose or is it good enough to give it
> a clean when I get it home?

I just let mine get wet and wipe the seat with my gloves. If it is still
raining on the way home, a a wet bum is the least thing to worry about. The
salt on the roads does far more damage than dilute carbonic acid that is the
rain.


--
Simon Mason
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/

[Tom Anderson]

On Sat, 7 Mar 2009, Brown Cat wrote:

> I need to leave my bike outside unsheltered for 8 hours which could mean
> it's left outside being rained on for 8 hours. I was thinking of getting
> a cover to put over it. I'm not really bothered about me having to sit
> on a wet seat but I'm concerned about any damage caused by the elements.
> Is it worth getting a cover for this purpose or is it good enough to
> give it a clean when I get it home?

A clean? What, to get the water off?

IME, if your chain and exposed metal bits of your mechs are oiled, then
you don't really have anything to worry about from rain. You might find
that, eg, the nuts on your brake blocks rust, but that doesn't really
matter.

tom

--
There is no violence or enmity in the LEGO universe until you, the
builder, decide what to build with the pieces. -- Pyrogenic

[Adam Lea[_2_]]

Tom Anderson wrote:
> On Sat, 7 Mar 2009, Brown Cat wrote:
>
>> I need to leave my bike outside unsheltered for 8 hours which could
>> mean it's left outside being rained on for 8 hours. I was thinking
>> of getting a cover to put over it. I'm not really bothered about me
>> having to sit on a wet seat but I'm concerned about any damage
>> caused by the elements. Is it worth getting a cover for this purpose
>> or is it good enough to give it a clean when I get it home?
>
> A clean? What, to get the water off?

No, the road crud and salt.

>
> IME, if your chain and exposed metal bits of your mechs are oiled,
> then you don't really have anything to worry about from rain. You
> might find that, eg, the nuts on your brake blocks rust, but that
> doesn't really matter.
>
> tom

This is one area where I am slightly confused as I thought when lubricating
a chain the idea is to get the lubricant to the rollers and to wipe any off
the outside of the chain (to avoid grime building up on the chain) but in
doing this the chain is then vulnerable to rusting in wet conditions.

[Just zis Guy, you know?[_2_]]

On Sat, 7 Mar 2009 17:09:24 +0000, Tom Anderson
> said in
>:

>IME, if your chain and exposed metal bits of your mechs are oiled, then
>you don't really have anything to worry about from rain. You might find
>that, eg, the nuts on your brake blocks rust, but that doesn't really
>matter.

Yes, I agree. A good layer of winter-duty oil on the chain and one
day of rain will probably do no real harm. And a poly bag over the
saddle will probably suffice for that.

I'd be wary of leaving a bike out every day, I'd probably opt for
hub gears and a quarter inch chain for a bike that was kept outside
like that, but as a one-off I think you are right that it will be
fine.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
85% of helmet statistics are made up, 69% of them at CHS, Puget Sound
GPG sig #3FA3BCDE <http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/pgp-public-key.txt>

[James[_5_]]

On Mar 8, 6:45*am, "Just zis Guy, you know?" >
wrote:
> On Sat, 7 Mar 2009 17:09:24 +0000, Tom Anderson
> > said in
> >:
>
> >IME, if your chain and exposed metal bits of your mechs are oiled, then
> >you don't really have anything to worry about from rain. You might find
> >that, eg, the nuts on your brake blocks rust, but that doesn't really
> >matter.
>
> Yes, I agree. *A good layer of winter-duty oil on the chain and one
> day of rain will probably do no real harm. *And a poly bag over the
> saddle will probably suffice for that.
>
> I'd be wary of leaving a bike out every day, I'd probably opt for
> hub gears and a quarter inch chain for a bike that was kept outside
> like that, but as a one-off I think you are right that it will be
> fine.

Our main bike lives outside year-round (and has done for some time).
We tried a cover but it wasn't fully waterproof so the bike still got
wet, meaning it ended up being wrapped up in a humid environment when
the rain stopped so we gave up. We do get a bit of rust on the chain
but so what.

James

[Brown Cat]

On Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:45:06 +0000, Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
> I'd be wary of leaving a bike out every day, I'd probably opt for hub
> gears and a quarter inch chain for a bike that was kept outside like
> that, but as a one-off I think you are right that it will be fine.

Well, I cycle to work so it's going to be far from a one off which is why
I was considering covering it up. Would you recommend having a bike
especially for cycling to work?

[Just zis Guy, you know?[_2_]]

On Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:58:47 GMT, Brown Cat > said
in >:

>Well, I cycle to work so it's going to be far from a one off which is why
>I was considering covering it up. Would you recommend having a bike
>especially for cycling to work?

