Protect your bike from salt?

flyer

What do you advise to protect it from winter salt?

Is there anything you can spray on that actually works?

£3k+ bike

Flyer

redddraggon

If you ride a £3k+ bike, find some time to hose the bike down after a winter ride.

flyer wrote:

Is there anything you can spray on that actually works?

Water

cougie

If you ride on gritted roads - you need to wash the censored off the bike that day. I dont know of anything that will protect the bike short of covering the entire bike in vaseline.

My mate is a bit lazy about cleaning, and his lovely ultegra groupset got all corroded after winter riding - a shame.

If you can spend 3k on a bike - can you not find another £400 for a cheapo winter bike that you wouldnt mind if it corrodes ? I use fixed wheel in winter - even less to clean,

flyer

Good point I may just buy a cheap Allez, but wondered if I could proptect my Roubiax Pro and use it?

Flyer

milese

http://www.acf-50.co.uk/motorcycle.htm

I just this on my GSXR. It works but is a pain to clean off at the end of winter.

GavH

I've been using my carbon Bianchi with Ultegra parts and a simple wipe down with kitchen roll, baby wipes on the chain and a relube has seen it fine thus far. I bowed to the peer pressure on here and hosed it down the other day (Mon). Dirt washed straight off and then dried and relubed as usual. Surprised to find yestersay (+24 hrs) a lot of orange stuff (rust!) on my cassette and chain. Spent an hour or so taking it all apart, degreasing and cleaning the whole thing. Obviously I didn't dry it off properly but then how do you 'dry' the cassette and chain properly after hosing it? Why haven't I seen rust until now, the first time I hosed it down?

In future I'll be sticking with the dry clean method that's worked so far. Whilst also pricing up the home build winter trainer option. :oops:

Scrumple

after washing, spray on lots of water displacing stuff... WD40 like.

Dries it for you by shifting the water.

Pokerface

cougie wrote:

If you can spend 3k on a bike - can you not find another £400 for a cheapo winter bike that you wouldnt mind if it corrodes

But I spent all my money on the first bike!!! :oops:

jgsi

Pokerface wrote:

cougie wrote:

If you can spend 3k on a bike - can you not find another £400 for a cheapo winter bike that you wouldnt mind if it corrodes

But I spent all my money on the first bike!!! :oops:

ah! but when you join the big boyz toyz club , you are supposed to be able to spend more and more on any piece of attention grabbing kit you can lay your hand on... including bikes that would be aspirational for some to use as winter 'hacks'...

Cleaning a bike ....?
time
soapy water
oil
go ride .. get it winter filthy again
and
repeat

keef66

@ Scrumple

+1 for the WD40 after washing, leave for a bit then wipe and lube.

That's what I did on New Years Day after my 2 hour epic in the snow. Had to hose down the cassette and mechs; clogged with salty ice. 2 days later it was still in perfect nick.

Steve_b77

You could spray GT85 all over the frame and bottom bracket area, would stop some of the muck sticking.

Or try polishing it with Auto Glym Gold Hardcoat polish, this stuff works brilliantly on cars for letting muck slide off

oldwelshman

keef66 wrote:

@ Scrumple

+1 for the WD40 after washing, leave for a bit then wipe and lube.

That's what I did on New Years Day after my 2 hour epic in the snow. Had to hose down the cassette and mechs; clogged with salty ice. 2 days later it was still in perfect nick.

Nope, wd40 will displace the lubricant from within the roller bearings of the chain which are very difficult to re lube.
After washing the bike if left it ie easy for the chain and sprockets to rust.
I wipe them after washing, l;eave for hour or so, then re lube a little and ensure I go theough all the gears while rotating pedals to ensure the lube is distributed on sprockets and all links.
GTX is better than wd40 if required and if chain well rusty it can be soaked in diesel but agin it flushes everything out.

amaferanga

GavH wrote:

I've been using my carbon Bianchi with Ultegra parts and a simple wipe down with kitchen roll, baby wipes on the chain and a relube has seen it fine thus far. I bowed to the peer pressure on here and hosed it down the other day (Mon). Dirt washed straight off and then dried and relubed as usual. Surprised to find yestersay (+24 hrs) a lot of orange stuff (rust!) on my cassette and chain. Spent an hour or so taking it all apart, degreasing and cleaning the whole thing. Obviously I didn't dry it off properly but then how do you 'dry' the cassette and chain properly after hosing it? Why haven't I seen rust until now, the first time I hosed it down?

