MetroMPG's "Pirate Bike"

[Grant-53]

A cheap narrow snow brush helps keep the cogs clean. Bar and chain 30w oil sticks to parts. For keeping the salt at bay on metal parts I have used a marine grade clear coat from CRC. The internal gear bikes held up well year round. I use a heavy cable and a U type lock. I look for spots out of sight to park a bike.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by BarelyAWake

Road salt is bad enough - but a devil's brew of that & calcium chloride mixed is...



That isn't something dredged up from the deep, that's just from three years of all-winter use, then just sitting for a couple of months... indoors actually, as all my bikes & bits are stored

That's what mine looks like after last winter... and it was such a mild winter that the street and hwy depts only used a tiny fraction of the road salt they usually do.

I'm in the middle of trying to fix that bike up; I see that the rear sprocket is MISSING 3 1/2 teeth! WTH? Never had that happen before.

[MetroMPG]

Just coming back to update this thread. WITH MORE DRAMA!

Good news: I retired the afore-pictured green Norco pirate bike a couple of summers ago, replacing it with another bottom-of-the-line mountain bike that was being thrown away by a neighbour. So its lineage is as pure as the first one.

Bad news: It too was pilfered, a week ago. I looked for it at the scene of the previous crime (and along many more km of nearby bike paths & ditches) - sadly, no dice. I fear I may not recover this one, despite the fact the odds are very high it was only taken for a ride & dump. (It's otherwise worthless and ugly, not something you would profit from by stealing.)

That means I'm averaging ~5 years between thefts of my unlocked junk bike -- a bike that sits in full view of the sidewalk & road, year round. I think that's not a bad record, however it is a little inconvenient!