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It's been a super mild winter in Asheville, NC so I've been riding my 2008 quite a bit throughout. Today I took it out to clean everything and noticed some slight oxidation trying to come through the paint on the front fender, right around the back edge. I don't want to get into re-painting or anything, as it's not that bad, but wonder if there's a treatment I can use to arrest further rusting without removing paint, etc. I was surprised to see this, as I do wipe off everything after riding (usually). There's also little rusty places starting on the frame down at the bottom. Very slight, but I'd sure like to nip it in the bud. And finally, there is this weird white oxidation (I assume) on some of the brushed metal on the fork. At first it looked like the glue off the back of duct tape, which I knew was not the case, but it is pretty hard stuff. Anybody know of a safe remover for that stuff? Oh yeah, and a little rust happening on the front of the radiator. Advice? (The bike looks great, even though I'm making it sound like a piece of junk. These are small spots. And BTW, it never sits outside; always garaged, though not heated.) Any advice greatly appreciated!

Woolsey Dip wrote:... noticed some slight oxidation trying to come through the paint on the front fender, right around the back edge. I don't want to get into re-painting or anything, as it's not that bad, but wonder if there's a treatment I can use to arrest further rusting without removing paint, etc.

If there is rust under the paint on the fender, there is nothing you can do to slow it down without removing the paint. If it's just along the back edge you could sand/wirewheel the rust off back down to bare metal and then mask the rest of the fender and use black paint or maybe even spray on truck bed liner on the bottom 1/2 inch or so of the fender. When I got my new fender I primed and truck bed lined the inner side of the fender after seeing the rust that had developed between the fender and the bracket it is riveted to on my old mangled fender.

Woolsey Dip wrote: ...there is this weird white oxidation (I assume) on some of the brushed metal on the fork.

I assume you're talking about the Aluminum lower fork tube. This is made of aluminum and has some sort of clear coat on it to protect the aluminum from oxidation. Aluminum oxide is a white powder. There isn't a lot you can do about this unless you're willing to remove the clearcoat, polish the aluminum back up and then re-clearcoat it. If you read my post about the old wheels I polished up there is a 1 part resin that I used for the coating. I did that almost a year ago and the wheels still look good.

Woolsey Dip wrote: ...a little rust happening on the front of the radiator. Advice?

I'll assume you're talking about the steel screen that sits in front of the radiator as the radiator is aluminum and doesn't rust. If that's the case you can simply remove the screen and use sandpaper or some other convenient abrasive to remove the rust. Then hit it with some black Rustoleum.

Thanks Triangles. Good suggestions. Your assumptions were all correct. I'm gonna just do watchful waiting on the aluminum for the time being.

If it's a small nick in clearcoated aluminum you could probably clean up the corrosion with a green scratch pad taking care to minimize scratching the surrounding good clear coat and do a "touch up" by applying some sort of clear coat with a Q-tip. Just a thought.