To Do Frame Saver or Not to Do?
 

Yes, despite all the unpleasantness of haggling and dealing with that iacky substance, money., I have just gotten a new bike,
a steel one and someone somewhere advised on using frame saver on the inside tubing. I will be in thru the rain possibly a bit,
not on purpose but its quite possible I could get stuck in a down pour in ireland or Scotland or wherever. Obviously, it's new, but...

I'm a little nervous about having the shop take apart my beautiful new bike and then re-assemble it when they got it mostly together to begin with (yeah, I know they build custom bikes and stuff). Will they get it back together all right, sound like it was before? I don't know enough abt bikes & repair stuff to do it myself.

And---* what do you think? Should I do the Frame Saver?
(It's a MTB but mainly will be on road and thru very bad streets & paths in foreign countries).

THANKS!!

I have stripped bikes, put them back together, moved components from one bike to another, built bikes, etc., and I am just a neophyte. I assure you the shop should be able to take care of your new toy just fine. They might even get it in better adjustment. They don't really have to take off anything critical to spray in the frame saver. Hmm, come to think of it, I need to do my two steel frames. Has anyone used Frame Saver? Good stuff?
Thanks,
Raymond

Do not worry about your bike being disassembled (headset, bottom bracket, and seat post) and reassembled by a competent shop. Since I have heard of steel frames rusting from the inside out, framesaver makes sense to me, although I have not used it personally (perhaps I should!).

If you are so proud of your machine, then by all means use frame saver (I assume you are referring to an internal coating to protect the frame from rust).

Your frame will get wet inside from condensation if not from rain and water splash.

You can do it yourself if you like. You can get auto body coat in a can and spray it inside your frame. You would have to take the fork off to get at the head tube and access the top tube and down tube entrances.

I would go the extra length to keep the frame-saver coating out of my bottom bracket; don't want it to mix with the BB grease.

If that makes you nervous, have your LBS do it. It isn't a big deal.

Do the Frame saver!!!, especially if you live in a humid or salt air climate. It's a very, very good Idea. If I ever "get off the pot" I'm going to coat ALL of my frames!!!! I'm not sure I'm going to use the same suff, there's lots of ways to do it.
Don't worry about getting it in your Bottom Bracket Shell and "mixing with the grease", the stuff dries pretty hard and almost all BBs have plastic sleeves to keep junk out, ( if yours doesn't have a sleeve you can get one), and the new ones are "sealed". Actually, having a layer of "saver" in you BB shell is important.

"Steel is Real"

Ride Ferrous
Pat

For my BB shell I coated it with super-thick waterproof grease. I pulled my BB apart the other day to check for rust and......no rust!!!
Wouldn't spraying WD-40 into the tube prevent rusting? One time I was repainting a bike and to keep it from rusting over night I coated it with WD-40. It was a pain to clean up the next day, but it worked.

With a Shimano style cartridge bottom bracket, it makes no difference what is coating the BB shell. Only with exposed bearing systems is that a worry, and not a big one.

In a lugged frame, the BB is open to the main tubes, so condensation drips down and collects there. My frame has a drainage hole to remove this.
Modern welded frames often have a tubular BB shell. Where does the condensation which forms in the tubes, end up ?

I use WD40 inside the frames, and left my bike outdoors by the sea for 2 years. There is no internal rust.

What is WD40??
I am going to do a quickie web search thatshould tell me.
Maybe it is better than this frame saver stuff, and I can ask my
LBS to use this, I think I'll go w/the coating to be on the safe side. I'm going to be in rainy regions so....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORIGINALLY QUOTED BY MICHAELW:

I use WD40 inside the frames, and left my bike outdoors by the sea for 2 years. There is no internal rust.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WoW!



Gratzi for the oodles of suggestions :)
Emma

WD40 is a 'freeing agent' and water displacer, available from many hardware and general stores. Some people consider it a light lubricant, but this is... how show we put it... a contentious issue.

Richard

Come on Richard, say what you mean.

WD 40 is a degreaser and water repellant and should not be used as a lubricant.

Could be used to protect a frame but not on bearings etc.

WD-40 is a can of spray-on water displacer and rust preventer. Most workshops have a can, so people are always finding new uses for it.

Framesaver is a wax specially designed for the purpose and will last a lot longer. Use Framesaver.

Some people use WD-40 on chains, but its too light an oil for the job. Use a proper chain lube. It doesnt really matter which chain lube you use, but you must have one. Some lubes are clean and dry, some are waxy, some are oily, some resist rain better than others. Ive tried a lot and dont have a favourite. On tours, when Ive run out, I'll resort to engine oil from dicarded cans; very messy but it does the job.

My old Bianchi already had a light coating of rust inside when I got it. Can I just spray in Frame Saver over it?

Thank you everyone :)
Interesting stuff, WD40. Just did a web search and my mom would flip out over the miracle qualities of this stuff.

Also phoned the bike shop and talked to the nice guy (he is a nice guy and competent) who helped me last time, and am
going with the frame saver!! I hope they do a !good! job cause
I really like my bike!!!!

Oh, and for Raymond/Rainman P--when the guy first explained to me about Frame Saver I do remember him telling me that people (many with older model bikes), some without rust yet but that are approaching and some that do have rust come in for the Frame Saver spray- and that it helps a lot to stop things from rusting further.

:) Emma

Can you spray WD-40 into the inside of your frames without disassembling the bb and the headset?

Wow, 20 year old thread resurrection.

When I purchased my steel Marinoni about 20 years ago, I wanted to spray inside of the tubes, only to find that the tubes were sealed.

So I wonder did the bike outlive the OP?

I'm 57. I wasn't even 40 when this thread was started.

The fact that Framesaver is still being sold 20 years later tells me that either they're really good at marketing the stuff or it actually works.

I used to framesave my steel bikes, but then I stopped storing them at the bottom of a pool and havent needed framesaver since.

The need for FrameSaver is a lie perpetrated by Big Gravel.

I only put generic Framesaver-like stuff in my bike 10 years ago, so no data to contribute yet. Someone resurrect this thread in another 10 years?

Perhaps, by going in through other openings that some frames have (like holes for internal cable routing, the drain hole present in many bottom bracket shells, and of course the top of the seat tube).

But WD-40 is not a very effective corrosion preventive substance. It is excellent at displacing water, okay as a penetrant, fair as a lubricant, and perhaps better than nothing for long-term protection.

When I was assembling my bike a few years ago (a new steel frame), I recognized the easy opportunity to treat the frame. Since I bought a bare frame and built it up myself at home, there was really no excuse to skip this step. I did not buy frame saver, but just used linseed oil.

I don't know how much of a problem I've prevented--in other words, how much rust might be accumulating in an untreated frame. But I get peace of mind when I go out riding in the rain or especially on salty winter roads.

Linseed oil is not expensive, it's widely available, and it's easy to apply. As for its suitability, ever since airplanes were invented, it's what we use to protect their steel tubular structures internally. It's actually specified by the FAA for this use. So, seems good enough for a bicycle.

whoa

Must apply some Thread Saver. :innocent: