The basket in a bicycle, the one in front of the handlebar is a versatile contraption. I have seen many things being held by those baskets - from groceries to tiffin boxes, flowers to fruits, wood to tools, and once even a baby.
But this is the first time I see a basket being held with such a rusty bracket or clamp. And it makes it to this #rustysunday post!
Why so much of rust, only on that bracket, while the rest of the basket or the bicycle is in better condition? Probably due to bimetal contact and galvanic corrosion, and a chance to take its place on #rustysunday. The black paint over the square metal bracket of the basket must have been worn down because of repeated scraping when various items were placed into and removed from the basket.
Once the protective paint coating wore off, the bracket was open to elements. That alone would not have made it rust away so fast.
The electroplated inch-wide clamp used to fasten the bolts (along with the bolt and washers themselves) is the culprit.
With the condensing moisture from the atmosphere acting as the electrolyte, the exposed iron of the bracket becomes the anode. The cathode is the nickel coating on the clamp. Result is the accelerated galvanic corrosion!
Here is the #rustysunday snap:
BTW, the theories of bimetal contact and galvanic corrosion, though learned in high school, were of practical importance and their startling effects experienced, and exposed while I sailed – thankfully never on any of those ‘rustbuckets’.
But this is the first time I see a basket being held with such a rusty bracket or clamp. And it makes it to this #rustysunday post!
Why so much of rust, only on that bracket, while the rest of the basket or the bicycle is in better condition? Probably due to bimetal contact and galvanic corrosion, and a chance to take its place on #rustysunday. The black paint over the square metal bracket of the basket must have been worn down because of repeated scraping when various items were placed into and removed from the basket.
Once the protective paint coating wore off, the bracket was open to elements. That alone would not have made it rust away so fast.
The electroplated inch-wide clamp used to fasten the bolts (along with the bolt and washers themselves) is the culprit.
With the condensing moisture from the atmosphere acting as the electrolyte, the exposed iron of the bracket becomes the anode. The cathode is the nickel coating on the clamp. Result is the accelerated galvanic corrosion!
Here is the #rustysunday snap:
BTW, the theories of bimetal contact and galvanic corrosion, though learned in high school, were of practical importance and their startling effects experienced, and exposed while I sailed – thankfully never on any of those ‘rustbuckets’.
IceRocket Tags: rustysunday
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