Originally Posted by
Wogsterca
I wonder if they simply exceeded the duty cycle of the bag. Most people I would think probably do 2 or 3 tours a year, maybe 4 000 km a year on good roads, tops. A bag that lasts 10 years or 40 000km is pretty good, and most people would be looking at, nice new clean bags at that point anyway. Someone who does the same distance in a much shorter time, say a year ir two can have the same amount of wear, over a much shorter time. It's like the travelling salesman who buys a new car, puts 350 000km on it in six months and wonders why it's worn out already.
Good point - everything has a service life. Also different people wear gear at different rates. I have a good friend I've bike toured with, sea kayak toured with and done road trips with. We have often bought the same gear around the same time - sometimes at the exact same time. Her gear always looks twice as old as mine after a few weeks and after a couple years looks trashed while mine looks great. What is weird is I don't see her abusing her gear and we go to the same places and do the same things. Our running joke is if one person picks up an item we both own and is not sure who it belongs to we just check out how beat up it is....if it looks new it's mine and if it's gnarly it's hers.