In future I'll be sticking with the dry clean method that's worked so far. Whilst also pricing up the home build winter trainer option. :oops:

Is your cassette not aluminium?

keef66

Doubt it would last long if it was alu. The lightest cassettes save weight by using alu spiders and having some Ti sprockets.

redddraggon

amaferanga wrote:

GavH wrote:

I've been using my carbon Bianchi with Ultegra parts and a simple wipe down with kitchen roll, baby wipes on the chain and a relube has seen it fine thus far. I bowed to the peer pressure on here and hosed it down the other day (Mon). Dirt washed straight off and then dried and relubed as usual. Surprised to find yestersay (+24 hrs) a lot of orange stuff (rust!) on my cassette and chain. Spent an hour or so taking it all apart, degreasing and cleaning the whole thing. Obviously I didn't dry it off properly but then how do you 'dry' the cassette and chain properly after hosing it? Why haven't I seen rust until now, the first time I hosed it down?

In future I'll be sticking with the dry clean method that's worked so far. Whilst also pricing up the home build winter trainer option. :oops:

Is your cassette not aluminium?

Aluminium cassettes are very niche.

amaferanga

I just assumed they were all aluminium as steel would be stupidly heavy. So the rings are usually stainless steel then?

balthazar

amaferanga wrote:

I just assumed they were all aluminium as steel would be stupidly heavy. So the rings are usually stainless steel then?

No, plain steel. They're often nickel or chrome plated, or blacked by some other finish.

keef66

Chainrings tend to be alloy on decent groupsets in order to save weight, but that means they wear faster than their cheaper steel counterparts.
Alloy sprockets would wear ridiculously quickly; consider a 12t sprocket would get 4 times the wear of a 50t chainring for each revolution of the pedals, plus the forces on the sprocket are exerted on far fewer teeth making matters worse

daj

I am picking up my first proper road bike at the end of the month ... Reading this is going to put me off taking it out!!

lifecyclist2010

Muck off or something to brake the dirt down, wash it off dry it off then GT85 which is a water displacer but also contains PTFE which lubricates as well although i hate to admit it COUGH COUGH halfords do sell it :? then lube the chain with a PROPER cycle lube not just "oil".

balthazar

lifecyclist2010 wrote:

Muck off or something to brake the dirt down, wash it off dry it off then GT85 which is a water displacer but also contains PTFE which lubricates as well although i hate to admit it COUGH COUGH halfords do sell it :? then lube the chain with a PROPER cycle lube not just "oil".

All those capitals make it seem very dramatic; would you explain what is so imPROPER about the use of normal lubricating oil, for bicycles?!

Pokerface

JGSI wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

cougie wrote:

If you can spend 3k on a bike - can you not find another £400 for a cheapo winter bike that you wouldnt mind if it corrodes

But I spent all my money on the first bike!!! :oops:

ah! but when you join the big boyz toyz club , you are supposed to be able to spend more and more on any piece of attention grabbing kit you can lay your hand on... including bikes that would be aspirational for some to use as winter 'hacks'...

I just spent £2K on wheels. Maybe I should have ponied up for a winter bike instead! Wheels I can't use for months. A bike I could have used right away. Hmmmnnnn....... :oops:

meruz2008

For all you guys out there riding alloy frames, I got my bike out a couple of days after a very gritty ride. I had washed the bike down but looks like i had missed a bit round those oh so vulnerable dropouts. long and short was a big white powdery lump of corrosion.

In my panic i decided to rub it down with a wire brush (very carefully) and got out the old rust beater. Good as new!!!

cant imagine you would want to be in that situation with your 3k steed

daj

meruz2008 wrote:

For all you guys out there riding alloy frames, I got my bike out a couple of days after a very gritty ride. I had washed the bike down but looks like i had missed a bit round those oh so vulnerable dropouts. long and short was a big white powdery lump of corrosion.

In my panic i decided to rub it down with a wire brush (very carefully) and got out the old rust beater. Good as new!!!

cant imagine you would want to be in that situation with your 3k steed

:shock: :shock: Looks like my new steed will be on the trainer until this crappy weather goes!!

sagalout

Milese wrote:

http://www.acf-50.co.uk/motorcycle.htm

I just this on my GSXR. It works but is a pain to clean off at the end of winter.

This. I've used it for the last 3 winters. Not cheap but it works