Transport bike in the rain

[Cassie]

Shameless hijack!! and proud of it.....Satan...i mean Slowbee made me do it!!

[Skylark]

All I can say on this issue is ride on a motorbike at a 100km in the rain with no visor or goggles and come tell me about how the water felt on your face and any exposed skin on your body.

I can say for an undisputed fact the bike on the roof will have water drops flying into it at a very high velocity , I really wouldn't be surprised if some got in where it shouldn't be , places that with normal wet riding water wouldn't be able to get .

Actually I would be surprised if water didn't get into those places you really wouldn't want it to . Any bearing that or spots that will have water naturally forced towards them by there angle/location they are relative to the rain drops hitting will get water contamination.

[TNT1]

Bicycles have seals?

 

Not mine. I'm in a club. I mean I used a club.

[Cassie]

More seriously, i think it's not about the speed (i.e 100km/h or whatever) that the raindrops hit the bike...for this to be of any concern...the spesific raindrop had to hit the "seal" of place of entry at PRECICE the corrcet angle etc to penetrate and ruin the bearings/ headset....

 

rather think of it as a thin foilm a water being pushed with a head-on pressure of equivalent to 100km/h force into any small opening etc.

 

Realistically though - cover with clingwrap and problem solved....

your bike will not melt in the rain and for water to get in somewhere - it needs to displace something like the grease in the bearing...very unlikely in my opinion...

[Falco]

This has got to be the most boring subject ever. We get it ~ water causes damage ~ big deal. A bicycle is not designed to be waterproof.

Oil and grease are short term consumables, change them regularly.

Bearings in headsets, bb's and hubs are medium term consumables, change them occasionally.

Frames, handle bars, groupsets, saddles are long term consumables, change them when necessary.

Further than that, ride the thing anywhere you want, transport it any way you want, and be prepared to shell out for the consumables mentioned above.

It's not rocket science.

[Slowbee]

Shameless hijack!! and proud of it.....Satan...i mean Slowbee made me do it!!

 

:ph34r:

 

We can sort a lift out no worries !

 

I'll just leave without you so you can have a nice long training ride home

[Wyatt Earp]

Ok, so lets look at this: you are not an engineer,

Please enlighten me, who in this thread is an engineer, and bulshitters don't count.

[Nickzta]

The assumption seems to be that all bikes are created equal and that all thus have the same bearings. The other assumption seems to be that it is only bearings under threat. There is more to it.

 

Two important truths about rotational seal design are:

 

1) A single seal cannot separate two liquids and paradoxically;

2) A seal that doesn't leak, leaks.

 

Point one. If you have two liquids - water and grease/oil, you cannot protect the bearing with a single seal. Good hubs thus have a contact seal as the inner seal and a labyrinth (non-contact) seal as the outer seal. A labyrinth seal can be visualised by holding your hands in front of you whilst making two Cs with your fingers. The right one will be a mirror image of the left and reversed. Now lower your right hand until the two Cs intersect and bring it closer together. The cavity between them will be S-Shaped. Now rotate the two against each other and you have a visual representation of a labyrinth seal. It does't make contact and is only splash-proof, not submersible.

 

The second seal is a contact seal or wiper seal. It has to follow law number two.

 

Point two: If a rubber seal is not lubricated, it will burn away and no longer seal. Its lubrication comes from the inside and is the same grease that greases the bearings. It is designed to slowly leak out so that the seal is lubricated. The grease inside the bearing is thus a consumable and once there isnt enough left in there to leak out, the seal burns and stops making contact and stops working and hence stops burning. By burn I mean rub away like an pencil eraser rubber on a table. The fact that the seal leaks is evident from bearings. You'll see after use that the bearing pushes out a little bit of grease.

 

Now, since the seal actually leaks (so that grease can come out) it also allows water to come in. Water in contact with such a seal whilst it rotates, can get in.

 

All good hubs are protected by these two seals. Most people erroneously refer to the labyrinth seal as a dust cap, which it isn't.

