Winter's coming

[oggie]

Previous experience of using a bike once they have started putting rock salt on the roads is not good.
No matter how you clean your bike, salt, rusts and corodes many parts. I'm reluctant to use my crossfire e bike and see it rot away but do not want to stop the excellent exercise and fun of using the e bike over winter.
What's your view?

 

[kangooroo]

My view is that we only live once and we buy our bikes to use and enjoy rather than sit pretty and shiny in the house.

I'm probably not the most sensible person to ask though having spent the morning riding back and to through a ford on my wobbly, non-electric lightweight folder.

 

[Nealh]

Most bikes are ali nowadays and well protected by paint/lacquer finish, you are worrying over nothing.
My trusty Norco 700c town/commute steed rarely or never sees a clean and is now almost 5 years old, the only attention it gets a bit of chain lube and brake pads.

 

[awol]

Apply a thin layer of ACF50 over the paintwork then ride whatever the weather.

 

[The Bear]

I use ACF50 on my motorbike, applying it almost everywhere thats metal just before winter. I don't wash it until the following spring. It gets caked with mud and dirt, but a good clean the following spring reveals a nice clean shiny surface underneath.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Why would they put salt on the road? <ducking>

 

[LeighPing]

Previous experience of using a bike once they have started putting rock salt on the roads is not good.
No matter how you clean your bike, salt, rusts and corodes many parts. I'm reluctant to use my crossfire e bike and see it rot away but do not want to stop the excellent exercise and fun of using the e bike over winter.
What's your view?

Probably best to coat it with something, as suggested above, and leave it until spring. Mine's coated in mud and will stay that way. I've never cleaned them myself. My good lady cleaned it for the first few days, she's that way inclined. I just kept going out and dirtying it again. She soon gave up.



Get some good mudguards and a splashguard as shown in the pic. They might help.

 

[jerrysimon]

Rode my "steel" Brompton to and from work for almost 10 years, though not in snow and ice. Someone commented the other day how good it still looked (Front wheel Tonxin conversion) after nealry 10K miles.

I wont be using it daily this winter, as I was fortunate to retire early last March

However I use it a couple of times a week now when I volunteer and do Samaritan shifts.

My little electric Brompton changed my commute/lifestyle!

PS and back in 2009 I have this forum to thank as I embarked on the electric bike adventure.

 

[The Bear]

Why would they put salt on the road? <ducking>

Some think its to melt the snow, but its really incase you drop your chips.

 

[VictoryV]

Why would they put salt on the road? <ducking>

On airfields they use Urea (Pigs Pee) because it is non corrosive to aircraft which have significant amounts of magnesium alloy in their wheels. At RAF Lossiemouth, which, in the late 70's, used to be a master diversion airfield for civil and military aircraft across Scotland, and had to maintain a runway surface 24/7/365 we used to use up to 15 tons of urea a night to keep the runways clear. This had to be hand loaded in 25kg bags into the hoppers of the spreading machines. When washed off by rain or meltwater the urea made the grass incredibly green.

 

[Danidl]

Why would they put salt on the road? <ducking>

For someone living in the south of France perhaps a reasonable question. In the UK and Ireland, we often get temperatures slightly below freezing and over the course of a day it can cycle above and below zero Celsius multiple times. Dumping rock salt , the cheapest type , depresses the freezing point so the roads will be wet but not icy.

When I saw the initial posting I assumed a game of thrones fan!

 

[anotherkiwi]

I too think it may have been a pun...

 

[egroover]

Ride my crossfire-e every day to work including all winter for the past year. Apart from the handlebar stem bolts which have gone a little rusty coloured, everything else looks like new.
I tend to not wash it too often, but make sure the chain, casette, derailieur, pedals, cables etc are cleaned and lubed every couple of weeks or so, especially if we have a lot of rain

Some of my best rides have been in winter, last winter, rode a 45 mile round route on a Sunday, in the non-stop pouring rain for 4 hours (bit stressed at work, had to get out),the crossfire-e performed brilliantly, no problems at all

It's there to ridden, get out there !!

 

[egroover]

Make sure you get some decent mudguards.

On the way to Lulworth last weekend, looking down on the South Dorset Downs

 

[oggie]

Probably best to coat it with something, as suggested above, and leave it until spring. Mine's coated in mud and will stay that way. I've never cleaned them myself. My good lady cleaned it for the first few days, she's that way inclined. I just kept going out and dirtying it again. She soon gave up.

View attachment 21417

Get some good mudguards and a splashguard as shown in the pic. They might help.

eeeeaaaarrrggggg no way can I not clean oil and check/maintain the bike after every ride. Just one of them things installed into my dna

 

[VictoryV]

eeeeaaaarrrggggg no way can I not clean oil and check/maintain the bike after every ride. Just one of them things installed into my dna

not DNA : OCD

 

[LeighPing]

not DNA : OCD

Obsessive Cleaning Disorder. My wife's got that too.

 

[oggie]

not DNA : OCD

ocd my ar*e, just lookin after £1,000 of kit, does'nt everyone do that? don't know about you but leaving it in the garage covered in sh'te is not for me

 

[LeighPing]

ocd my ar*e, just lookin after £1,000 of kit, does'nt everyone do that? don't know about you but leaving it in the garage covered in sh'te is not for me

I'm sure that plenty do clean their expensive bikes after each use. I'm using mine daily to walk the dog. It's a 10 minute bike ride through the September bog. To clean it would become a chore. Although, it did look quite nice when it was clean.

Anyway the mud protects it, from more mud.

 

[STEVEMANFA]

If it's dirty I clean my bike after each ride and for me it's all part of the fun.