I've had my Surly LHT for 3 weeks now, the other day I noticed that one of the pedals (A520) had a fair amount of rust on it, and upon further inspection I noticed that I had small spots of rust on other parts of my bike, including the large chainring and the heads of some of the screws.

Now first off I must say that I live in southern california, fairly close to the ocean, and I've been leaving my bike outside. Second, we did have a few days of rain last week, but otherwise it's been fairly dry.

I realize I should have had the bike indoors or at least covered, but otherwise, is rusting like this normal? I mean otherwise I was under the impression that these bikes were built with the fact that they will be ridden through extreme conditions in mind.

I took it to my LBS and they said it appears to be only superficial and not serious, and that I could just buff it out with some steel wool.