My steel frame has a hole underneath, presumably to let water drain from the frame, should any get in? There's also a few other holes in town frame, I think for mounts.
Over the years, I've changed the bottom bracket earlier than I would've expected to. I do do a lot of winter riding in mucky conditions with it, but still. The bottom brackets tend to go from water ingress. I am careful during washing not to get water near the bottom bracket on the hole underneath.
Should I consider blanking off the holes when riding and unblanking at the end of each ride? I want to avoid ingress, but at the same time don't want to trap water inside. My other bikes don't have these holes under the bottom bracket.
by Urbanks7
3 Comments
I wouldn’t plug them, if you do, it’ll just find a way out through your bottom bracket rather than around it. The main place water would get in is the seatpost/seat tube – making sure that’s greased well can help seal it up.
Bottom bracket bearings should effectively be isolated from that internal area anyway, assuming you have a modern sealed/cartridge bottom bracket.
Those holes are egress points, not ingress.
It is there for water to exit.