Will salt & grime ruin a paint finish?

Will salt & grime ruin a paint finish? Will it do this on all types of frames? I ride my CF Soloist on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive and the path is sometimes wet and it's all salted. So salt and grime gets on my bike after a ride.

One thing for sure, after my OCR 1 got thoroughly dirty with snow I let it all melt off and I didn't dry and WD 40 my chain. Well, now my chain is all rusted and it sucks power. Maybe I'll sand and lube it to fix it.

I biked year round in Chicago for 13 winters. Ideally it is nice to have a "bad weather" bike to sort of sacrifice to the elements. Based on your previous posts, I know you have several bikes--the hard part would be picking which of your nice steeds to subject to that road salt.

My "bad weather" bike was a Vitus. The road salt/grime didn't hurt the frame too badly, although it did tarnish the anodizing a bit.

Someone with that many bikes clearly needs to own another!!

Specifically, I was thinking of a nice TI frame for the winter. Salt and slush it up then just hose it down and hang it to dry! (Of course, you still need to maintain the drivetrain.)

Try wiping off the salty grime with a damp cloth or just take it in the shower with you.

Obviously depends on what kind of grime you picked up from the road. It may be any combination of chemicals from acids to tar.

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Morphed Bianchi Camaleonte IV 2006, Ridley Damocles 2006, Garmin, Mac

Gee, I'm famous for having a lot of bikes? Well, when I went to Mission Bay bike shop I asked them who had the most bikes as a customer. They said they knew some rich guy with 54 bikes!

My bad weather commuter bike is a Pacific Mtn bike upgraded with XT, a Firex crank, and Rhynolites on XT hubs. Has a fender and 2 Jand panniers. Worth $1141.15 Top speed on this bike flats no wind 27.6 mph.

Main commuter bike Giant OCR 1 stock with Titan wheels and 2 Jandd panniers. $1156.90 Top speed flats no wind 29.8 mph.

Actually I've been lazy cleaning up after my bike rides and the salt and grime has been on my CF Soloist for days. At least the Campy chain does not corrode. I want to train mainly on my CF Soloist now because it's my only bike with an ergomo pro. My other 4 road bikes have Polars, and ergomo BBs are expensive!

I am curious, does carbon fiber even rust? Because it's not a metal, before they seal it, its like a fabric.

You failed to mention how much your CF Soloist cost.

With as much money as you spend on bikes, is it $25k US. I would think you could spend $2US and buy some towels and at least wipe down your bikes when you have ridden them in wet/snow/chemicals.

But that may be why you have $25K in bikes and at least one that does not work and your CF Soloist to soon to follow if you do not take care of it.