I sort of wish my bike was there... THEIR insurance buys me a new one... I would have drained/started/dried mine ASAP... Then bought it back totaled for pennies on the dollar and had a great track bike and a new bike... Rex
same thing happened to me yesterday after a good wash with brushes, right of way notice it was coming out of the vent holes ( a light orange color ), used the compressor with one of those neddles to inflate footballs and sitck it inside the hole and blew all the water out or dry on both sides.good to go now, like some said before, it will take years for that small amount of water to generate structural damages. Stay safe
I’ve had a lot of classic bikes some 50+ years old, every one will have had rust in the frame I’m quite sure, never had a problem at a weld, never had a tube go weak, It’s not desirable to have surface rust in the frame of course but on a bike that’s only a few years old it’s nothing to worry about either, I mean the bike isn’t going to suddenly collapse!, I have seen SOHC Hondas with weak bottom rails, but these bikes are 40 + years old, best to dry out the tube by heating it with a fan heater (carefully) IMO then spray a thin wax or heavy oil in there, I’m not sure plugging the holes is the best idea, any moisture you hadn’t gotten rid of would be trapped, also you could get condensation in the tubes which would not be able to evaporate.
Well yes, but with plenty of experience to back it up Chris, I’m just concerned that someone seeing a bit of rusty water coming from an expansion hole after washing their bike will be panicked, they should maybe think about it this way “when was the last time I saw a bike less than 40 years old with rot in the frame, when was the last time I even heard of a frame on a bike less than 40 years old with frame failure due to rust “ a bit of perspective rather than panic!
To try and add some perspective then: We all agree that water and particularly rust-stained water seeping from a motorcycle frame constructed from steel tube length welded together is a bad thing. Without somehow examining inside the structure or cutting it up, no-one really knows how bad the corrosion is - we can all speculate - the bike is only two years old etc, etc, but no-one knows. With all the above in mind, and with no other alternatives (imo) a wise person would do all that he/she could in terms of preventative measures in a "better safe than sorry" approach/attempt. Any other approach is akin to:
Kenny Rogers song lyrics... The Gambler https://www.google.com/search?q=lyr...j69i57j0l6.11785j1j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 A classic crossover Rex
UPDATE: So i gave both sides of the rear subframe and both sides of the front frame a liberal spray of waxoil using a long straw right up inside each hole and withdrawing the straw gently as i sprayed. The frame went cold and condensated pretty much all the way along so i think i got decent coverage in there. After the first ride, a lot of hot wax dripped out from the rear subframe holes and made a hell of a mess on the rear frame tubes, shock and hugger. Cant find any on the wheel thankfully. Will leave as is for now hoping that some product has stayed in place. Though half expect a little more leakage on the next couple of rides.
Sounds good, apart from the mess!, it’ll either stop now or decrease soon , hopefully leaving a thin coating on the inner walls. PS might be an idea to tie wrap some cloth over the holes that have leaked for your next ride to catch anymore that comes out, then remove the cloth and gauge if you need to do it again for the next ride/rides.
Something I meant to add ages ago on this thread is that when Ducati shape the ends of the tubes it will leave a lot of ferrous deposits on the inside of the tube, think of it as “ferrous dust”, this instantly turns to rust with the addition of water, so again seeing rust from these holes is not a safety concern, having cut up a lot of frames in the past during “special” builds I can confirm that they all have rust internally but I’ve never seen any that are structurally compromised, it’s always been superficial and this is on frames that are 30 years old and more, nothing wrong with spraying wax oil in there for cosmetic reasons but your not going to get a structural issue for decades!
