Corrosion

Washing your bike down can cause it's own problems

"The only time a motorbike is totally free of corrosion and the cause of corrosion, 'moisture', is on the production line ." Not my words but a representative of a bike manufacturer, whose name I won't mention, but it begins with an 'S' and it was during a conversation about my Bandit. The minute the bike hits the road, moisture in one form or another gets at it and the process begins. Some are better at resisting it than others, but in the end it gets them all.

Strip the bike down and here's what you might see

If rust is showing it generally indicates that the protective paint or lacquer layer has been broken through. It's the underlying metal thats producing the rust. Rust spreads rapidly, either along the surface or worse, underneath the paint. The original exposed metal might only be a tiny pit or fissure, but left untreated it will spread.

Galvanic corrosion, when two different metals are used together can get expensive, real quickly. Basically your metal bits are being dissolved away. Sometimes seen as 'furring' as the surface metal turns to powder, in really good cases the metals can fuse together.

Rubber and plastics will deteriorate over time. The most common cause is UV exposure and stress, not the type you and I experience when the gas bill arrives, but repeated flexing and contracting. Rubber seals, grommets etc become hardened and cracked, plastic also becomes brittle, can crack and looses it's colour. Exposure to corrosives like salt water, petrol, oil and even some cleaning products can accelerate the process. Consider that these rubber and plastic components are there to either house something or, as with rubber grommets, seal something off, when they fail it can be the bits their sheilding that pay the price.

The trouble is, a bike is far more exposed to the elements than a car. The road crud you wash off is only what you can see , the rest is nestling away in areas of the bike you can't see and can't reach without a serious strip down. Even the act of washing it will produce a mist of water that settles in these areas and, depending on the conditions and how efficiently you dry the bike, can linger there long enough to become a problem.

Short and long term storage is one way of keeping your bike away from the damage of winter conditions and road salts. But even this has to done correctly to avoid corrosion ravaging the bike while it sits there. The bike must be completly dry before going under cover. Even then, if being stood near a road, airborne moisture containing contaminates can be blown onto it; if stored in a garage condensation can work it's way in.

ROAD SALT is just one of the causes of corrosion.

Moisture from whatever source, in combination with traffic fumes emitting Nitrogen and Sulphur Dioxide, form corrosive byproducts that will attack metals and painted surfaces. Most councils now use an adhesion additive in the road salt to help it remain longer on the road surface. The problem is, this actually makes the salt stick to the bike frame and components and in many cases simple rinsing won't remove it. Hidden away in the nooks and crevices of the bike this salt attracts moisture to form a corrosive mix that literally eats through paintwork and attacks any exposed metal surface and electrical connections.

Surprisingly research shows that winter is not the worse time for road salt corrosion. The arrival of Spring brings warmer air temperatures and higher humidity levels, these two factors allow salt residue trapped in the hidden areas of the bike to be activated producing a more corrosive action.

Electrical connector are easily prone to corrosion

Electrical components and connections can suffer badly from even the lightest corrosion and faults can be notoriously difficult to trace. Poor conductivity, overheating of connectors, current bridging and sticking switchs / relays impact on the proper running of the bike. Because the majority of electrical components and wiring are out of sight, the first indication of a problem is usually when something doesn't work.

The key to success for both storage and riding is to provide a barrier between your bike and any moisture present. If you miss any areas then corrosion can form on the untreated section and spread.

Application of ACF-50 by high pressure misting is so effective in combating corrosion because the fine particle mist produced, together with the 'creep' action, deep penetrates and coats every area of the bike, neutralising and killing exisiting corrosion. The thin film coating stays fluid, even getting down into bolt threads, to actively seek and drive out moisture. Being non water soluble and designed to polar bond to surfaces makes it resistant to washing off, providing a long term effective barrier against future corrosion.