Rust

I've just bought a new bike
(http://www.trekbike.co.uk/bikes/2004...tional/3500.ph
p), and living in England, I find myself on it quite often in the rain. I'm
worried about this causing it to rust. What's the best thing to do when I
get it home after cycling in the rain?

Thanks for any advice,
Dan.

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 20:40:02 +0100, "Dan" wrote in
message :

I've just bought a new bike
(http://www.trekbike.co.uk/bikes/2004...tional/3500.ph
p), and living in England, I find myself on it quite often in the rain. I'm
worried about this causing it to rust. What's the best thing to do when I
get it home after cycling in the rain?

I ride daily in all weathers and have never experienced problems with
corrosion, I think the problems come when the bike is left out
overnight or when the bike is put away wet and then not ridden for
some time.

Do you keep it in a garage or shed? Is the storage area heated at
all?

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

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In article ,
Dan wrote:
I've just bought a new bike
(http://www.trekbike.co.uk/bikes/2004...tional/3500.ph
p), and living in England, I find myself on it quite often in the rain. I'm
worried about this causing it to rust. What's the best thing to do when I
get it home after cycling in the rain?


_ Wash it off with low or no pressure water. Water really won't
due much to your bike since it's mostly aluminum, but dirt will
wear it out. Rain always carries fine dirt into places that it almost
never gets on it's own.

_ Booker C. Bense

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I've just bought a new bike

(http://www.trekbike.co.uk/bikes/2004...ational/3500.p
h
p), and living in England, I find myself on it quite often in the rain.
I'm
worried about this causing it to rust. What's the best thing to do when
I
get it home after cycling in the rain?

I ride daily in all weathers and have never experienced problems with
corrosion, I think the problems come when the bike is left out
overnight or when the bike is put away wet and then not ridden for
some time.

Do you keep it in a garage or shed? Is the storage area heated at
all?

I keep it in my conservatory, as I don't have a garage and my shed's too
small. It's not heated however. My dad suggested to me yesterday about
putting wd-40 on the cogs and chain when I get it back because oil repels
water. Is this a good idea, or should I not do this?

Thanks again,
Dan.

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 08:48:33 +0100, "Dan" wrote:

My dad suggested to me yesterday about
putting wd-40 on the cogs and chain when I get it back because oil repels
water. Is this a good idea, or should I not do this?

What does WD-40 have to do with good oil and lubrication? Its better
as a cleaner for a variety of stubborn substances and as a mild
penetrating oil. Its worse that practically anything you could pick up
at a bike shop, unless you find a mislabeled tube of glue.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 08:48:33 +0100, "Dan" wrote:



I keep it in my conservatory, as I don't have a garage and my shed's too
small. It's not heated however. My dad suggested to me yesterday about
putting wd-40 on the cogs and chain when I get it back because oil repels
water. Is this a good idea, or should I not do this?

Thanks again,
Dan.


Hi, spraying WD-40 on your chain, could actually remove some of the
lubrication. You are better off, just keeping your drivetrain well
lubricated, with a product designed specifically for bike chains.
I have been using a product called Prolink, but there are many other
good ones.
When you get home, wipe off the bike, if it is wet. Once every couple
of weeks, more or less, depending upon mileage and conditions, totally
clean and relubricate the whole drivetrain, including chain, cogs,
derailleurs, and cables.


Life is Good!
Jeff

"Curtis L. Russell" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 08:48:33 +0100, "Dan" wrote:

My dad suggested to me yesterday about
putting wd-40 on the cogs and chain when I get it back because oil repels
water. Is this a good idea, or should I not do this?

What does WD-40 have to do with good oil and lubrication?

Probably nothing; who said (in this thread) that it did?

Its better
as a cleaner for a variety of stubborn substances and as a mild
penetrating oil. Its worse that practically anything you could pick up
at a bike shop, unless you find a mislabeled tube of glue.

Actually this might be an excellent application for it. From the makers,
"WD-40 literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. That's the
name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who developed WD-40
back in 1953. The chemist, Norm Larsen, was attempting to concoct a formula
to prevent corrosion - a task which is done by displacing water. Norm's
persistence paid off when he perfected the formula on his 40th try."

