Don't let this happen to you!

With our rainy winters here, many of you spend a fair amount of time on a stationary trainer. A lot of you take computrainer classes as well. It is very important to keep your bike clean for the sake of functionality but also for safety. Sweat ruins components and can literally eat right through alloy parts. Check out the photos here of a handlebar we recently had to replace. The bar is completely compromised, the sweat ate a couple of holes in the aluminum.

Here's a couple good habits; change your bar tape more often, put a towel over the front end of your bike and clean it often. We've seen seatposts fused to frames, headsets ruined, stems corroded through and even damage to front wheels from sweat. The handlebar above is just incredibly dangerous. I have had the displeasure of witnessing first hand a handlebar failure at high speed. The result was not pretty, any front end component failure can have disastrous results. Stay safe and keep your equipment in good shape. This guy got lucky.