I lived at the beach for many years. Hence my bikes have gone through various levels of sand blasting. I try to use older bikes, because I never want to trash a nice new bike. However one time I received a beautiful new 9FS while living in the Bahamas. It was smooth, fast, nice...and I knew to stay away from the beach.

One day I saw my family at the beach on my ride home from teaching ( at the College ). I rode in about 100 feet of hard packed sand to see them. I thought nothing of it at the time. The bike was never the same. It was much slower and rougher to ride. The sand penetrated the hubs with added resistance, and it compromised the smoothness of the suspension fork. I never took a nice bike to the beach again. Keep your bikes away from the beach....trust me.