Rescued from the Grand Union Canal

[Scanners286]

Okay, one of my bikes (not strictly retro, I'm afraid) was stolen a few weeks ago after I leant it to my flatmate :roll:

After a little on-line detective work I've got in touch with a kind Samaritan who's just fished it out of the Grand Union Canal. Apparently, it's been under a while (I'd guess since it got nicked 3 weeks ago and the canal is right nearby that it's been under for 3 weeks). It's an alloy frame with modern-ish running gear.

So, my question is, has anybody managed to salvage a bike from a watery grave and if so have they got any tips from their experiences? Strangely I'm having bad thoughts about the state of the hubs and the bottom bracket and the horrors therein. I'm hoping to pick it up tonight, so all will become a little clearer, but it'd be good if anyone has any ideas as where to start. I'm basically planning to strip it down to a bare frame and see where I go from there.

Cheers for your help.

Scanners

 

[barry2017]

Oh dear.

A rebuild with new hubs, cables, headset and BB is probably the order of the day.
Not as much work as it sounds, though!

 

[Dr.Robotnik]

If you are worried about rust, use citric acid powder to remove it without scrubbing/damaging finishes and then with a re-grease and tune up it should be good to go again.

Google how to use CAP and you'll find lots of bike related how to's.

Then your flatmate can replace things as and when they fail

Good luck.

 

[perry]

a mate had his bmx stolen

turned up at low tide in the harbor

fished it out and rode it . didnt touch a single thing on it . it looked hanging

months later i was sick of it ( an old fuzzy hall mongoose ) it weighed a ton and everything was bent so i gave him a crappy muddy fox frame i had kicking about . after knocking out his bottom bracket cups the axle was pitted and the shell packed solid with sand

it gave me a chance to beat that mongoose into the ground with a lump hammer , naturally the insides of the tubes were rusty but it put up a fight

he wanted to keep it , but i was dealing the hammer of death while he was still unbolting parts

 

[Scanners286]

Cheers guys. I'm going to see what I've got and then buy some shares in Muc-off. I'll let you know how it goes :?

 

[orange71]

how did you know it was in the canal :shock:

 

[mtbfix]

Depends upon the quality of the parts I guess. After the floods down here a year or two back we saw a glut of bikes through our workshop that had been standing in water for a week or so. Some were uneconomical repairs and others just needed a new cable set and a bit of lube to be back to running order. Best of luck to you.

 

[Scanners286]

Just got the bike back. Doesn't look too bad under the circumstances, think it's salvagable. Everything steel is now rusty, but that's just the chain, cables and bolts. I'll take it apart further and see what lies therein. Hubs seem to be spinning fine, but I'll get them apart and see the truth.

In terms of getting it back, I stuck a notice on the Bike Radar stolen site, seemed like a long shot to say the least, but some dude who lives in a boat on the canal noticed it lurking at the bottom a couple of days ago and fished it out. Apparently every month or so the canal just clears and he sees all kinds of junk at the bottom. When he saw the bike he thought he'd got lucky. When he googled the model name my message came up number 2 on Google. Just lucky it was a pretty unusual frame (it's a Diamondback Jump Comp that I just bought as a frame for a hack bike, but it seems to be pretty uncommon though). So he gets a crate of beer, I get the bike back and my flatmate who got it stolen in the first place gets to clean the weeds out of the bottom bracket and a bill for parts. Everyone's a winner

Guess it goes to show that the online cycling community works. Hurrah

 

[perry]

thats great , lets have some pics

how deep is canal anyway ? i ride along one a lot so its inevitable ill fall in at some point

 

[Scanners286]

I'll sort some pics in the morning. Canal is clearly deep enough to provide a soft landing. You should be fine