https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4892/46712808672_66cc35a140_o_d.jpg

Either side of my rear tyre is getting nicely polished by the winter muck. Paint has gone now. Should I worry, treat the bare alu with anything, or is it fine?

Swapped my tyres (Trail Boss now on the front, Vigilante at the back) as the Trail Boss does seem v. bad at clearing sticky mud. Vigilante seems to clear better.

Cosmetic but personally I would put some touchup or just clear lacquer over it then some heli-tape if it’s a recurring problem. And/or switch to a narrower tyre.

It can lead to more flaky paint loss if you get salt on the bare metal or into the undercoat

Ta. Just wondered if it would go white/oxidise and start to damage the alu. No worries with what it looks like, hidden anyway.

Testing pic…it works!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2eaRmyY]IMG_20190108_103338_Bokeh[/url] by James Fisher, on Flickr

The bare metal is easy enough to keep an eye on, it just gets nasty if you get corrosion spreading under the paint. I’ve had a couple of aluminium frames suffer from this, both commuter bike so exposed to more nasty stuff and cleaned less often.

Well, whatever has worn through your paint is going to start wearing through the alloy now (albeit at a slightly lower rate).

Thing is, ridden the same way in the same conditions for over ten years on my other bike. Sure, the frame has many dinks and scratches but chainstays are fine. Many, many times have those moments when the rear wheel locks up due to mud clogging the area at the bottom of the seat tube, poking it out with a stick to get going again. Soft paint job on the new Whyte?

No paint will stand up to regular abrasion I reckon.

My only concern would be that without putting some protection in that area it is just going to eat into the alloy too, as has been said.

I had this on my last Orange Five, basically a poor clearingbwide tyre with too narrow a space in the swing arm. Shit design given it was the tyres and wheel sized that came with the bike, on a bike design for ‘British weather’ fixed by fitting a slightly narrower faster clearing tyre. Prior to the bike going back for other shit build issues. Not had it on another brand since really

Well, whatever has worn through your paint is going to start wearing through the alloy now (albeit at a slightly lower rate).

This, and the rate won’t be much slower. I’d put some tape over it, helicopter if you can be arsed getting some, insulating tape if not.

Agreed, I’ll tape it. I keep my bikes for ages so worth minimising further damage. Funny, I said in the shop when I picked it up (summer), what’s the clearance like in mud, looks tight guy laughed and said I was old-school, people don’t bother with winter tyres, be fine.

…on a bike design for ‘British weather’…Whyte says similar, don’t they?