After picking up my Felt after a ride through the rain, I noticed water pouring out of the holes at the end of my chain stays. It’s a good thing those holes were there to release the water, but there has to be some water left over that will stick around everytime I ride in the rain. So my question is, is it bad for an aluminum frame to have water in it? I know Al is better than steel in terms of water and long term damage but that still can’t be good. Any Is there a way I can make sure most of the water is out? Can’t it be stuck in my fork? I should be asking the Felt people this.
why do you think the holes are there?
I don’t know about the frame, but it can’t be good for the bottom bracket. I usually remove my bottom bracket after riding in the rain to let things dry out.
I know why the holes are there but I think its almost impossible to get all the water out and therefore I wonder what the long term effects of having just a small amount of water sitting around for who knows how long. Also, are forks hollow? There has to be water down there?
If you have a air compressor you could try blasting some air in there. Or hang in vertically to dry…or just don’t ride in the rain.
Some of the holes are there for drainage, some are leftover from the welding process. They need to have vent holes in the frame tubes when welding them together for somewhere for the heat to escape.
Some water in an aluminum frame won’t hurt it. I took apart an Al mtb after several years of riding through rain and mud, and didn’t notice any damage inside. The vent holes allowed it to dry up enough over time. The fork legs should be sealed enough that water shouldn’t be an issue.
Chris
Someone here told me to pull the seat stem out and flip the bike over to drain. Then squirt some WD-40 in the vent holes and seat tube to displace remaining water. I couldn’t believe how much water was in my frame after Ralph’s.
Bikes all used to have holes drilled in the bb since that is the lowest point on the bike. Water won’t hurt the Ti or alum but the silt in the water isn’t so good on the bb bearings. I have drilled all my bb that have openings to other tubes just for that reason. Some bikes have the bb sealed to the other tubes. 99% of the water gets in thru the seatpost seattube interface so taking the seatpost out and turning the bike upside down overnight gets most of the liquid out but some of the silt stays.
Two ways a frame is prepped for a pro is to remove paint from the dropouts and to put a nice hole in the BB. But G-man is right- the silt will stay. Remove the BB after a wet ride.