I've had my Surly LHT for 3 weeks now, the other day I noticed that one of the pedals (A520) had a fair amount of rust on it, and upon further inspection I noticed that I had small spots of rust on other parts of my bike, including the large chainring and the heads of some of the screws.

Now first off I must say that I live in southern california, fairly close to the ocean, and I've been leaving my bike outside. Second, we did have a few days of rain last week, but otherwise it's been fairly dry.

I realize I should have had the bike indoors or at least covered, but otherwise, is rusting like this normal? I mean otherwise I was under the impression that these bikes were built with the fact that they will be ridden through extreme conditions in mind.

I took it to my LBS and they said it appears to be only superficial and not serious, and that I could just buff it out with some steel wool.

Rust is a natural, trying to stop is it like trying to hold back the tides.

Decay in general is natural, but premature decay is something to be concerned about and decay in general can be delayed to a great degree. My question is whether my case is an outlier.

I think you may be confusing surface discoloration with actual deterioration. Discoloration can occur within days. Deterioration occurs over time due to neglect. The "orange" on the chain can merely be wiped off. Just use a good chain lubricant, and keep it maintained. Same with your clipless.
Not sure I agree with the steel wool idea.

They are intended for use in all kinds of conditions, but they are also meant to be cared for. Like horses, you don't ride them hard and put them away wet.

Try not to let water stand on it overnight and keep a bit of oil or grease on all the steel bits. There are some bolts and other nubbins that will show some surface rust, that's only avoided by using stainless or titanium hardware. Some things we live with until it's time to upgrade something.

The 3M Scotchbrite pads are much better than steel wool for removing rust.

The C&V guys probably know their rust best, but I've heard that steel wool makes for a rough surface, which is bad for some reason or other.

If a bike isn't being ridden it should be kept inside and dry. Since you left your bike out in the rain and you keep it outside, I would have been very surprised if it didn't have rust on it.

Rust is a chemical reaction (between oxygen and iron I think?). Thus if you have exposed metal and water you will get rust quickly.


A couple weeks ago my surly long haul trucker chain got an orangish color (looked like it had rusted) from a full day of riding in the rain. However, using some chain lube it wiped off. So I presume it wasn't rust at all. I'm no expert tho...

Much better than steel wool, but I would avoid them too. They are still abrasive.

The slight amount of rust you have can probably be removed with some oil or WD40 and a rag. If you ever need to remove rust that is worse than that a gel containing oxalic acid is a good rust remover and dissolves the rust. It is available under different names from any place that sells automotive stuff. That is almost certainly overkill in this case though. OTOH if you have an old bike with deep rust this stuff works wonders.

I would leave the rust and just oil it before I would use an abrasive even a mild one like scotchbrite pads. That just does more damage. The strongest abrasive I would ever consider would be rubbing compound used to buff car paint.

Smear a little wax or grease over exposed metal (except braking surfaces!!) to stop further corrosion.
Rust on the exposed pedal spindle is fairly common and harmless.
Grease can pick up dirt so I prefer car-wax.

I used to live by the sea and ride the seafront every night, even during storms. The steel-framed bike was exposed to a lot of spray as well as rain and never came indoors for 2 years.