The metal hardware on my RELoad bag is starting to rust. This must have been a problem for someone else here. How do you guys prevent this?

by buying a superior bailey's in the first place.

reload > bailey

no rust issues with mine, but its only around 4 months old.

Yeah, mine is maybe a little older, but I don't think it should be rusting in any case. Have you ridden with yours in a decent rain yet?

Weird. I've ridden with my ReLoad all the rainy winter and spring (and summer grrrrr) with no rust concerns. I'd call or email the ReLoaders. Maybe they can replace the parts for free.

now that you mention it, my reload's buckle is rusty on the inside. i might just pull the strap off, sand the rust down and apply primer/etc. to it. might also be a good time to try out those vinegar solutions. baggy's feeling not so fresh, and has a stink.

i've had mine for a little over a year, and ride with it all the time. i only missed a couple of days in the winter.

Funny, my BW buckles have some rust on 'em. Maybe it's a fake Bailey.

I used to get rust on my the buckles of my old Karrimor hiking daypack. It was given to me from my uncle when I was about 7 so I've had it for about 20 years. What I tend to do is use fine sandpaper to get the rust off and then either apply some wax or a light dab of oil. I tried different things over the years which all seemed to work but maintenance is needed. For a while I taped the buckles with clear scotch tape which helped but wears out with frequent use.

my reload has no metal.

no metal? what are the strap buckles made out of?

anyhow, it would seem to me that any metal buckle is going to be subject to rusting (or some other sort of oxidation) over time, especially when the surface has been scratched, etc. it is just the way things go.

to prevent, try to keep your buckles dry (obviously). you can ride with it in garbage-ass weather all you want, but wipe water off so that the buckles aren't sitting around covered in water for a long time. also, if you store the bag in a particularly humid place for some reason, that'll speed up the process. pretty common sense, eh?

they are made of plastic, it is the huge backpack model

The buckles on the bags mentioned, classical style messenger bags Baileys RELoads etc are Stainless Steel or Nickel-Plated Stainless Steel. They'll start to rust & show corrosion w/in a year if used in the manner intended by the makers. You can slow it down or not, up to you. Usually it appears on the inner parts of the cinch buckle first and only shows up on the outer if scratched or dinged. Do nothing and maybe it won't look so hot & shiny. Used as they're intended the bag isn't going to stay new looking anyway. I have to remind my boss/designer of that all the time. She'll see a 2 year old bag on the back of a messer and it'll be dirty and scraped up and it shocks her because they all look so beautiful and shiny when she makes them that she thinks something must be wrong with that dirty beat to hell bag. But it's working fine, just not new & shiny anymore. They look good used too.

Back on topic, it won't hurt these cinch buckles, that rust & corrosion you see. They still have a decade at the minimum left in them unless you pee on it and leave it that way each day for the first 5 years of that decade. For instance I'm holding a 95' Zo bag given to me today for a new upper strap. The buckle shows wear and corrosion but it works fine and I wasn't asked to replace it so I'm not gonna. It's not as pretty as it was 10 or even 5 years ago but it -won't- fail. They are teh tough, unless it get caught in a vice and mangled or something you should never need to replace it.

all the clips and buckles on my BagJack are plastic, so no rust there, but the metal parts on my 4 year old r.e.load have a bit of rust on them... r.e.load will replace the main strap and all associated buckles/rings for free. ask 'em.