ramzilla

I used to ride from Flagler Beach all the way down to Ponce Inlet & back a couple times a week. On the beach. Something like a 20 or 30 mile round trip. (I forget - it was back in the early 90's). These days I'm riding up & down A1A at Fernandina. Ride the beach from marker 29 up to Main Beach marker 1 at low tide. Don't be stupid. Just hose it off. No worries. No rust! Woo Hoo. SPRING BREAK FOH EVAH!!!!! YAY!

CliffordK

For all those people living near the beach in Florida, what do things like your door hinges, steel screws on door knobs, and other bits of steel on the exterior of your house look like?

Undercarriage of your car? Garaged?

John_V 

How close to the beach are you referring to? I'm about 15 miles from the closest beach and have lived in the same house for over 40 years and still have original hardware on one of my outside doors. My pickup is 12 years old, sits under a tree and has no body or undercarriage rust. I have a fried that lives 3 blocks from the beach and has no issues with rust on his car or anywhere else. I think we see more rusted vehicles that are brought down from up north,, due to driving on salted roads, than we see on locally purchased vehicles.

CliffordK

Hmmm...

Oregon coastal property that I've seen often gets rapid salt damage.

Mom has a vacation house on the back side of the dunes, perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the ocean as the crow flies, and has had significant damage including cow panels that have disintegrated, and quite a few bits of exposed metal rusting.

There seems to be much worse rusting than we have in the Willamette Valley, maybe 50 to 100 miles away.

Are the winds different?

Beachbumer

I live right across the street from the ocean. The Nitto rack I installed four weeks ago now has rust on the bracket that goes to the fork crown. It wasn't there on Monday. The spoke nipples on my November wheels are corroding and need a touch up with a SOS pad and some oil. My bikes are stored inside. One year after a new paint job, my motorcycle trailer looks like sh*t. It was stored outside uncovered. If everything is washed once a week and oiled there won't be a problem. I have been slaking on the maintenance due to a busy schedule.

_ForceD_

To me, and probably many more coastal New Englanders, this is a futile concern. I'm more concerned with the road salt used during winter storms that gets splashed all over the bike when the roads are wet, and blows like dust when it's dry. If the bike is sloppy after a winter ride I just douse it with a bucket or two of hot tap water, and leave it in the sun and dry air until it's dry.

Dan

John McBurney

Be very careful to avoid riding through standing water in costal areas. So called “blue sky flooding” is due to unusually high tides and is salty. It may have been raining but tides can run high at the same time with water pushed on shore by storm fronts.

if you do encounter unavoidable standing water along the coast throughly rinse your bike as soon as you finish the ride, regrease bolts, clean and lube chain.

With rising sea levels the chance of this is increasing. I once foolishly rode through standing water in costal South Carolina. A hurricane had just cleared the area and there had been heavy rain and high winds. There was also a coastal flood warning due to a king tide. It essentially destroyed my drive train.

mschwett 

here in san francisco we have quite a few roads and mixed use paths that are very near sea level, and more and more frequently flood during king tides. i’ve stupidly ridden through these, not realizing what it was and not having an alternate route readily available. despite total immersion, everything was fine after a good rinse, including aluminum, steel, and carbon bits, and still is close to a year later.

there are also coastal roads with wind-driven sand, which does require regular cleaning or it just grinds the **** out of the drivetrain. very unpleasant.

to the OP, i would not even think twice about distances greater than a half mile or so from the ocean, but if i was within a vigorous stone’s throw of it for storage i’d take extra precautions with cleaning and protection.

Random11

My brother has a house on the beach. Corrosion issues are constant. He's replaced all exterior metal parts with stainless steel. The salt air is very hard on things like outdoor air conditioner units. If you keep your car in a garage, no problems. Keep your bike inside when you're not riding it. If you have to keep something metal outside, shelter it from direct sea breezes. For example, park your car so there's a building between the car and the ocean. Shelter your bike the same way if it has to be outside. My comments are about beachfront property, not Florida in general.

rsbob 

Not to mention incursions of ocean water inland during high tides and storms which will only get worse. I agree, carbon fiber is the answer.

zandoval 

In the 90s I graduated from UTMB in Galveston Texas. Anywhere on the island your in the salt. In my house we left the bulbs on and the closet doors open. Then again we did not have to use A/C as much as other Texans.

I used allot of WD40 on a regular basis. So much so I got a gallon can and a spray bottle for its use. I did not use it as a lubricant but rather as a protectant. My school commuter was a Peugeot UO-8 and was out side exposed to sea spray daily. Every few days I would just rinse the bike off with water, spray it down with WD40, and give it a wipe.

Note that I used 30wt oil on my chain and Marine Grease in other places.

