Does a Rust-Proof Bike Really Exist?

The Priority Coast is a rust-proof bike—we put that assertion to the test.

    On the coast of North Carolina, garages aren't always garages. By which I mean, depending on the FEMA flood map, a garage might use louvered walls, which allow water to flow through during a flood event.

    That's prudent, but louvered walls are the same as no walls at all where weather is concerned. Rain, salt, air, and sand blow through unimpeded, devouring and destroying everything therein. Garage door motors, golf clubs, tools—your typical garage items don't stand a chance. Bikes are a particular challenge. You don't realize how much of a bike is made of ferrous metal until you see it blister into a pile of tetanus before your eyes.

    The new Coast next to a bike that spent two years in the Oxidation Octagon.

    Enter the Priority Coast. With the Coast, Brooklyn-based Priority claims it has a true rust-proof beach cruiser, one that's built of the hardiest materials—aluminum frame and fork, stainless steel fenders, and a Gates carbon drive belt instead of a chain. The wheels are aluminum with stainless steel spokes. Bearings are sealed.

    Priority notes that there are a few components—some nuts and bolts; the front brake—that aren't rust-proof. But those parts are limited to the small, easily replaceable stuff, if it comes to that. There's a rear coaster brake, so if you live somewhere flat and wanted to simplify, you could just get rid of the front brake anyway.

    To test Priority's rust-proof claim, we parked two Coasts in a louvered Garage of Doom and left them there for nine months. As a control, we also bought a kids' Wal-Mart Huffy and threw it in there, too, a sacrifice to the gods of oxidation. The Coast is offered as either a single-speed or a three-speed, but the three-speed introduces more complexity and thus less bomb-proofing, so we went with the single-speed.

     Before we reveal how that went, let's talk about the bike itself. While it's delivered in a flat-pack box, it's easy to assemble and actually comes with nice tools to do the job (this is an Allen wrench you'd throw in your toolbox rather than the recycle bin). In either men's or women's configuration, it's a handsome machine.

   The seat is caramel colored, a hue that matches the tires, and the soft grips have a woodgrain look. Thanks to the aluminum frame, the bike is light, weighing about 26 pounds. The wide double kickstand means you don't have to worry about the bike toppling over because of the kickstand spearing into the sandy parking lot outside a beach bar. And the Gates drive, besides banishing rust, is super smooth and quiet. You don't realize the subtle vibration that's introduced by a chain until it's not there.

    I rode the Coast to a coffee shop adjacent to a bike rental place, and the owner of the rental shop was all over it—she knew a nice bike when she saw one. I explained the Coast and its mission and she asked the price, which is $500. She looked a little deflated.

    "See, that wouldn't make sense for us here," she said. "Our bikes cost $200 and we have a mechanic take care of them, so it takes a few years before they fall apart. So it would take a lot of seasons to recoup the cost of those."

Which is why you probably won't see Coasts at your neighborhood beach rental place. But you will see them at oceanfront resorts, which keep bikes for years and want to deliver an experience commensurate with a posh vibe. Rusty chains won't do at the White Elephant on Nantucket.

    The Coasts got regular use over nine months and during that time required about five minutes of maintenance—I adjusted the drive belt tension on one of the bikes after it got a little bit tight. Other than that, they received no special dispensations other than an occasional spray with a hose when they became so grungy with salt and sand that they were nasty to ride.

     The result? Both bikes look great, if not exactly new. Even the most robust bike is going to show the effects of constant salt air bombardment, and the Coasts did reveal their few ferrous parts—the nut and bolt under the seat post, for instance. Even the alloy parts, like the handlebars, got a little bit of salt rash going. But on the whole, the nine-month-old Coasts looked very similar to their freshly assembled selves, and functionally they were good as new.

    Meanwhile, our Huffy was in the beginning throes of ossification, its chain and sprockets a rusty mess. The frame and major components actually looked pretty good, but experience with other bikes in the garage show how that goes—your bike is OK until rust gets a toehold, and then it's all over in a hurry. Bikes that had been in there for two years appeared to have been salvaged from the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge.

    So is there such thing as a rust-proof bike? Yes. But whether the Priority Coast makes sense for you depends on how you use a beach bike and how long you keep things. This isn't a disposable bike. It's an investment.