Anniebikes made a post about rust, here, in a gracefully aging Peugeot. Timely is as timely does, because I've just been experiencing equipment corrosion. First off, Ocean Shores is not a friendly climate when it comes to corrosion; being a narrow Peninsula that is surrounded by salt water. From here, a salt air environment is almost ideal for galvanic corrosion. This spring, I've experienced several corrosion failures. The first one was a Seiko clock that stopped working. Now, I'll have to see if there's any way to restart it so that it can show the correct time more than twice a day. It's a sentimental thing, since we can always ask Google what time it is.
Next, I noticed that all my bike chains stiffened up over the winter while we were celebrating the Holidays down in Texas. That was readily remedied by relubing the offending chains. A couple of my bike lights also stopped working. One of those (a Cateye), is now permanently dead since I'd forgotten how to open it up properly in order to change batteries.
Finally, I discovered that my Performance Bikes trunk bag zippers all froze up during the winter. It took the better part of an hour to get them working again. This is the first time I've experienced frozen bag zippers. Afterwards, I checked my Arkel and Ortlieb bag zippers and they seem to be OK. I'm not sure if Performance simply uses inferior zippers, or what the actual story is. Perhaps Performance simply used aluminum instead of steel to save weight...
6 comments:
Florida--at least where my parents live--is a similar environment. Whenever I go I find something on the bike that's rusted or corroded since my previous visit. I haven't had a zippier on a bag "freeze", but I'll watch for that.
This winter, the frame finally rusted out completely on my 2003 Ford Focus station wagon, from the deluges of brine used on the winter roads here in lovely New Hampshire. My winter bikes have always used a fixed gear to avoid exposing too many moving parts to the grit and salt. I spray Boeshield into the frames of all my bikes to try to protect the interior of the tubes.
I've experienced zipper corrosion on a few things. Sometimes your own sweat can be the culprit. The zipper doesn't have to be in contact with you, only in drip range.
Seashores are really nice, but you're right about the inescapably salty air. And plus 1 on Justine's observation about Florida. Anywhere near its coastline you're in some sort of sea breeze.
Everything seems to rust in the UK..Even I seem to be rusting away...
Actually, Trevor, while there may be a smidge of rust around the edges, you seem very well preserved!
cafiend. I like IGH for my winter riding. The Shimano 7-speed seems almost perfect for Ocean Shores since the gears are well-spaced and I only use 3rd, 4th, and 5th around Ocean Shores (it's pretty durn flat, but the wind argues against a single speed. I got a S-A S3X as a compromise, but I find fixies are not as nice as I imagined. I may get a freewheel with a single cog, or maybe not...
Justine, Florida-on-the-sea is EVEN WORSE than Ocean Shores for corrosion. Its higher average temperatures speed up the chemical reactions. Rust may never sleep, but, like reptiles, it is more active when it is warm...
Post a Comment
No Need for Non-Robot proof here!