Enjoy The Outdoors Again With a Bicycle Cover or Motorcycle Storage Covers
Whether you’ve just bought a new mountain bike or a motorcycle, it’s a major financial investment that you want to protect. It’s important to ensure your bike parts are working properly, your bike is stored properly, and it’s protected from outdoor elements. You can protect either of your new bikes with a bicycle cover or motorcycle storage covers.
So what exactly do you have to protect your bike from? Rust or any form of corrosion can damage your bike, shorten its lifespan, and end up costing you more money on a replacement. Both bicycle and motorcycle sales took off during 2020 with more people wanting to spend time outside. With new bikes and new equipment also comes maintenance and upkeep. The best way to save on time and money with your new bikes is to protect them from rust and corrosion.
If you’re a seasoned rider or just getting into the swing of things, it’s important to know how rust can affect your specific bike and how to prevent it. Keep reading to learn more about if you need a bicycle cover or motorcycle storage covers.
Bicycle Care
Rust is a type of corrosion that is caused by iron and its alloys combining with oxygen and moisture. Other outdoor elements like salt or environmental factors accelerate the corrosion process. Your bike’s frame, wheel rims, and gears are the most susceptible to rust because they are made from steel, an iron alloy. Even though rust is technically the oxidation process of iron and iron alloys, corrosion can even affect metals like aluminum. While bikes are meant to be ridden outside, salt, rain, mud, and debris can build up on the exposed metal of your bike and prompt the breakdown of the metal.
Many newer bikes are coated in a special paint that works to protect the metal from exposure to environmental elements, but like anything, paint doesn’t last forever. Paint will flake and peel over time. Also, parts of your bike like chains and gears can’t be painted and therefore, can’t be protected by the special sealant. Rusting on your chains and gears will weaken your bike’s performance and eventually cause it to fail all together. If you’ve just spent a lot of money on your new bike, this is the last thing you want to happen. A bicycle cover will be able to help stop rust.
Proper Storage With a Fully Enclosed Bicycle Cover
Moisture is the main enemy of bikes, which means leaving your bike somewhere outside is never a good idea. The best place to keep your bike is in a shaded, climate-controlled environment. It’s not always possible for everyone to find an ideal space like this, and even if you do, you won’t be able to keep corrosion away forever. That’s what a bicycle cover is best for.
Typical tarps don’t protect your bike either. In fact, they can actually cause more damage. Once moisture finds its way under your tarp, the moisture instead becomes trapped by the tarp and increases the rust and corrosion process. A bicycle cover is ideal because it protects your bike from normal environmental factors as well as rust and corrosion. Practice cleaning and drying your bike regularly before you place a corrosion-resistant bike cover over your bike. Ideally, you should clean your bike once a month if you’re an active rider.
Motorcycle Care
If you’ve decided to upgrade your roadside cycling to a motorcycle, then you already know the importance of protecting your latest financial investments. Motorcycles have more parts, more gears, and more metal showing. Motorcycles are just as prone to tarnish and corrosion, and there are more pieces on the bike that can be affected.
The most common metals on motorcycles that rust are:
- Cast iron – Used to be used for most cylinder barrels on air-cooled motorcycle engines. Now, it’s commonly found as a brake shoe liner.
- Malleable cast iron – This iron is tolerant of local stress concentrations and surface defects. It can easily be made into thin, hollow, or ribbed sections.
- Steel – Steel is widely used in the motorcycle manufacturing industry. Steel is an ideal option for many motorcycle parts because of its durability and heat resistance. Steel is commonly seen on oil tanks, headlamp housings, mudguards, exhaust valves, camshafts, and gears.
Motorcycles are exposed to more rough conditions than bicycles on the road. Salt, mud, and sweat are always a concern to the corrosion process, as well as rocks or pebbles. Just one scratch from a rock can kickstart the corrosion process once the metal is exposed. To protect your motorcycle from rust, you need rust-resistant motorcycle storage bags. Motorcycle storage bags work just like a bike cover to keep out moisture.
Get Riding
No matter what type of bike you have, protecting it is critical. If you want to spend more time outdoors riding, you’ll need to keep your motorcycle or bicycle in great condition. The best way to do this is with a fully enclosed bicycle cover or motorcycle storage covers. Rust will not be able to eat away at your bike’s precious metals. That way, your bike looks new and works just as well for the next riding season.