Hurricane Sandy Bicycle
 

Any suggestions on how to proceed with a bicycle that was exposed to Hurricane Sandy flood waters? The bike in question is my beloved Schwinn World Sport fixed gear and the bike is now rusty and stiff. I'm willing to replace the components and start fresh with the frame, but it sounds like there is a gritty noise coming when you turn the bars or if you move the crank. I'm worried I may have scored the frame. What should I do? What should I look for? Should I give up now and chuck the bike?

This is what she looked like when I bought her in Astoria, Queens. Spray painted frame with a huge scratch.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A...0/IMG_0390.JPG

And then had a local car restorer buddy of mine (http://www.rpmrestoandcustom.com/) powdercoat the frame. I eventually switched back to the flat handlebar.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-U...118_125010.jpg

Any help is appreciated. I need to know whether it's time to give my bike a final farewell.

Regards,
Jacob

You can repack or replace all those grindy bearings. The bike will run as good as new.
Here's how. http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help
(look up instructions on Bottom bracket overhaul, headset overhaul, and hub overhaul)

Like by buddy , who used the bow rail as a bike rack on his live-aboard sailboat in the marina..
once he took off the wetsuit after retrieving it off the bottom..

everything was removed; and reinstalled if good, or replaced if not.

but if that thing was powdercoated since... what was the Question , again?

Thanks. I'll take the opportunity to replace those wheels, but I had no idea what to do about the bottom bracket and headset. That link is great. Thanks man!
Frame and fork were powder coated just before the storm. Good to see someone else has had a similar situation and brought their bike back to life.

The bike is *far* from 'dead' - you just need to strip/examine/regrease/reassemble all the bearings, and check the condition of the bottom bracket if it's a cartridge unit (check for grumbling, sounding as if the grease is washed out etc.) and it should be good to go. :thumb:

Don't necessarily trash those wheels - treat yourself and your bike to some new ones, by all means, but if the cups and rims have some life still left in them, then fix them up and maybe keep them as a spare set. ;)

Thanks, Continuity. I'll look into that, as I'm not familiar with what cups are on a wheel. I need to find something to get rid of the rust on the bolts, too.

Surface rust can be taken off with 0000 Steel Wool for chrome, up to 00 for steel. All bearing surfaces should be taken apart, cleaned thoroughly, and overhauled with fresh grease. The Park Tool website is a great reference, and there are many more. If you don't understand something in the Park's guide, do a search on some of the terms here and you'll see other methods and techniques recommended.

While you've got everything apart, clean all the bearing cups with 0000 steel wool (the "cup" is the inside part of the cup and cone bearings that your wheels and most of the rest of the bike use), and then if you really want to get serious, spray Frame Saver (http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/3778) up into the frame while the headset and bottom bracket are out, to prevent future internal corrosion.

Reassemble with fresh grease, and marvel in your better than new bike! The one thing you DON'T want to do is go riding before you've done this - the rust can all be cured, but if you let it grind up your bearings, then you could damage them permanently.

Surely you'd have had to disassemble the BB and headset when you had the frame powder coated? Or did you get a shop to do it?

Also, when you've got everything off the frame, it might not be a bad idea to flush the frame tubes out with fresh water to remove the salt. Moisture and condensation will always get inside a frame somehow, the last thing you want is to be helping them corrode your frame by leaving salt in there to speed up the process.

Just make sure you get all the water out again afterwards.

Thanks guys. The bottom bracket was not removed, unfortunately. The headset was, though. I'll have to inspect everything when it's apart. I won't bother trying to salvage the bottom bracket at this point. I really have my work cut out for me with this one.

If the bottom bracket is an old cup'n'cone one, then if you want to completely modernise it at the same time as checking it you can just replace it with a modern cartridge unit like the Shimano UN-XX series (I also think the Tange Seiki square taper BBs look pretty good :thumb:) - you can pick them up for reasonable money, like £15 ($20) or so. ;)
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=311505

In addition to flushing out the frame, you might want to treat it with Framesaver while you have it apart.

^or any other spray rust inhibitor your local hardware or auto supply carries.

OA bath might be in order as well.

Thanks guys. I really appreciate all the advice. I have some work on my road bike to do this weekend, but hopefully I'll at least get around to trying to remove the headset and/or bottom bracket.

As an update, the seat post and stem just won't come off. They are rusted stiff. I've doused it in pb blaster and am hoping for the best.

I have rebuilt two UO-8s that had been sitting under a porch for many years in Galveston - Even with all the rust and pitting after cleaning and paint they both offer a more than decent ride - I was very surprised that internally the frame remained sound...

I must admit - It was a real bugger getting some of the components off and I say the frames were sound because I did not twist them to destruction getting the seat posts out (and I very well could have)...

If the stem and seat post are aluminum PB Blaster probably won't do a thing. You could try soaking them in ammonia. See the sheldon brown stuck seatpost page here: http://sheldonbrown.com/stuck-seatposts.html