Several years ago I bought a used Bridgestone that had been stored outside for over a decade. The homeowner wanted $5 USD for each of two bikes stored in the back yard from when his kids moved out. The reason I know it had been stored outside that long is that the homeowner had to get a saw out to cut down the 2 inch (~5 cm) diameter tree that had grown up through the frame for me to retrieve the bike.
There was a lot of rust in the frame. I did not try to remove the rust. Instead I assumed that applying Framesaver would soak into the rust to get down to the rust/solid metal interface to protect it from further damage. Great errand bike, I still store it outside.
When I bought my Nomad Mk II with S&S Couplers, I was surprised to see a piece of tape inside the head tube that sealed off the top and down tubes. I removed the tape so that I could apply Framesaver in all tubes, but I put a new piece of tape in afterwards to prevent water that gets into the head tube from getting into the top and down tubes. I think this tape was a great idea.
A friend of mine works at a bike charity that accepts old bikes as donations and fixes them up. He believes that water can get into the downtube from the water bottle cage bolts from capillary action. I think he suspects this based on damage he has seen over the years on older poorly maintained bikes. I usually grease water bottle cage bolts, not sure if that will keep water out but it might reduce it.
Some time back, maybe a year or two ago, someone posted on this forum that his S&S coupled Thorn (I do not recall which model) had internal rust in the downtube above the S&S coupler. His comment was that water had gotten into the downtube and did not have a way to get out. When I read that I was glad that I put Framesaver in my Nomad and also glad that I put the tape back in on the headtube.
I was not aware that this forum existed over a decade ago until now. This is the oldest post I ever saw.
