Alu fames in winter

John Hearns said:

The Halfords special stealtch bike is probably now laid up for the winter. I'd rather not do it
any damage (its not him or her yet as it doesn't have a name).

I've seen several comments in Cycling+ and on this group about not wanting to ride an aluminium
framed bike over the winter. OK - what's exactly bad about this? Horror stories please - which
might stop me being tempted to take the nice bike out and end up with the frame dissolving or
something.

If the frame is painted it's OK, but road salt will make a real mess of a bare aluminium frame.

John Hearns said:

I've seen several comments in Cycling+ and on this group about not wanting to ride an aluminium
framed bike over the winter. OK - what's exactly bad about this? Horror stories please - which
might stop me being tempted to take the nice bike out and end up with the frame dissolving or
something.

Better swap for steel rims as well then ;-) Nothing wrong with riding an aluminium bike over winter
and it certainly wont rust like a steel one in all that salt. If left immersed in salt water
aluminium will corrode which may look cosmetically bad on a polished frame but the corrossion is
nowhere near as insidious or likely to lead to frame failure as it is with a steel frame.

Tony

"John Hearns" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I've seen several comments in Cycling+ and on this group about not wanting to ride an aluminium
framed bike over the winter. OK - what's exactly bad about this?

Whaaat? The short answer is 'nothing'. Probably most of the bikes on the road these days are
aluminium framed. People don't just give up riding them in winter or switch to bikes made of other
frame materials for fear of the bike falling apart under them. Those of more fussy disposition have
winter and fair weather bikes, but I don't think frame material is the main consideration in this.

Rich

Tony Raven said:

If left immersed in salt water aluminium will corrode which may look cosmetically bad on a
polished frame but the corrossion is nowhere near as insidious or likely to lead to frame failure
as it is with a steel frame.

Salt can speed up cracking of *some* aluminium frames at highly stressed point - look up "stress
corrosion cracking" on Google. Basically it helps existing small cracks to spread under stress. Good
old 6061-T6 is pretty immune, but some of the newer 7000-series alloys do suffer.

One other reason why a stainless steel bike frame isn't such a good idea (besides the poor UTS, and
hence heavy tubing of SS) - SS is notorious for cracking if it's used for any chloride solution, so
a SS frame would be quite likely to fail if used on winter roads.

Richard Goodman said:

Whaaat? The short answer is 'nothing'. Probably most of the bikes on the road these days are
aluminium framed. People don't just give up riding them in winter or switch to bikes made of
other frame materials for fear of the bike falling apart under them. Those of more fussy
disposition have winter and fair weather bikes, but I don't think frame material is the main
consideration in this.

I'd have thought that most would be laquered or painted anyway, and in road use would be operating
well below their stress limits.

Of course, frequent cleaning, especially of the chain and gearing, is wise in winter with all that
salt. I'd worry more about the effect on nice gearing components than on frame, especially with the
amount of chain on a 'bent.

- Richard

--
_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ Richard dot Corfield at ntlworld dot com _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/ Time is a
one way street, _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ Except in the Twighlight Zone.

Tony Raven said:

If left immersed in salt water aluminium will corrode which may look cosmetically bad on a
polished frame but the corrossion is nowhere near as insidious or likely to lead to frame failure
as it is with a steel frame.

Salt can speed up cracking of *some* aluminium frames at highly stressed point - look up "stress
corrosion cracking" on Google. Basically it helps existing small cracks to spread under stress. Good
old 6061-T6 is pretty immune, but some of the newer 7000-series alloys do suffer.

One other reason why a stainless steel bike frame isn't such a good idea (besides the poor UTS, and
hence heavy tubing of SS) - SS is notorious for cracking if it's used for any chloride solution, so
a SS frame would be quite likely to fail if used on winter roads.

Richard Goodman said:

Whaaat? The short answer is 'nothing'. Probably most of the bikes on the road these days are
aluminium framed. People don't just give up riding them in winter or switch to bikes made of
other frame materials for fear of the bike falling apart under them. Those of more fussy
disposition have winter and fair weather bikes, but I don't think frame material is the main
consideration in this.

I'd have thought that most would be laquered or painted anyway, and in road use would be operating
well below their stress limits.

Of course, frequent cleaning, especially of the chain and gearing, is wise in winter with all that
salt. I'd worry more about the effect on nice gearing components than on frame, especially with the
amount of chain on a 'bent.

- Richard

--
_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ Richard dot Corfield at ntlworld dot com _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/ Time is a
one way street, _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ Except in the Twighlight Zone.

