I have a steel bike I keep locked outside in the city to ride from train to office. It has a good bit of surface rust but I don't mind aesthetically. Should I be concerned about it eating through the frame and if so, how can I slow the rust with the least effort?

thanks!

It would take many, many years to rust to the point that the rust is a structural concern. FWIW, if this is a bike that you lock outside in the city regularly, a rusty frame can encourage potential thieves to pass it by for more lucrative pickings.

yeah, I figured the rust helps make it unpopular with thieves. and I dont care how it looks, just dont want the downtube to fail soon if there is an easy way to prevent it.

you can tear the whole bike down and coat the inside of the tubes with 'framesaver', sloshing it around in the frame tubes to get full coverage

But I suspect you would not consider the tear down, framesaver coating, overhaul, and re assembly ''Easy"..

2 questions about the framesaver:
-if I remove the seat post an pour/slosh something down it, would it get to the other tubes or just seat tube?
-does framesaver fight rust on the outside?

To do it "right", you need to open up as much of the bike as possible to get access to all of the major tubes.

It does nothing for rust on the outside. Many also argue that it doesn't make much difference on the inside either ( Because, again, realistically, it takes many years for structural problems to show up ), unless you're in the habit of riding regularly through salt water.

You would have to fill it up entirely.to get all inner surfaces covered .

IDK about you, to turn a whole bike upside down and rotated every which way takes a stronger person than I,

there are usually holes in the top of the head and seat tube to access the inside of the top tube ,

the BB shell to downtube connection is open at the bottom , and another hole in the lower end of the head tube.

some small vent holes are often there to let air out as it is heated in welding.brazing.

No that is why it's painted .

WD(Water Displacement)-40 will protect against rust. I have a frame that has been stripped of paint for over 6 months that was sprayed with WD-40 and has no surface rust. I would stop the rust by coating it with WD-40, or at least slow it down.
Keep in mind that if it is a CrMo frame, the steel is somewhat resistant to rust anyway, unlike those with much lower or no Cr in the metallurgy.

I would get a green Scotch Brite pad and scrub the bit of rust off and put some PB Blaster on the rusted areas. It's pretty much frame saver, but much much cheaper.

I coated PB Blaster on a bare 1950s Schwinn cruiser and let it sit in the sun for a while so it wouldn't leave a residue like WD40 or boiled linseed oil. When I left it in the rain, no rust spots. I usually rewipe it down with PB Blaster once or twice a month.

the pb blaster idea is good except for the sanding of the rust. there is a lot of surface rust. terrible factory paint job on early 80s Sekai. also, doesnt your bike end up smelling pretty strong of the pb blaster?

It is not cro mo, tange double butted hi-ten. super fancy

I appreciate all the suggestions and info so far. Ideally there would be some sort of clearcoat rust converter/inhibitor that I could give the spots a once over with. but seems most rust converters are black

go over the rusty bits with a wire brush
then use rust paint from the hardware store

This is the one thing WD40 is useful for. I use it to coat my bike and gun parts.

Protip: Buy a gallon jug of WD40 and a $2 spray bottle from WalMart. This is waaaaaaaay cheaper than buying the pressurized spray cans.

I rode this for the summer and all I did was make sure the frame was covered by checking every couple of weeks. It also allowed me to work on portions of the frame at a time.


Finally hit it with primer last weekend. This is next: