There are lots of members that live near the ocean so your not destined to have a crappy bike but it does take alittle effort to keep running top condition..one of the easiest things to do is to wash it regularly. I know it sounds like a simple thing, but getting the salt off your plastics and off your bike will go a long way. Changing your air filter more often than normally scheduled intervals will help too.

There are many things to do to reduce the sea-salt rust results. The biggest one -- keeping the salt build-up down by frequent washing -- has been covered. Rinsing it down with a hard stream of fresh water every day or every other other day helps a lot in such cases.

For the exhaust headers, the obvious answer is ceramic coating (jetcoating), which is like powder coating for high temp parts. Should run $150 - 200 if you shop around carefully. Unlike the headers, the oil cooler can't be ceramic coated (because the ceramic acts as a heat barrier), but you may find that the same outfit that provides the ceramic coating may know of another coating that would be suitable (doubious in my mind). Cleaning the cooler with water and then with WD-40 (careful with the overspray) should work to keep the rust at bay as well without sacrificing the efficiency of the cooler -- but won't stop rust that's already present.

Forks and other exposed metal surfaces need to be washed thoroughly (to remove the salt), then should be polished with a metal polish (to remove any corrosion), followed by applications of some sort of sealant (NuFinish 2000 or other acrylic-based car wax substitues, for example, work well). Some metal polishes will have the sealant integrated into them (MagicBlue for example), but an added layer of an acrylic-based sealant will just add to the protection.

Replacement of many of the periphreal bolts (such as fairing bolts) with stainless steel equivilents will help keep your fasteners from dielectrically welding themselves into place (rust-welding, as it were). Use high temp antiseize (copper or moly) on any bolts that connect to the exhaust, engine block and brake calipers/rotors.

You also REALLY NEED to disassemble the fairings and clean the electrical connectors, followed by packing them absolutely full of dielectric grease, to keep from running into very serious and annoying electrical problems with the wiring and harnesses.

You may also want to visit a local marina and talk to someone at the parts or mechanics' counter about the use of one or two sacrificial anodes. These are pieces of metal that are permanently mounted to the motorcycle whose sole purpose is to rust away in order to prevent dielectrical rust elsewhere. It won't stop all the rust, but it will slow it down greatly.

Finally, cover your bike whenever it's parked, if possible, with a waterproof cover. This will greatly reduce the amount of sea-spray (salt-water mist) that contacts the metals, thus reducing both the cleaning load and the damages.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

whoa! Thanks Matt & Cyber. I'm gonna start working on that right away. I guess I can find some information on jetcoating on the web. Thanks so much again.

Here's a place I found. They quoted me $120 to do the header & mid-pipe, prep work included. www.airborncoatings.com

And here I was thinking of moving near the ocean ! just too much work

Price sounds very good, as long it's close by. I've also heard positive things about AirbornCoatings.com..
But -- shipping can kill a deal easily something as big as a full set of headers, etc. Remember, if your in-town price is $190, but you have to pay $120 + $35 shipping each way, it's cheaper to go in-town (because you don't have to buy shipping supplies, etc).

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet