Do you ride a steel bike on salted roads?

Peter Cole wrote:
On 11/30/2010 10:14 AM, landotter wrote:
On Nov 29, 10:44 am, Andre wrote:
Do you ride your steel bike on gritted roads? With what effects from
the salt?

Andre Jute
One careful little old lady owner who only rode it to church in the
summer

With fenders, frame material in the glop matters little. Grease your
bottom bracket and pedal threads, ride.

I've seen a couple of steel frames fail from corrosion. In both cases it
was the chainstays.

mine did after 10 years of riding in "gritty conditions", it was a
cheap trek hybrid 700 from mid 90's and the chainstay behind bottom
bracket failed, I had it welded and it lasted another season. I also
had many off road excursions and zero frame maintenance.

On 30 nov, 16:40, Andre Jute wrote:
On Nov 30, 12:48*am, Tºm Shermªn™ °_° ""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI

$southslope.net" wrote:
On 11/29/2010 10:44 AM, André Jute wrote: Do you ride your steel bike on gritted roads? With what effects from
the salt?

Not any bicycle or trike I care highly about, that would be hard to replace.

That's what's in my mind, that I have only one steel bike and it is my
best bike and would be very expensive to replace, shading to
impossible. So, if this weather continues, it may be smart to bring
down an ali frame from the loft and build it up for use in the winter.
-- Andre Jute

One approach is to use your crap/rain bike for those conditions and
many people follow that approach. I thought f*ck it I don't gonna ride
a crap bike in winter and build me a nice bike special for those
circumstances. Key thing of that bike is that I minimized the stuff on
the bike that can go wrong/get dirty, used materials/parts that are
weather resistant as possible and it had to be easily cleaned and
maintained.

Lou

On Nov 30, 11:06*pm, Lou Holtman wrote:
On 30 nov, 16:40, Andre Jute wrote:

On Nov 30, 12:48*am, Tºm Shermªn™ °_° ""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI

$southslope.net" wrote:
On 11/29/2010 10:44 AM, André Jute wrote: Do you ride your steel bike on gritted roads? With what effects from
the salt?

Not any bicycle or trike I care highly about, that would be hard to replace.

That's what's in my mind, that I have only one steel bike and it is my
best bike and would be very expensive to replace, shading to
impossible. So, if this weather continues, it may be smart to bring
down an ali frame from the loft and build it up for use in the winter.
-- Andre Jute

One approach is to use your crap/rain bike for those conditions and
many people follow that approach. I thought f*ck it I don't gonna ride
a crap bike in winter and build me a nice bike special for those
circumstances. Key thing of that bike is that I minimized the stuff on
the bike that can go wrong/get dirty, used materials/parts that are
weather resistant as possible and it had to be easily cleaned and
maintained.

Lou

I don't actually have any crap bikes, but both my nice spare bikes are
ali-framed, and they get no use now, so I may as well ride them in the
slush.

I was thinking in terms of components I already have, hub gears, hub
dynamo, ready-built into wheels, disk or roller brakes, mudguards,
mudflaps, coat protectors, and I think I have a set of ali North Road
bars too, and plastic covered Selle Royale saddle that came with a
Gazelle and is quite comfortable. Sealed bearing pedals, VP191, cheap
replaceable bottom bracket, UN-26, Marathon Plus tyres I already have
(not much tread on them though), nickel plated chain by Wippermann or
KMC, plastic full chaincase to keep the mainenance down, one of those
frames also has an ali headset already in it and I have a spare if it
gets wrecked.

Andre Jute

On 11/30/2010 9:40 AM, André Jute wrote:
On Nov 30, 12:48 am, Tºm Shermªn™ °_°""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI
$southslope.net" wrote:
On 11/29/2010 10:44 AM, André Jute wrote: Do you ride your steel bike on gritted roads? With what effects from
the salt?

Not any bicycle or trike I care highly about, that would be hard to replace.

That's what's in my mind, that I have only one steel bike and it is my
best bike and would be very expensive to replace, shading to
impossible. So, if this weather continues, it may be smart to bring
down an ali frame from the loft and build it up for use in the winter.
-- Andre Jute


Here is what 33 years of Wisconsin winters will do to a steel frame
bicycle: http://www.yellowjersey.org/mitch.html.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.

On Nov 30, 4:19*pm, Andre Jute wrote:
On Nov 30, 3:14*pm, landotter wrote:

On Nov 29, 10:44*am, Andre Jute wrote:

Do you ride your steel bike on gritted roads? With what effects from
the salt?

Andre Jute
One careful little old lady owner who only rode it to church in the
summer

With fenders, frame material in the glop matters little. Grease your
bottom bracket and pedal threads, ride.

Not the glop I'm worried about, Max. It's the grit, salt they throw on
the roads. It eats cars. No reason it shouldn't eat a bike as well.
But see above about Waxoyl being effective, and I seem to remember
Andrew Muzi saying something about bikes that rust through rusting
through from the inside, not by corrosion from the outside. -- AJ

Then you want a reserved room where you maintain a very low humidity
to dump your cold bike. Otherwise rub everything with parafin (oil)
on newspaper. I suspect the modern method of using WD40 would do,
except keep it away from your tyres and rims. You will need to wash
your tyres and rims after each exposure to salt if you wish to totally
avoid corrosion. Washbowl,water,brush. Hard anodised rims withstand
road salt much better so that you can leave the rims for a couple of
weeks, but the tyres still get grotty.

