Road salt on dry roads

[JimF22003]

I did a 70 mile ride out in Frederick up to Thurmont and back today. There was tons of the salty stuff on the road. I could even see that there were two cyclists on the road ahead of me from their tire tracks, but I never did catch up to them I’ve always just ridden through the salty snow. It should be fine if you clean the bike up afterwards. (Which reminds me…)

I have a carbon frame, and my shifting is electronic, so my main exposure is my brake cables. Probably need to take a little extra care with a steel frame and regular cables, but I wouldn’t let that stop me from riding.

[DismalScientist]

Salt does not affect plastic bikes. You could convert your drivetrain to wood for even better performance.:rolleyes:

Just hose it off if you have too much salt buildup. Paint is designed to protect metal. Aluminum alloys don’t rust.* Chains and cables are replaceable.

*Actually aluminum rusts very easily. Raw aluminum will quickly develop a sheen of aluminum oxide. The aluminum oxide is tough and actually protects the raw aluminum underneath.

[KLizotte]

Just ride. Bikes these days are fairly indestructible with proper care and life is way too short to spend time indoors looking forlornly out the window. Plus getting back into form for spring riding after taking the winter off kinda sucks.

[PotomacCyclist]

I usually stop riding my triathlon bike in late fall and stick with the mountain bike and Capital Bikeshare for the winter. (Plus some indoor spin bike workouts too.) Whether or not the roads are an issue, I get uncomfortable when riding the tri bike on gritty roads. I spend most of the time worrying about a flat tire, even though I’ve never had a flat tire on the tri or MTB in 5 years of riding.

I did get a flat on CaBi once, as I rode past the construction site on Hayes St. in Pentagon City. A flat-head screw was lying on the road. It went straight through the tire. But I didn’t hear a pop or feel anything different at first. I just start to hear a light clicking sound. Then the tire started to feel a little strange, but this was about 20 seconds after I must have run over the screw. Eventually the tire lost pressure, but it took almost a minute before that happened. Fortunately there was a station nearby. So I walked the bike over, pressed the red repair button, turned the seat around (as a signal to other users that the bike had a problem) and checked out another bike.

[Terpfan]

@PotomacCyclist 70533 wrote:

I usually stop riding my triathlon bike in late fall and stick with the mountain bike and Capital Bikeshare for the winter. (Plus some indoor spin bike workouts too.) Whether or not the roads are an issue, I get uncomfortable when riding the tri bike on gritty roads. I spend most of the time worrying about a flat tire, even though I’ve never had a flat tire on the tri or MTB in 5 years of riding.

I did get a flat on CaBi once, as I rode past the construction site on Hayes St. in Pentagon City. A flat-head screw was lying on the road. It went straight through the tire. But I didn’t hear a pop or feel anything different at first. I just start to hear a light clicking sound. Then the tire started to feel a little strange, but this was about 20 seconds after I must have run over the screw. Eventually the tire lost pressure, but it took almost a minute before that happened. Fortunately there was a station nearby. So I walked the bike over, pressed the red repair button, turned the seat around (as a signal to other users that the bike had a problem) and checked out another bike.

Wait. Did you say never in five years? Do you have those gator skin or whatever they’re called tires?? I just had a flat on tires that are barely two months old and so I didn’t even have any of my kits on me. It wasn’t a problem since i could walk it to the shop nearby, but still.

[Tim Kelley]

@Terpfan 70701 wrote:

Wait. Did you say never in five years?

Well, now you’ve jinxed him.

[mstone]

@Terpfan 70701 wrote:

Wait. Did you say never in five years? Do you have those gator skin or whatever they’re called tires?? I just had a flat on tires that are barely two months old and so I didn’t even have any of my kits on me. It wasn’t a problem since i could walk it to the shop nearby, but still.

It’s been a couple of years since I flatted. Last was some kind of thick wooden splinter (W&OD bridge at 123?) that didn’t quite penetrate the flat liner, but dented it enough to abrade the tube. If you have a lot of flats you should make sure you know why (pinch vs debris vs wheel problem) and then find a solution, because that sucks.

[Author]

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