It's certainly not unusual to have a separate commuter bike (with
rack, dynamo lights, mudguards and so on). A lot of us do have a
"weekend bike" and a work bike. I mainly use a Brompton these days,
which of course can be parked under the desk, neatly solving both
storage and security problems in one.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
85% of helmet statistics are made up, 69% of them at CHS, Puget Sound
GPG sig #3FA3BCDE <http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/pgp-public-key.txt>

[Ian Smith]

On Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:58:47 GMT, Brown Cat > wrote:
> On Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:45:06 +0000, Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
> >
> > I'd be wary of leaving a bike out every day, I'd probably opt for
> > hub gears and a quarter inch chain for a bike that was kept
> > outside like that, but as a one-off I think you are right that it
> > will be fine.
>
> Well, I cycle to work so it's going to be far from a one off which
> is why I was considering covering it up. Would you recommend having
> a bike especially for cycling to work?

For the first 16 years or so that I cycled to work, my bike lived
outside when it got there. I never bothered covering it up, except
for the brooks saddle when it got one. I don't know whether it had
more maintenance than it would have done had it been indoors when
there, but it did not seem to consume an inordinate amount of
maintenance.

I would have a dedicated commuting bike (actually, I do have a
dedicated commuting bike). It lets me have a bike with 'rugged and
low maintenance' as the main component selection criterion, without
obliging me to be always riding a rugged bike. However, it's a luxury
to have multiple bikes - you can commute on almost any bike, and
commute reasonably happily on any road-going bike.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

[Tom Anderson]

On Sat, 7 Mar 2009, Adam Lea wrote:

> Tom Anderson wrote:
>> On Sat, 7 Mar 2009, Brown Cat wrote:
>>
>>> I need to leave my bike outside unsheltered for 8 hours which could
>>> mean it's left outside being rained on for 8 hours. I was thinking
>>> of getting a cover to put over it. I'm not really bothered about me
>>> having to sit on a wet seat but I'm concerned about any damage
>>> caused by the elements. Is it worth getting a cover for this purpose
>>> or is it good enough to give it a clean when I get it home?
>>
>> A clean? What, to get the water off?
>
> No, the road crud and salt.

Ah, now you're talking. That would be a good idea, but it's enough of a
pain that i don't bother. I am a bad man, and it has been said that the
railway i run is also bad.

>> IME, if your chain and exposed metal bits of your mechs are oiled, then
>> you don't really have anything to worry about from rain. You might find
>> that, eg, the nuts on your brake blocks rust, but that doesn't really
>> matter.
>
> This is one area where I am slightly confused as I thought when
> lubricating a chain the idea is to get the lubricant to the rollers and
> to wipe any off the outside of the chain (to avoid grime building up on
> the chain) but in doing this the chain is then vulnerable to rusting in
> wet conditions.

Practice varies. I try to have the whole surface the the chain covered in
oil, but not a lot of it - the idea is to give the chain plates some
protection from rust without turning them into crud magnets. Plus, i rock
a SRAM PC991, which has nickel-plated plates, which are supposedly
therefore rustproof, or at least less likely to rust.

In terms of function, though, i think some rust on the plates is not that
significant, until it gets deep enough to weaken them, which will take a
long time. It's rust in the pressure-bearing parts - the pin, roller, and
bushingy things - that really ****s you up, because that leads to chain
stretch and wrecked sprockets and chainrings.

tom

--
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless
enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as
though it had an underlying truth. -- Umberto Eco

[Ben C]

On 2009-03-08, Tom Anderson > wrote:
[...]
> In terms of function, though, i think some rust on the plates is not that
> significant, until it gets deep enough to weaken them, which will take a
> long time. It's rust in the pressure-bearing parts - the pin, roller, and
> bushingy things - that really ****s you up, because that leads to chain
> stretch and wrecked sprockets and chainrings.

You get chain stretch anyway whatever you do. Maybe it happens faster if
you don't clean the chain or let it get rusty. But you can save the
sprockets by replacing the chain when 12 links measure 12 1/16th inches.

[[email protected]]

On 7 Mar, 14:55, Brown Cat > wrote:
> I need to leave my bike outside unsheltered for 8 hours. Is
> it worth getting a cover for this purpose or is it good enough to give it
> a clean when I get it home?

On a rainy day the bike will probably be wet already when you put the
cover on, it'll then sit there with all the road crud and salty water
eating it. Better to let fresh rain rinse it off while it stands or
it might even dry off if the rain stops, which it won't under a cover.