I got caught in the rain coming home two days ago for just a few minutes.  I immediately parked under my covered porch and went back to work.  I went to get on it the next day and noticed white liquid all over the front fender.  It appears that rust water dripped all down the handlebars, etc.  Even the handlebars themselves have rust on them.  What the hell?  Why would it do that? 

Also, you can see where the seepage around the front brake fluid reservoir.  That's been like that for a while though.

Any chance you can take clearer pics? It's hard to tell if we're looking at dirt or corrosion. 

Quote from: DucAtomic on August 09, 2008, 08:29:46 PM
Any chance you can take clearer pics? It's hard to tell if we're looking at dirt or corrosion. 

Sorry.  Thats a cellphone camera.  The 2nd pic is better.  Look at the upper section of the chromed handlebar and you can see the rust that formed in only 2 days. All the white on the black cable parts is dried oxidation that ran onto them.  In the top picture, notice the the bottom screw is dull and corroded while the top is shiney silver.   Even my rizoma mirror screw has that white rust on it today.  I shoulda took a picture of my plastic fender.  Yesterday it looked like a huge bird crapped all over it where that rust dripped and ran down the forks.

I ride in the rain when necessary, and my bike does not look like that after. 

Although, my bars did rust a little, but that took a year or 2 to start showing.  And, it still wasn't as bad as yours.

Where are you from?

Weather/road salt?

Are you sure it wasn't already like that, and you are now just noticing?

White rust? It's oxidation on the aluminum. This must have been accelerated with a salty environment. It's happened on my bike this past winter. It was a dry day but the roads still had some road salt on them. It was enough to corrode the surface on some aluminum fasteners. The rust on the handlebar seems excessive for the amount of time you exposed your bike to the elements, though.

Quote from: DucAtomic on August 09, 2008, 09:25:05 PM
White rust? It's oxidation on the aluminum. This must have been accelerated with a salty environment. It's happened on my bike this past winter. It was a dry day but the roads still had some road salt on them. It was enough to corrode the surface on some aluminum fasteners. The rust on the handlebar seems excessive for the amount of time you exposed your bike to the elements, though.

I'm in Mississippi.  We don't salt the roads here unless there's an ice storm.  It's wierd.  The (I guess it's aluminum) connector for the right hand brake fluid reservoir is oxidized really bad as well.  Just before the rain it was perfectly normal.  I noticed this when I was at the gas station yesterday and saw all the dried white on the front fender.  I followed the white to see where it was coming from and both handlbars are covered in it.  I took a damp paper towel and wiped what I could off but it's still begs the question of why this happened.  I just installed handlebar risers last week but they are black powdercoated and located in the middle, so that wouldn't explain why the ends around the grips are coroded.  That was my first thought though.

A friend says it must've been an acidic rain.  I don't know.  Strange.  All the cables running from the handlebars have this dried white oxidation on them and the silver parts are corroded

Could it have been something on the road that was sprayed up on you as you rode in the rain? Who knows what matter of crap is being dumped by transport vehicles these days. White residue isn't from rainfall normally.

Quote from: DucAtomic on August 09, 2008, 09:54:29 PM
Could it have been something on the road that was sprayed up on you as you rode in the rain? Who knows what matter of crap is being dumped by transport vehicles these days. White residue isn't from rainfall normally.

That would be possible if the bike had it everywhere but it's just the handlebar, which then ran down the all the wires and forks.  I'll take better pics tomorrow.  When I got back and the bike was wet I put the cover on it as it sat under the porch since this was a thunderstorm with blowing rain.  Maybe that cover didn't allow it to air out.

Dude, sharpen up and read the owner's manual:  On page 61 near the top it expressly tells you to,"... under no circumstances ride the unit in the rain if you live in a state beginning with the letter 'M'". 

This is yet another classic case of someone who is all bent out of shape, when they could have just paged through the owner's manual and saved themselves some grief. 

Quote from: tangueroHondo on August 09, 2008, 10:37:38 PM
Dude, sharpen up and read the owner's manual:  On page 61 near the top it expressly tells you to,"... under no circumstances ride the unit in the rain if you live in a state beginning with the letter 'M'". 

This is yet another classic case of someone who is all bent out of shape, when they could have just paged through the owner's manual and saved themselves some grief. 

Sorry.  I read the Cliff's Notes version of the manual and it didn't cover that.  Live and learn I guess.

Quote from: DrNo08 on August 09, 2008, 09:41:21 PM
A friend says it must've been an acidic rain.  I don't know.  Strange.  All the cables running from the handlebars have this dried white oxidation on them and the silver parts are corroded

Have you tried cleaning it yet?

Possibly galvanic reaction between dissimilar metals hastened by the enhanced condivity when rained on.

Read here:

http://www.engineersedge.com/galvanic_capatability.htm

Quote from: ducpainter on August 10, 2008, 05:47:45 AM
Have you tried cleaning it yet?

Nothing more than a damp paper towel to remove what was on the fender b/c it looked bad.  I wanted to see how to clean it.  Don't want to make it worse somehow by doing the wrong thing.  It looked like someone poured milk on it and it dried.

Alot of pictures to come.  I'm about to upload them.

Still not the best quality but you can see how the oxidation just ran all over everything.  I just washed this bike 4 days prior to this and it was clean up until the brief rain on Thursday.

Notice the white milky look where it ran from the aluminum parts to cables, mirror, horn, etc..


Notice the screws.  The black one is now gray and the bottom silver is coroded


dried on the mirror and coroded the screw that holds the rizoma on the bar end.


Rust on handlebar and corrosion of the metal lever joint














Horn is covered


ilver front break fork hose clamps are corroded


The metal joint portions of the levers are corroded.


Spark plug shows the dried white


Airbox clamps are corroded