Winter bike storage tips and tricks?

[Swoofty]

There's no real winter in LA and keeping things dry is no problem, but I have a bike that lives in a cellar for 11 months of the year in Hamburg, Germany. This year I happen to be in Hamburg over the winter and I'm noticing the effects of winter storage on my bike fittings. The bike is aluminium (Crewkerz Guilty) and about 4 years old now. Most all the bolts are titanium so no problem there, but my banjo fittings (Magura MT5) aren't looking so good. Most of the Magura bits I can get in titanium, but I haven't found any ti banjos. I've found some supposedly higher quality stainless banjos that I'll try when I return in June. 

Anything in particular I should do to lay up the bike for long periods? I plan on pulling the through axles front and rear so they don't seize in place. Other than that I just clean the bike, lube the chain and hope for the best.

[Fat dwarf]

Either seal the bike up with some silica gel bags, find a drier storage location or apply a mild heater (expensive) to remove the moisture from the air. 
whereabouts in LA are you? 

[La Bourde]

Hi,

First, let me introduce the terms:

- oxidation is just a change in aspect and has no impact on strength.

- corrosion means the part strength is potentially affected.

Now, we have to distinguish two phenomena:

- oxidation / corrosion through air/cold temperature/moisture/salt exposition

- galvanic corrosion due to different metal combined together

The first one occurs more or less when some conditions are met in the environment.

The other one may not be visible, it can occurs for example with seat tube and seat post.

Important to know:

1. Temperature plays a role indirectly: the warmer the air, the wetter the air can be, so the more oxidation can occur. 

It is quite counter intuitive because we often use heat to dry things.

2. Oxidation depends on:

- the humidity

- salt concentration

As soon as there is a little salt, the required amount of humidity is really low, maybe 30% for steel to oxide (sorry I don't know the precise values). But if the air is not salty at all, the humidity has to be quite high to start the oxidation (for steel, maybe 60%) - it is the same for other metals afaik.

I.e. exposition to salty air or water is just a mess! And sweat or riding on salty roads in winter can be enough.

Hamburg is quite a bad city in this respect (Baltic sea)

 

In addition, mixing metal can lead to galvanic corrosion, which is also a big mess.

Aluminium/titanium is really a bad combo.

Metals that are further from each other have the highest rate of corrosion when combined

 

Aluminium exposed to the environment can only oxide, because oxidation creates a thin protective layer.

But galvanic corrosion can attack the whole aluminium part...

To prevent oxidation/corrosion:

- prevent mix of materials with different potential (see chart)

- Lubricate to isolate (Teflon or copper based grease for parts in contact, sticky oil/wax for parts exposed to environment), regularly

- paint or anodize surfaces to isolate

- Wash the bike with tap water after riding and dry it, lubricate again

- Store it in a dry location (at best cold, to prevent high humidity)

- Prevent salty environment and try not to sweat 🙂

Edited Tuesday at 05:50 PM by La Bourde

[PeterH]

Thank you AI, but also nope to most of that.

Swoofty, I think you are spoiled by the LA weather that keeps classic cars running forever. My bikes up in Seattle are never in "storage" they get ridden a lot (and cars don't rust much hear either, its the salt on the roads I grew up on in the midwest that does it I think). That said I find some of the connectors (steel obviously) on my Maggies will corrode/oxidize/rust (all of those are acceptable terms despite Rup's pearls of wisdom, though rust is the least scientific). Some of it might be my sweat dripping on there, some of it might just be less than perfect finishes on them, pretty much none of it is galvanic (from dissimilar metals touching), at least the stuff I can see and that you are pointing out. These fittings would oxidize just the same if they were sitting on a shelf. The same thing happens on v-brake hardware and other bolts on my non-trials bikes. My advice for you (gleaned from the owner of a bike shop I used to work in, far more than my work experience as a metallurgical engineer) is to buff off any corrosion with scotchbrite or some similar gentle abrasive and then put a very light coating of WD-40 or some other oil on there to act as a CIC (corrosion inhibiting compound to those unfamiliar). Its not a perfect solution, but nothing is and as someone that knows, the way the bike industry ignores corrosion is pretty amazing.