Bill in VA

Cars I have seen in upstate NY and Pennsylvania are far, far worse than any I have seen among year-round residents of the Eastern Seaboard.

Moving out of PA to Virginia probably doubled or tripled the life of my vehicle by limiting exposure to road salt and potholes.. I have driven the beaches on Hatteras in my 25 year old 4WD pickup and as long as I did an undercarriage spray after the drive, no rust.

skidder

For comparison purposes: I also live in Southern California and am about 2.5 miles inland from the beach. No problems with corrosion on my steel-framed bike or my 3 aluminium-framed bicycles. I clean/relube the chains of two of them every month and wipe them down at the same time and have not seen any rust/corrosion issues. FWIW: My 16 y.o. car just started showing a few rust spots coming through the paint, but no corrosion on the underside/frame/suspension (I change my own motor oil so get to see the underside).

_ForceD_

You (the bike) will be OK in Florida as long as you’re near a hill. Oh wait…

Dan

rosefarts

My scooter in Bermuda broke in half due to rust. I got it used, but it was 8 years old when it failed.

The plastic fairings and constant life outside made it fare worse than a regularly cleaned and garaged bicycle.

I saw marine grade (316) stainless steel bolts get surface corrosion in less than 6 months.

Get a ti bike and as many carbon and ti parts as you can for it.

N2deep

I ride the South Texas Coast line daily and no issues. Proper maintenance and a quick spray with lube and a little wire brush removes almost all spots when they do appear... Nothing will protect your steel frame if you’re actually dipping it into the water, but staying on the beach or coastal roads will have minimal impact your equipment, riding gravel is more of an issue than the salt.

50PlusCycling

Salt air kills bikes. I used to be a bike mechanic in California and Florida, and often got in bikes which had irreparable damage. Carbon fiber bikes suffer as much as metal ones, seat posts becoming permanently bonded to seat tubes, or corroded fork and frame dropouts corroding and becoming un-bonded. Certain parts and components are more resistant than others. The solution is to keep your bike indoors in a climate-controlled place. A normal air conditioner removes the worst of the moisture and salt in the air.

downhillmaster

Damage becomes minimal exactly 2.7 miles from the coast. If you are unsure where that is, check with your realtor. They will know due to the huge increase in property values at that line

delbiker1 

There is a big difference in being in an oceanfront block and being a couple of miles away. There is a difference in buildings from being on the ocean side to being non ocean side. I worked for high rise weatherproofing, restoration company for 5 years. Most of the work was on oceanfront buildings. The ocean side had to be worked on much more than the non side, and the work was usually more extensive. Quite a bit of the work was being done through insurance companies.
I have lived within 5 miles of the beach for 46 years and have never had a serious issue with corrosion on my bikes. They have always been stored inside and maintenance kept up most of the time. There are frequently times that I am riding in mist coming off the ocean and bays, and also standing salt water from storms and high tides, that cannot be totally avoided. Again, proper maintenance post ride. With proper storage and care, no place is too close.

Steve B.

Ive lived within a half mile of salt water tidal inlets for 40 years, never had corrosion on any steel or aluminum bikes.

If I were buying, I'd be looking at the FEMA flood maps and stay out of areas inside a Cat 4 flood zone.

witherzombie.20

If your close enough that a strong gust could carry spray to where you are you are too close. Strong winds can carry ocean spray pretty far inland so you need to keep that in mind. Ocean water is extremely corrosive to your bike it'll put 1 year of wear and tear in 1 day. I learned that the hard way. I thought I could ride my bike along the beach and avoid the water, but no the next day my cogs were rusted. Also the sand gets in the chain and just grinds and grinds. The beach absolutely destroys your bike.

MikePFlyFish

Agreed. The salt residue on the roads switches between brine spray or dry salted dust all winter. Where I live roads usually aren't salt free until late April.

FWIW, I understand the concern regarding rust in a coastal environment but honestly I wouldn't let it influence my decision to move. Lots of other factors/reasons for or against, least of which would be what's going to happen to my bike(s).

Pratt

Salt can be a problem here, in Vermont!

MikePFlyFish

WD40 is a very good cleaner and protectant but a not so great of a lubricant. When I was growing up bike chains were wiped down with axle grease. As you can imagine, any roadside repairs were a messy endeavor.

rosefarts

I’ve been to the Oregon coast quite a bit, though I can’t claim to be an expert.

It seems like unless you are lucky, the wind is pretty strong. Anywhere from breezy to absolutely howling. It’s like that maybe 50-60 percent of the time. That’s a lot of salt air blowing around.

Edited the rest of my post because I just realized I’d posted the same thing in this thread last May.