 

 

Some components, like the right hand side of some Shimano rear hubs, are only protected by a labyrinth seal and water is easily forced into these hubs. Many headsets only have a labyrinth seal at the top and nothing at the bottom. That's because water usually drips onto the bike from the top. (They seem to have forgotted about the stream of water shot up by the wheel, but that's another story).

 

Some hubs, like DT Swiss and Mavic, are very poorly designed an either side and have no labyrinth seal protecting the bearing. Water is easily blown into these hubs. Hope hubs juse a combination of O -rings in addition to the cartridge bearing's own seal. However, between the freewheel body and hub itself, is a plastic ring that doesn't make contact and acts as a sort-of labyrinth seal. Not submersible and will certainly leak if sprayed.

 

Modern external cup BBs are also poorly sealed. The plastic press-fit spacer is a disfunctional labyrinth seal. BBs in BB shells without drainage holes are particularly vulnerable from water entering from the seatpost and eating at the bearings from the inside out.

 

Cable ends are not sealed against water at all. Even a light spray easily penetrates cable housing and ruins the cable a few weeks down the line when it starts to oxidise and become tardy in moving around. Most mountain bikes ship with exposed cable runs and it is easy to see what water does to this. We have discussed this here often and it is not difficult to see that an, even gentle spray of water, will do to these cables.

 

Pedals, especially slightly worn Shimano and Crank Bros pedals have very delicale contact seals at the inner end of the axles. Once these are worn, water is easily blown in there and trapped against the small little bearing that quickly rots.

 

Lots has been said about how tough seals are. Well, they're not. If you inspect them you'll see that the rubbing end is a thin, tapered lip that is easily flapped around by a bit of compressed air or water jet. However, this is not the big issue. Once they are slightly worn and no longer making contact, water will penetrate very easily. Although a bearing with a worn seal is not completely destroyed yet, water in there will just cut its life short.

 

Sprayed water also carries contaminents with it. Shifters - mountain or road, have open designs. All that protects it is an unsealed cap. Grit and muddy water from road spray easily penetrates these and impairs function over the long run.

 

I remain convinced that a long ride on the roof of a car is not good for the bike.

 

 

 

I'm with you on this! Good job!

[Nickzta]

Well maybe that's why they invented these extended glass windscreens/glass roofs for cars. Then at least you can see whether your bike is actually still attached to the roof rack.

 

Hahah!!

[Tieffels]

Please enlighten me, who in this thread is an engineer, and bulshitters don't count.

 

I are..

[Active Monkey]

Funny thing is most people who are very opinionated online are not so face to face...

[Face Plant]

i is 2

[TNT1]

Funny thing is most people who are very opinionated online are not so face to face...

 

Nah. I'm the same in real life. Ping weedmod. Actually, weedmod reckons I'm worse. But his friends reckon I'm pretty.

[TNT1]

Please enlighten me, who in this thread is an engineer, and bulshitters don't count.

 

Oh Great and Sainted Leader, you don't really expect an answer, do you?

[TNT1]

Cars and motorbikes are specifically designed to go at 100km/h+ speeds and all parts that could get water damaged you'll find are protected by farings and complex seals. Bicycles are not designed to have contaminant filled water blasted at their bearings and seals. Look at the difference between motorbike and bicycle design next time.

 

Why do they tell you not to use a pressure washer on your motorbike then? Yet you can ride it at over 100km/h in the rain?

[dracs]

Why do they tell you not to use a pressure washer on your motorbike then? Yet you can ride it at over 100km/h in the rain?

hmmm... maybe since most people ride their motorbikes pretty much exclusively in a forward direction, whereas most of those who use pressure cleaners to clean their motorbikes don't do so exclusively from the front....

 

Seems to me with what we spend on bikes a little cling wrap and plastic here and there will not go amiss (just in case)... cellular coefficient of water viscosity to the cube of speed divided by the angle of inflection inverted and quadrupled notwithstanding!

Edited December 9, 2011 by dracs