More at: http://www.wd40.com/AboutUs/our_history.html

As such, I do not think it is a very good chain lube, but it would probably
help Dan with his water problem.

-Scott

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 08:48:33 +0100, "Dan" wrote:

I've just bought a new bike

(http://www.trekbike.co.uk/bikes/2004...ational/3500.p
h
p), and living in England, I find myself on it quite often in the rain.
I'm
worried about this causing it to rust. What's the best thing to do when
I
get it home after cycling in the rain?

I ride daily in all weathers and have never experienced problems with
corrosion, I think the problems come when the bike is left out
overnight or when the bike is put away wet and then not ridden for
some time.

Do you keep it in a garage or shed? Is the storage area heated at
all?

I keep it in my conservatory, as I don't have a garage and my shed's too
small. It's not heated however. My dad suggested to me yesterday about
putting wd-40 on the cogs and chain when I get it back because oil repels
water. Is this a good idea, or should I not do this?

Thanks again,
Dan.


I seem to recall that wd40 is not a good idea for bike chains. I
forget the reason why but it might have had something to do with dirt
being attracted.

I bought a degreaser that I use every month or so and chain grease
that I use every two weeks. The degreaser removes all the crap that
accumulates, then the grease keeps it turning nicely.

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 14:32:11 GMT, "Scott Ehardt"
wrote:

More at: http://www.wd40.com/AboutUs/our_history.html

As such, I do not think it is a very good chain lube, but it would probably
help Dan with his water problem.

It will help at the time of application, but be pretty worthless as a
long term solution. It also isn't much help to the lubricants that may
already be in place. So you do a surface job which does not much more
than remove irrelevant surface rust on links or you do a better job
that compromises the lubricants in place in the pivots and to what
end? The bike is then worse off the next time it goes out the door
without a thorough lubrication. Which would do the job fine on its
own.

Unless all the trips are 360 and he repeats the performance every time
or carries the WD-40 with him, it is a waste of time as he described
his problem (repeated and regular occasions).

If you're talking about a singular (more or less) occasion where you
are trying to use WD-40 as a flush, I can buy that, maybe. I had bikes
on the roof in a thunderstorm in Ohio that had the semis pulling off
to the side of the road for the best part of two hours. It might make
sense then (well, later, when you are cleaning out the water).

Otherwise, WD-40 IMO has very little purpose on a bike that hasn't any
seized parts. And there are cheap, better solutions for that.

I don't have the answer to his (Dan's) question, but would guess that
a commuter or other regular cyclist in a rainer area than DC-Maryland
would be able to give feedback on the best lubricants for rainy areas.
Once it is in place, it shouldn't be compromised by a regular rain
fall. In this area the various versions of Tri-flow or whatever seem
to work well enough, but it isn't that wet here and I park the bikes
in a garage.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

Jeff Starr wrote in message . ..
Hi, spraying WD-40 on your chain, could actually remove some of the
lubrication. You are better off, just keeping your drivetrain well
lubricated, with a product designed specifically for bike chains.
I have been using a product called Prolink, but there are many other
good ones.
When you get home, wipe off the bike, if it is wet. Once every couple
of weeks, more or less, depending upon mileage and conditions, totally
clean and relubricate the whole drivetrain, including chain, cogs,
derailleurs, and cables.


True, spraying WD-40 on your chain could remove some lubrication. But
in this case, the bike ridden through the rain can have significant
amounts of lubrication removed from the rain itself.


While WD-40 would be good at displacing the moisture from the chain,
you may only want to do this to keep it from rusting while stored, say
if it's "put up wet". It would be best to lubricate it before the next
use, as WD-40 isn't a particularly good lube, being only 15-25% oil by
volume (the rest mostly solvent). Though I suppose if you use WD-40
often enough (like every time you ride), it could be as good a lube as
any.

Bicyclists seem to have some superstitions about WD-40. While it's not
a particularly good chain lube, it won't kill a chain, either. Nor
will it attract dirt any better than any other light oil.