Bit of salt water inside ally frame

JS200

Hello,

Just a quick question. After riding (aluminium framed bike) on a wet salty (post de-iced) path I gave the bike a washdown, I think I may have inadvertently got a bit of salty water into the frame through the hole above the wheel in the forks. In fact just riding may indeed get salty water inside the frame via spray I guess - could this cause any internal corrosion? If so - should I wash it out or something?

danlikesbikes

Aluminium does corrode however this is called aluminium oxide which helps protect the aluminium and is a very hard material.

Having said that it is always a good practice to check and clean out your frame. Easiest way if you can is to tilt the frame & let excess fluid drain out if you can, use a degreaser spray down the frame or a rag soaked in degreaser, then a light oil GT85 or similar and your done.

JS200

Thanks for that - so should I wash out the inside of the frame with water first then? Then drain, degrease and oil? What degreaser do you recommend?

danlikesbikes

Can clean it out first if you want with warm soapy water. As for degreaser there are plenty of posts on this & all have different ideas.

Basically your looking at 2 options;
1) bike specific degreaser - good at its job, expensive & you can end up using a lot of it
2) none specific - white sprit, engine degreaser, diesel, petrol

Monty Dog

Spray some ACF-50 inside the frame - it's an aerospace corrosion inhibiter.