Rust in Atlanta

[weisan]

As some of you might know this, I recently acquired a used 1999 Serotta Atlanta. It's beautiful white lugged steel and produces a great ride. It complements the other Legend I already had very nicely. There's only one thing that concerns me about this bike. I noticed some rust on two specific areas.

Rust #1: Underneath bottom-bracket. It seems strange that the cable would be allowed to rub against the metal frame through friction and shifting. Any comments?
http://www.alicehui.com/serotta/rust1.jpg

Rust #2: The cable guide on the top tube.
http://www.alicehui.com/serotta/rust2.jpg

Any suggestions?

thanks,
weisan

[coylifut]

Pretty minor and expected. Use some steel wool and rub off the rust. Do it by hand and leave the Dremel be. Break into the wife's nail polish and touch it up. BTW, you'll be the only one who will notice it.

[shinomaster]

the BB rust is normal. You may want to take out the brake cable and sand out the rust in the holder. If it gets a lot worse sand blast it and get it repainted.

[zap]

What you are showing is normal for steel frames.

BB rust is the result of the cables moving and cutting through the paint. Clean rust w/fine sand paper, prime and paint. You could then try adding small pieces of clear stay-tuff were the cable rubs the bb. I do it on all my bikes so that they stay prestine for as long as possible :cool:

The cable housing stop is most likely rusting inside and what you are showing is the resulting stain. Remove cable & housing as you can probably wax away the rust shown in the photo. Clean the inside of the stop the best you can, put a little oil in the stop, reassemble cable and housing but dab some grease on the cable ferrule were it enters the stop. You will need to repeat this process for all stops once a year or so since moisture will collect there.

Also make sure that the inside of the bb and lower tubes of the frame are covered with boiled linseed oil or Frame Saver.

[weisan]

Thanks guys!!! I felt much better now. The thing I don't understand is that there's a cable guide underneath the BB of my titanium Legend made of plastic material, seems like that would prevent the cable from contacting the frame directly and causing any friction/rust etc. Why is that treatment not carried over to a steel frame, which needed that level of protection more than a titanium would?

If you don't understand what I am saying, I will take a picture when I get home later today. :p

weisan

[dave thompson]

The built-in cable guides on your Atlanta bottom bracket were universally common until a relatively few years ago. There is not much cable movement, so there is minor wear there. Pay a little attention to that area periodically, as should be done anyway, with cleaning and a little grease to keep things good.

For the cable stop on your top tube, use a Q-tip to clean the inside of the stop and apply a light coating of grease, or if you have it, some FrameSaver.

[zap]

I would be careful using frame saver in the cable stop. It could interfere with cable performance.

I've seen bikes with pretty decent "notches" due to cable rub. As Dave mentioned, there isn't much cable movement but it's amazing to see what damage it can cause. If you don't keep a frame for any length of time, who cares. But as the years go by, watch out.

Some frames that have the plastic cable guide under the bb will have cable rub further up and around the back of the bb. On one bike I had to cut a small piece of Stay-Tuff to prevent rub damage. A pain to install correctly between the welds and it needs to be replaced every 8 months or so.

Lined cable systems don't have these problems.

In a few years we will have electronic shifting and electro/hydraulic servo brakes so these minor problems will go away :D

[Sandy]

I would be more concerned with rust on the inside of the tubes than superficial rust on the outside.


Sandy