EDITORIAL
Where The Rain Gets In - A Fall Service Story
Holier Than Thou
Steel is real. And sometimes, it's a real pain in the butt. I've seen some beautiful examples of ferrous fine art rot straight through and those preventable casualties inform the persnickety steps I take in caring for my own bikes. Yes, even my bikes that aren't likely to develop pin-holes in the tubes.
Any conversation I have to preface with the words "I genuinely wasn't trying to be an ass" isn't likely a win. Two pints into a conversation a friend-of-a-friend notes that thanks to the impressive reliability of his Chris King bottom bracket and Manic dropper post, he hasn't had his cranks or post out of his bike in a decently solid two-plus year of riding. Before I can stop myself, I say "I wonder how much water is sitting in your frame." Ouch, if looks could maim.
Open ports can let water in, but also let moisture escape assuming my bike is stored in a warm/dry space.
No exit port seal is air tight so even a clamped-down housing is a potential entry point for water.
Much less to worry about with aluminum or carbon frames but I still don't want water sitting inside.
Most frames don't have any thought given to water needing to escape once it enters hollow tubes.
Once the seat post was removed and the bike turned over there was a decent sized puddle on the floor. Thanks to the internal architecture, removing the bottom bracket (threaded thankfully) yielded another smaller wet spot. That's 1 gram per millilitre weight weenies.
After truly wet rides, I remove the seat post from my bike and hang it up.* I notice it makes a big difference in the amount of moisture accumulated in the bottom bracket shell when I do swap out cups & bearings.
*Hanging a bike is ideal as it helps keep the seals and bushings lubricated, except with inverted forks
Step one is to remote from my bar so I can get enough slack to pull my post out.
Step two is to remove the seat post. Then I hang my bike as so until it's time to re-insert and ride.
Removing a seat post is not an epic endeavour. I have to loosen four bolts - including my dropper post remote - as well as my seat post QR to get it out and it's still a three minute job. Maximum. On most bikes this means at most a minute less time surfing NSMB.com on the can before that warm post-ride shower.
Whether lucky enough to get out in daylight, or riding alone in the dark, if you're tackling the wet and greasy this winter please don't forget to let your bike breathe!
Comments
D_C_
5 years, 7 months ago
What if your bike has a drain hole in the bb shell? Is pulling the seatpost still necessary?
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Andrew Major
5 years, 7 months ago
Can't remember the last time I saw a new bike with a drain hole in the BB. I guess it depends on size; not certain honestly if a little hole is sufficient for moisture to escape.
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Shinook
5 years, 7 months ago
My Sentinel has a drain hole in the bottom, so did my Smuggler (both carbon models) and an Intense I recently put together for a friend of mine.
Seems like that'd be a mandatory design feature for carbon bikes, otherwise you'd have water sloshing around in there and I'd expect that could create long term problems.
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Andrew Major
5 years, 7 months ago
How big is the hole on the Sentinel? I’ll have to have a peak next time I see one.
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sospeedy
5 years, 7 months ago
Just checked my Patrol...it’s a good size, a 3 mm hex key fits in with room to spare. Seatstay holes are smaller but also work well when hoisting the bike onto its back wheel.
But the Strega has no apparent drain hole in the BB...and guess what came out of the seat tube when I flipped the bike over?? Great tip Andrew, thanks!
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Andrew Major
5 years, 7 months ago
One of those little details buying from a PNW brand riding in the PNW?
Definitely now interested to check out what bikes have drain holes vs don’t.
Cheers!
Andeh
5 years, 7 months ago
My Transition Sentinel has a drain hole in the BB. It is possible for water to accumulate there still, so after a wash (we don't know what rain is here in California), I pop the bike up onto the back wheel and give it a few bounces. That helps get the water down to the BB to drain out, and drains it out of the chainstays.
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IslandLife
5 years, 7 months ago
New Knolly Fugitive LT has a drain hole. But an extra note of precaution from those with vinyl wraps on their bikes... even the extremely well thought out full frame "RideWrap" did not have a hole in the vinyl that corresponded with the drain hole. I cut one... but some riders may not notice or think about it when applying protection. Also if you had a shop or RideWrap themselves wrap your bike, they may have covered the hole, good idea to check.
