Dan Best wrote:

Do they need to be made of stainless or some such in order to hold
up to the marine environment or will cheap ones like this hold up?

I have used Dahon for several years. Only rarely do I encounter stainless
versions, and their owners have indicated to me that they felt stainless was
not particularly worth the extra cost, _as_long_as_ the bikes were kept
bagged below. That has been my experience also.

What do y'all do to protect them from the salt air and how well
does it work?

One winter I completely disassembled the Dahon and started from scratch. I
replaced any fasteners I could with stainless fasteners, re-painted the
frame, replaced all the cables, changed the gearing etc. I ended up
essentially with a new bike. This bike has seen a lot of use, and has
encountered salt water (it went for a "swim" twice at Marina Hemingway in
Cuba). After the re-fit, I had a heavy canvas bag built for storage. Since
then (about 5 or 6 years ago) it has performed flawlessly.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.tripod.com