Richard Corfield said:

Of course, frequent cleaning, especially of the chain and gearing, is wise in winter with all that
salt. I'd worry more about the effect on nice gearing components than on frame, especially with
the amount of chain on a 'bent.

Probably the main origin is that aluminium frame bikes tend to be the more expensive bikes and some
people don't like taking an expensive bike out in the dirt, grime and salt of winter. So they put
the expensive "summer" bike away and use a cheap and cheerful winter hack frame instead.

Tony

Richard Corfield said:

Of course, frequent cleaning, especially of the chain and gearing, is wise in winter with all that
salt. I'd worry more about the effect on nice gearing components than on frame, especially with
the amount of chain on a 'bent.

Probably the main origin is that aluminium frame bikes tend to be the more expensive bikes and some
people don't like taking an expensive bike out in the dirt, grime and salt of winter. So they put
the expensive "summer" bike away and use a cheap and cheerful winter hack frame instead.

Tony

Tony Raven <[email hidden]> wrote:

: Probably the main origin is that aluminium frame bikes tend to be the more expensive bikes and
: some people don't like taking an expensive bike out in the dirt, grime and salt of winter. So they
: put the expensive "summer" bike away and use a cheap and cheerful winter hack frame instead.

Ah, Tony beat me to it.

No reason at all not to ride an Al bike in the winter. Every reason not to ride your pride and joy
in the winter (well, actually there's just one which is the state it'll be in come the spring!).

Arthur "Ti in Summer, Al in Winter"

--
Arthur Clune clune.orgclune.orgOpen ↗ "Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Richard Corfield said:

Of course, frequent cleaning, especially of the chain and gearing, is wise in winter with all
that salt. I'd worry more about the effect on nice gearing components than on frame, especially
with the amount of chain on a 'bent.

Probably the main origin is that aluminium frame bikes tend to be the more expensive bikes and
some people don't like taking an expensive bike out in

the

Quoted message said:

dirt, grime and salt of winter. So they put the expensive "summer" bike

away

Quoted message said:

and use a cheap and cheerful winter hack frame instead.

Tony

I've nearly got it right then. I put away the titanium beast and get out the aluminium one :-)

--
Mark (MSA)

Predictive text-messaging is the enip ankloblr

Tony Raven <[email hidden]> wrote:

: Probably the main origin is that aluminium frame bikes tend to be the more expensive bikes and
: some people don't like taking an expensive bike out in the dirt, grime and salt of winter. So they
: put the expensive "summer" bike away and use a cheap and cheerful winter hack frame instead.

Ah, Tony beat me to it.

No reason at all not to ride an Al bike in the winter. Every reason not to ride your pride and joy
in the winter (well, actually there's just one which is the state it'll be in come the spring!).

Arthur "Ti in Summer, Al in Winter"

--
Arthur Clune clune.orgclune.orgOpen ↗ "Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Richard Corfield said:

Of course, frequent cleaning, especially of the chain and gearing, is wise in winter with all
that salt. I'd worry more about the effect on nice gearing components than on frame, especially
with the amount of chain on a 'bent.

Probably the main origin is that aluminium frame bikes tend to be the more expensive bikes and
some people don't like taking an expensive bike out in

the

Quoted message said:

dirt, grime and salt of winter. So they put the expensive "summer" bike

away

Quoted message said:

and use a cheap and cheerful winter hack frame instead.

Tony

I've nearly got it right then. I put away the titanium beast and get out the aluminium one :-)

--
Mark (MSA)

Predictive text-messaging is the enip ankloblr

MSA said:

"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Probably the main origin is that aluminium frame bikes tend to be the more expensive bikes and
some people don't like taking an expensive bike out in

the

Quoted message said:

dirt, grime and salt of winter. So they put the expensive "summer" bike

away

Quoted message said:

and use a cheap and cheerful winter hack frame instead.

Quoted message said:

I've nearly got it right then. I put away the titanium beast and get out the aluminium one :-)

I was very careful in my choice of words not to be materialist ;-)

Tony

MSA said:

"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Probably the main origin is that aluminium frame bikes tend to be the more expensive bikes and
some people don't like taking an expensive bike out in

the

Quoted message said:

dirt, grime and salt of winter. So they put the expensive "summer" bike

away

Quoted message said:

and use a cheap and cheerful winter hack frame instead.

Quoted message said:

I've nearly got it right then. I put away the titanium beast and get out the aluminium one :-)

I was very careful in my choice of words not to be materialist ;-)

Tony