Also, I have one of their very early wraps and RideWrap is a super responsive company, continuously evolving their product. They may have already solved this issue by now...
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Andrew Major
5 years, 7 months ago
Great point re. covering drain holes.
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sospeedy
5 years, 7 months ago
Ride Wrap that went on my Patrol this year had cut outs for the BB and seatstay drain holes.
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Tadpoledancer
5 years, 7 months ago
My carbon Ripmo has a little hole as well under the BB.
I think preventing water ingress is a big pro for having tubes in tubes internal cable routing. Won’t stop it all of course, but certainly better than having port based internal cable routing.
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Vik Banerjee
5 years, 7 months ago
All my bikes have drain holes in the bottom of the BB. If they didn't come that way from the manufacturer I'd drill a hole there myself when I first got it.
I do run a Mudhugger fender on any bike I use in the winter and that really limits the amount of water throw at the top of the seattube where it can drip down to the BB. Keeps the dropper, shock and me a lot cleaner as well.
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Andrew Major
5 years, 7 months ago
I bought one of those fenders a few years back. The shop guy who sold me on it (hi Rick!) told me ~ “sure it’s ugly, but you never see it while you’re riding.”
That’s not true of course. You see it in the faces of your fellow trail travellers. Right after mounting it the visual reactions from strangers made me wonder if I had dog poop on my chin!
On first seeing it, two of my friends who are French-French made faces like they’d just seen The Predator and then stopped calling me for rides!
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Vik Banerjee
5 years, 7 months ago
I love 'em and I think it's cool to come back from a sloppy winter ride without a soaked groin and a skunk stripe up your back, but to each their own. I personally like the way my MTB looks with fenders front and rear. If anyone I ride with has had a negative reaction they haven't told me or made it obvious and the number of Mudhugger equipped bikes in our extended riding group grows by a significant number each winter. The main discussion point I encounter from other riders is "Where do I buy one of those???"
That said it doesn't bother me at all if someone prefers to ride without fenders. I don't have to do their laundry or maintain their bike. ;)
It also doesn't bother me one bit if someone I meet riding thinks my fender[s] are F-ugly.
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flowrider
5 years, 7 months ago
Mudhugger is the best rear fender there is. I got mine from Rick too.
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Andrew Major
5 years, 7 months ago
For the record, there’s no doubt in my mind they’re the best at keeping water off. Especially on FS bikes. And, damn quiet too. I was not disparaging their functionality!
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[user profile deleted]
5 years, 7 months ago
This comment has been removed.
D_C_
5 years, 7 months ago
I have drilled a hole in the bb shell on steel and alloy hardtail frames that didn’t come with them. It solved my problem of having bottom brackets seize.
I’ve also had issues with water sitting in the head tube and seizing the lower headset bearing. The solution to this might be to tip the bike back so it drains into the downtube (assuming the headtube has an opening into the downtube).
I think your take-home message is that it’s important to be aware of water getting into the frame and to make sure that water is evacuated in some way.
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Andrew Major
5 years, 7 months ago
“I think your take-home message is that it’s important to be aware of water getting into the frame and to make sure that water is evacuated in some way.”
Cheers
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earle.b
5 years, 7 months ago
In rust we trust. Don't go talking bad about rust, it's a beautiful creature.
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Andrew Major
5 years, 7 months ago
You seem to be painting all your new projects these days... bit of a blow to your rustvangelism n’est-ce pas?
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earle.b
5 years, 7 months ago
We all have weak moments in life that we regret.
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Perry Schebel
5 years, 7 months ago
praise patina!
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Karl Fitzpatrick
5 years, 7 months ago
Capillary action will be cancelled out with a hole diameter of at least 5-6mm. I've never done it myself (drilled a hole that is) but I do spray the insides of my steel frame with CRC Lanocote once a year. The bottom bracket might get wet but it's still as shiny as the day i got it...
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John Keiffer
5 years, 7 months ago
How do you hang your bikes? Just using cheap hooks?
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Andrew Major
5 years, 7 months ago
I have used a mix of systems from Saris trays to $1.50 hooks from CanTire. Whatever works in the space I’m hanging bikes in.
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