I’m quite a heavy sweater and I’m getting a little worried about the rusty parts on my bike. The worst, by far, are the bolts in my syntace aero bars that attach them to the base pursuit bars. How long should I wait to replace the hardware and are there any preventive measures I could use to slow down the degradation?
If it helps, the bike is about 3 years old and the hardware is all original.
Thanks in advance,
mobiusnc
I also have a high sweat rate. a bike shop owner once said that he thinks that I sweat acid. I think that the hardware seizing (getting stuck) will be a problem long before corrosion causes it to fail. If it’s rusty replace it. Be sure to grease the threads.
I too am a very heavy sweater (just heavy in general), and I bet I sweat more than you. Just to let you know how much I sweat, I lost over 10 lbs in an easy 1:20 run the other week, and after a long ride my rear brake cable collected so much salt from my dripping body that the spring on the brake was not strong enough to release without having to clean and lube the cable and housing. I also corroded an aluminum frame to such an extent that the manufacturer warranted the frame.
Anyway, I regularly take off all of my bolts, clean them with some sort of bike solvent or degreaser to get the rust and junk off, then I put everything back with tons of lube and grease. If you need some help or want to borrow a few tools, let me know. I think you already have a copy of my bike fix-it book.
Adam
I always think that every cyclist should have the following in their tool box:
M3, M4, M5, M6 bolts in varying lengths. Industrial suppliers can get you these bolts in bulk pretty cheaply, and you can get really nice, marine grade bolts in these sizes, as well.
I always put a thin coat of grease on the top of my bolts, mainly to retard the corrosive nature of the varying liquids that can destroy otherwise good bolts. I cover this in my bike cleaning article published on slowtwitch.
I’m in the same boat, bolts holding the clip-ons are useless after 12 months. Bolts holding the stem get constant attention and grease but are still rusting. Brakes and shifting never work well because it is always corroded. Brakes are rusting (all the “silver” parts anyway).
Do titanium bolts resist corrosion better than stainless steel?
Is there anything else to do? I’ve considered going with one of those high end cable systems, and changing to a better quality brake, but I’m not sure that it would solve the problem
Replace them grease the threads and put white lighting or a wax type lube in the top (allen hole). Then when you sweat it doesn’t rust. I put the lube in every screw bolt etc. I tend to baby my bikes.
yes ti bolts are better than stainless as far as corrosion,same stainless has small amounts of iron so they will still rust,also anti seize is better to put on a bolt thread than grease,you can find it in auto of marine supply stores
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I second randall’s recommendation.
Anti-seize is a better value from an auto or marine store than the teeny-tiny tube you get from Finish Line.
Thanks fellas…so I’m looking for Marine grade M3-M6 bolts from a hardware store. It was not the top I was too concerned about. I can see the threads where the syntace is bolted on to the base bar (there is a small space). There is a lot of oxidatio, I can’t even see silver!
I didn’t know how easy it would be since the one time I went to a LBS to get a bolt for my TCR seatpost they acted like I had asked for their first child. And they sell Giants too. Something about thread counts, bolt lengths and such. In the end they were nice enough to cut down a too long bolt for me.
So I’m guessing these are standard?
mobiusnc