My winter bike blew a spoke on Monday, and when I had this fixed the wrench
noted there was other corrosion damage to the wheel, most likely due to road
salt.
Although it seems like this past winter there was often more road salt than
snow visible in Chicago, Illinois is surprisingly not anywhere near the top
on road salt use.
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/sr235/017-030.pdf
"Table 2-2 Average Annual Salt Loadings on State Highways where salt is
normally applied"
Illinois: 6.6 TONS per lane-mile -- that sounds like one heck of a lot, but:
Michigan: 12.9 tons per lane-mile
Ohio: 9.1
Indiana 9.0
Vermont 17.1
Massachusetts 19.4
Interestingly:
Minnesota: 5.0
Alaska: 1.2
South Dakota: 1.0
Salt corrosion on a wheel used in the winter is just one of those things --
and just one more reason why winter bikes are generally modest ones.
And, yes, the spoke was drive side, rear wheel. How did you ever guess? 😉