Well, I know winter riding demands more maintenance, but I've been riding all winter long for years without anything like this happening. More wear and tear, sticky cables, a little rust here and there, sure, but not massive corrosion like this. I've been riding steel and aluminium bikes. I think this is magnesium (it's a Manitou R7 front shock fork). It's been ridden maybe ten days on winter roads, not especially extreme conditions that I can remember. To be honest I feel that any bike should hold up to that, but if not, I feel that a warning with the fork would be appropriate. "This fork is extremely sensitive to salt and should not be used on salted roads", or something like that. It's been rinsed off regularly and parked inside, it's not like I left it out in a snowbank or dumped it in the ocean or anything
Winter riding is much less about badassery and much more about bundle-uppery. - malkin
1995 Kona Cinder Cone commuterFrankenbike/Selle Italia SLR Lady Gel Flow
2008 white Nakamura Summit Custom mtb/Terry Falcon X
2000 Schwinn Fastback Comp road bike/Specialized Jett