On Nov 30, 11:34*pm, Andre Jute wrote:
On Nov 30, 11:06*pm, Lou Holtman wrote:



On 30 nov, 16:40, Andre Jute wrote:

On Nov 30, 12:48*am, Tºm Shermªn™ °_° ""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI

$southslope.net" wrote:
On 11/29/2010 10:44 AM, André Jute wrote: Do you ride your steel bike on gritted roads? With what effects from
the salt?

Not any bicycle or trike I care highly about, that would be hard to replace.

That's what's in my mind, that I have only one steel bike and it is my
best bike and would be very expensive to replace, shading to
impossible. So, if this weather continues, it may be smart to bring
down an ali frame from the loft and build it up for use in the winter..
-- Andre Jute

One approach is to use your crap/rain bike for those conditions and
many people follow that approach. I thought f*ck it I don't gonna ride
a crap bike in winter and build me a nice bike special for those
circumstances. Key thing of that bike is that I minimized the stuff on
the bike that can go wrong/get dirty, used materials/parts that are
weather resistant as possible and it had to be easily cleaned and
maintained.

Lou

I don't actually have any crap bikes, but both my nice spare bikes are
ali-framed, and they get no use now, so I may as well ride them in the
slush.

I thought you weren't comfortable on them, you really need to use your
most comfortable and controllable machine for the conditions if you
want to avoid a spill. Wide pedals are a must. Usually a slightly
lower position, but you shouldn't worry over your machine, you don't
want to go breaking a hip because you were unable to get your foot
down.


I was thinking in terms of components I already have, hub gears, hub
dynamo, ready-built into wheels, disk or roller brakes, mudguards,
mudflaps, coat protectors, and I think I have a set of ali North Road
bars too, and plastic covered Selle Royale saddle that came with a
Gazelle and is quite comfortable. Sealed bearing pedals, VP191, cheap
replaceable bottom bracket, UN-26, Marathon Plus tyres I already have
(not much tread on them though), nickel plated chain by Wippermann or
KMC, plastic full chaincase to keep the mainenance down, one of those
frames also has an ali headset already in it and I have a spare if it
gets wrecked.

Andre Jute

On Nov 29, 11:44*am, Andre Jute wrote:
Do you ride your steel bike on gritted roads? With what effects from
the salt?


Yes, though Toronto uses a lot of liquid non-sodium brine deicing, I
believe. Haven't been pelted by a salt truck for years now. I wiped
out badly in a sand environment once, when winter disappeared
temporarily but the sand didn't.

It's not an ideal situation, but it's not immediately fatal, either.
You can kill a frame if you seize the bottom bracket (unless you're
into heroic measures, anyway.) Good paint usually lasts 5-7 years, in
my experience, and cheap paint about 60-84 months.

On Dec 1, 1:12*am, Tºm Shermªn™ °_° ""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI
$southslope.net" wrote:
On 11/30/2010 9:40 AM, Andr Jute wrote:

On Nov 30, 12:48 am, T m Sherm n _ ""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI
$southslope.net" *wrote:
On 11/29/2010 10:44 AM, Andr Jute wrote: *Do you ride your steel bike on gritted roads? With what effects from
the salt?

Not any bicycle or trike I care highly about, that would be hard to replace.

That's what's in my mind, that I have only one steel bike and it is my
best bike and would be very expensive to replace, shading to
impossible. So, if this weather continues, it may be smart to bring
down an ali frame from the loft and build it up for use in the winter.
-- Andre Jute

Here is what 33 years of Wisconsin winters will do to a steel frame
bicycle: http://www.yellowjersey.org/mitch.html.

35 years! That customer must be trying to starve Muzi into submission.
-- AJ

On Dec 1, 1:21*am, thirty-six wrote:

You will need to wash
your tyres and rims after each exposure to salt if you wish to totally
avoid corrosion. *Washbowl,water,brush.

You're joking, of course. I've never washed my bikes more than once a
year. I'm most definitely not planning on washing a bike after every
ride. That's why I'm thinking of building up an ali bike for six to
eight weeks max over the winter. But if I have to wash it after every
ride, that'll just wreck the pleasure of being able to go out. I'd
rather walk.

Andre Jute

On Dec 1, 3:59*pm, Andre Jute wrote:
On Dec 1, 1:21*am, thirty-six wrote:

You will need to wash
your tyres and rims after each exposure to salt if you wish to totally
avoid corrosion. *Washbowl,water,brush.

You're joking, of course. I've never washed my bikes more than once a
year. I'm most definitely not planning on washing a bike after every
ride. That's why I'm thinking of building up an ali bike for six to
eight weeks max over the winter. But if I have to wash it after every
ride, that'll just wreck the pleasure of being able to go out. I'd
rather walk.

I have seen really impressive corrosion from sweat on a Cannondale
CAD-?

Just cause it's Al doesn't make it corrosion proof.

JS.