THE PRODUCT TEST
Keep your bike and its fittings corrosion-free whatever the season and however you use it
FOR MANY, WINTER is a time to wrap up the bike and save it for warmer and sunnier rides. For others the season makes little difference, by choice or necessity. And as we’ve seen previously – and in last month’s issue – winter riding can be just as enjoyable as other times of the year; you just need to plan a little better.
Winter riding comes with its own set of demands, one of which is regularly cleaning the bike. Road salt, for example, will attack any exposed aluminium or steel components and before long they will begin to corrode. Cleaning helps to remove any residual salt or chemicals, but if you’re using the bike throughout winter you need to protect your metalwork as much as possible.
Paint and plastics should get a good coat of wax while a corrosion preventer should be used to insulate metallic components from the ravages of winter. Corrosion – or more accurately, oxidation - requires three elements: oxygen, an electrolyte (usually water) and exposed metal. Remove one and it cannot form. For this test we are effectively coating bare metal to deprive the substrate surface of moisture and oxygen to create conditions where corrosion cannot occur.
Road salt creates an even more hostile environment than water alone as it creates a more conductive electrolyte and speeds up the corrosion process, hence why bikes need to be more effectively protected in winter.
Since we last tested corrosion preventers, more have entered the market while others have been further developed. So we felt it was high time to establish which keep corrosion away.