[DYAKOV]

Recently I watched a video telling you how to keep your tools in the shed rust free - place a camphor block (has to be the real deal, apparently there are fake or let’s say lower quality camphor blocks which don’t work) in your tool box which over time will form thin coating on your tools to prevent from rust. I don’t remember it word for word but you can find out more with a quick google search, I’m sure.

Never tried it myself but I’m wondering if you could put your bike in a box along with a few camphor blocks and see if that works?

Cheers,

Nas

Edited 22 hours ago by DYAKOV

[Swoofty]

Thanks for the tips guys. I use anti seize for dissimilar metals so should be ok-ish there. I think the camphor idea would not play nice with brake pads and rotors. I had an Onza Zoot in this same cellar for 10 years and it survived so I hope I'm just overthinking all this (far more attached to the Guilty than the Zoot, obviously). 

It's snowing today so the bike will get wrapped up tonite and I'll fly home tomorrow and see what's left of LA 😞 I'll wave as I fly over the UK.

On 1/7/2025 at 5:57 PM, Fat dwarf said:

whereabouts in LA are you? 

  I'm in Santa Monica. My house is safe.

[La Bourde]

15 hours ago, PeterH said:

Thank you AI, but also nope to most of that.

Swoofty, I think you are spoiled by the LA weather that keeps classic cars running forever. My bikes up in Seattle are never in "storage" they get ridden a lot (and cars don't rust much hear either, its the salt on the roads I grew up on in the midwest that does it I think). That said I find some of the connectors (steel obviously) on my Maggies will corrode/oxidize/rust (all of those are acceptable terms despite Rup's pearls of wisdom, though rust is the least scientific). Some of it might be my sweat dripping on there, some of it might just be less than perfect finishes on them, pretty much none of it is galvanic (from dissimilar metals touching), at least the stuff I can see and that you are pointing out. These fittings would oxidize just the same if they were sitting on a shelf. The same thing happens on v-brake hardware and other bolts on my non-trials bikes. My advice for you (gleaned from the owner of a bike shop I used to work in, far more than my work experience as a metallurgical engineer) is to buff off any corrosion with scotchbrite or some similar gentle abrasive and then put a very light coating of WD-40 or some other oil on there to act as a CIC (corrosion inhibiting compound to those unfamiliar). Its not a perfect solution, but nothing is and as someone that knows, the way the bike industry ignores corrosion is pretty amazing.

I agree with you that the Magura fittings are particularly sensible to oxydation. I own also some and their are the only one that oxidize that much. But Magura is also not really good in their material choice, see the cheesy carbotecture levers.
Some Shimano fittings are gold anodized, see Shimano Saint for example, some other fittings like Hope are stainless steel.

I checked on my Magura Louise and the fitting is a mix of material, a part is steel the other one is aluminium (I used a magnet). So I suppose it is galvanic corrosion. The finish of the aluminum part is surely not good.

 

I disagree regarding the terms. Corrosion does not mean the same as oxydation. As I wrote corrosion implies a degradation of the affected part. Not the case with oxydation, that could even be used to protect the part from degradation.

Rust has a specific meaning, it applies only for iron. I am surprise you don't make the difference?

 

My point was that Swoofty's bike is stored in Hamburg and that makes a huge difference.

As I wrote, as soon as there is a little salt in the environment, you shall expect parts to rust/oxidize/corrode. The difference is amazing.

I made once the experience myself as I went for a few days in Bordeaux. I was just in the town, far from the ocean (Bordeaux is already some km away from the coast). But the marin air was present and all of my screws (stems, bottom bracket, brakes, etc.) started to rust, while they never did before.
 

So I wanted to emphasize that Swoofty's bike is exposed to an aggressive environment and as he wanted some tips, I wrote things I know.

I guess he really has to consider galvanic corrosion too, since he is using a lot of the aluminium/ti combo. Saline environments also boost galvanic corrosion and failures or seized parts are not uncommon in the bike industry (see the Shimano Dura Ace cranks for example, or a lot of carbon frames with aluminum inserts or even all the seat posts that get stuck). It is nice to see though, that he already considered this.

 

The only other hint from me regarding the fittings would be to swap them with anodized ones or to get some stainless steel fittings. Trickstuff seems to makes both for example (they are from Goodridge and have a good call).