Is this Bad?
 

I turned my bike upside down to take off the rear wheel and noticed this on the front wheel. Is this necessarily a bad thing?

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/564/bikesuits001.jpg

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/6...kesuits002.jpg

It would help if we knew what you were worried about.

- Mark

yes, something is wrong.
that's the front wheel, not the back.

That kind of answers my question. :D

I don't know how the fork is assembled, and how it should look. The other side of the fork looks less rusted, the side pictured kind of looks like... a little more ready to fail... Again, I don't know how it's put together...

If it was the back wheel it would look even MORE wrong because it's off the bike. Then it would be like a ghost of the entirely wrong wheel. On the front.

:thumb:

I'd do something about it now so it won't become something to worry about.

I think its the rust you're seeing right. Could be that the brazing to the drop out didn't fill/seal the weld area. Water then can seep in or drain out that hole if entering through the stem area. I doubt you'll have a catastophic fork failure over this, but you might want to shoot some WD -40 in there to arest some of the corrosion

Well, one thing is seriously wrong, that's for sure - the fork is upside down.

That looks like an unusual spoke lacing pattern.

Don't worry, even if the dropout corrodes & breaks loose from the fork, those "lawyer clips" should still hold everything in place! Don

Doesn't Schwinn still have a lifetime frame guarantee in effect?:),,,,BD

THAT'S what I was wondering about- Are the ends of the fork welded on and then brazed over it- or just brazed and one bump away from failure. So what I'm seeing is primarily cosmetic- with continued rust being the only real problem...

Thank you very much!! I'll get that guy cleaned up (hopefully) tonite!

Your headbadge says 'Schwinn Quality'. Dont worry about it.

I would take the axle clip screw out, and spray the WD-40, or maybe even LPS-3, into the fork blades through there.,,,,BD

Actually it says Schwinn High Sierra. But I think at that point in time it still meant the same thing. I think. I hope.

Thank you very much!!! scrub off the rust with a toothbrush?

or brass wool or a brass bristle toothbrush (they do make those)..brass is better than steel wool on chrome because it's softer metal.

After you clean it up some chrome polish will help protect it.
It looks fine as it is... not like its about to fail or anything.

wire brush it and apply some Rustoleum paint...not to worry...steel rusts but the weld is probably alright.