Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Wearing out Equipment

In another thread here, someone mentioned that a UK rider who logs an incredible number of miles (Steve Abraham) complains of how quickly he wears out frames. Which got me to thinking ...

Since you started long distance cycling, have you noticed that you wear out equipment much faster?

I've been in LD cycling for about 7 years now, and I'm starting to get used to it, but it still surprises and annoys me a little bit when I go through freehubs so quickly (about every 2 years), when I need to change out shifters after only 4 years, when my gears only last me 3 years, when I've got to replace my handlebar tape every year .....

Prior to 7 years ago, those things lasted forever!

Wonder why? LOL......try to figure how much it costs per hour, it gives you something else to think about as you ride along.

I for one just love to save a section of each tire I wear out, with the date and milage and location, now being in the 50 plus club I have ended up with a drawer full of worn out tire sections, the memories flood back every time I go add another hunk of rubber to the collection. As I am now replacing the kids tires too I add their names to the sections. I am sure that when I get put in the home the kids will wonder why I saved all those tire sections. They may never really know what each tire section really represents.

I think another solution to wearing out stuff so fast is to buy more bikes and ride them all, bet the parts last a lot longer.

I have not seen much change. When I started going longer I started taking better care of the bikes, better handle bar tape, more cleaning, things like that.

Middle rings, cassettes, freehubs, chains, cables, tires, tubes, shorts, rims . . . I don't mind the rest of it, but I hate wearing out rims. PITA. The Ultegra brifters were expensive, too. Hard to believe one can wear out a frame. Maybe aluminum. Get carbon. A guy I ride with rode 32,000 miles last year. His frame is fine. Kind of puts the century/month club in perspective, doesn't it? He has two kids and a job. He says his kids are a big help, and that cheese has the most calories per dollar.

Middle rings, cassettes, freehubs, chains, cables, tires, tubes, shorts, rims . . . I don't mind the rest of it, but I hate wearing out rims. PITA. The Ultegra brifters were expensive, too. Hard to believe one can wear out a frame. Maybe aluminum. Get carbon. A guy I ride with rode 32,000 miles last year. His frame is fine. Kind of puts the century/month club in perspective, doesn't it? He has two kids and a job. He says his kids are a big help, and that cheese has the most calories per dollar.

I'm still choking over my brifters last year. I've never in my life replaced any sort of shifting mechanism before ... it had never occurred to me that such things would ever need replacing ... and then I had to fork over more than I paid for some of my bicycles just for shifters!

Machka, how long did your brifters last? I've got 20K on mine and I'm starting to wonder how much longer they're going to last.

Machka, how long did your brifters last? I've got 20K on mine and I'm starting to wonder how much longer they're going to last.

About 40,000 kms (24,000 miles). Then all of a sudden last summer, my second freehub died, and while it was being fixed (despite the fact that I wanted it replaced), I bought a new wheel so I could keep riding. I had to make a few subtle adjustments to my derailleur so that I could shift with the new wheel ... never had so much trouble with a new wheel before! Then I got my old wheel back, and the shop adjusted everything back to the way it was, but I couldn't shift at all. I asked them to have another look at my derailleur, they told me they did, but they couldn't do anything to help ... and then they told me my shifters were shot and replaced my shifters ... and I still couldn't shift with the old wheel. So I put the new wheel on again, and still had trouble shifting, but less trouble. I took it back to the shop, and they told me they had done what they could adjusting my derailleur, and my new shifters just needed to work in or some such nonsense. I went to Europe with that setup, Rowan took one look at it and discovered they had totally botched the derailleur adjustments.

I'm not 100% convinced that my shifters did die, but nevertheless, I guess I had a lot of kms on them.

:) old friction-shifters wear out when the little bumps wear down, friction ain't there!
New brifters wear down when little bitty teeth get wear on them. Do Not Put Your Bicycle Up Side Down In Dirt!

Generally I am happy to say, it is an industry full of hybrids and cheapo wall-mart bikes, and we can still get 20k out of the components. Nothing wrong with that. Freehubs are a problem.... and I wish cable housings were better because they are harder to diagnose.... but as an industry, aren't we doing pretty well?

Most bike bits last long enough for me but riding fixed for some of it does help and moving somewhere drier really reduces wear, particularly to rims. I'm still on 6-7 speed freewheels and bar end or downtube shifters for a fair chunk of the rest, so there is a bit more metal than 10 speed set-ups anyway.

My hassle is that I can't find knicks (black, no advertising) that hold together more than a year or two, despite splitting the wear between 3-4 sets. That doesn't really count as equipment though.

My hassle is that I can't find knicks (black, no advertising) that hold together more than a year or two, despite splitting the wear between 3-4 sets. That doesn't really count as equipment though.

I consider myself fortunate if mine last me one whole season, and a little ways into the next. That said, I got a pair of shorts in late summer 2006 which are still in good condition ... I'm liking this! I figure they may last through the entire coming season. If a pair of shorts could last me 2 whole years, that would be great!

:) old friction-shifters wear out when the little bumps wear down, friction ain't there!
New brifters wear down when little bitty teeth get wear on them. Do Not Put Your Bicycle Up Side Down In Dirt!

Generally I am happy to say, it is an industry full of hybrids and cheapo wall-mart bikes, and we can still get 20k out of the components. Nothing wrong with that. Freehubs are a problem.... and I wish cable housings were better because they are harder to diagnose.... but as an industry, aren't we doing pretty well?

I suppose you have to do the sums based on dollars or cents per kilometre.

My Fuji Touring has done around 56,000km, and I estimate I have spent $4,000 Australian on it in upgrades and replacements, as well as the original purchase price of $1750 (IIRC). Let's see, that's 7.1 cents a kilometre (if my calculations are anywhere remotely right).

My "new" Shogun FG has cost me around $500 to build and has done around 2,650km, so that equates to 18.6 cents a kilometre, butit has a lot of riding to go, so that cost will come down.

My old Merida 900 Extreme was bought new for an all-up price of $960 and had another $200 in tyres and probably brake pads spent on it over its 12,000km lifespan (8sp gearset and chain was never replaced), so the price was 9.2 cents a kilometre.

My old tour-guiding and early touring MTB cost around $900 in its lifetime and also did around 12,000km, so that's 7.5 cents a km.

Now, the trophy bikes that won't be ridden in anything except fine sunny weather, and then maybe only for 1,000km a year... then you are talking dollars per kilometre. Still, if you can afford them, why not?

I am a believer in the concept that the mid-level component sets are just the ticket for long-distance riding if you don't think you will ever win anything (like a 24H race). If you want reliable, leave the Dura-Ace and XT and other lightweight, top-end stuff alone and get something like Tiagra or Deore, including wheels with plenty of spokes.

As to shorts, I've had good experiences so far with Pearl Izumi. I'm not sure that price is necessarily an indicator of longevity -- all mine have cost around $80 US, but I have five pairs and they get rotated pretty well. I expect to get at least two SR seasons out of a five-pair set. Lately, I have taken to not wearing padded bike shorts, except for long randonnees, and instead ride with unpadded lycra running shorts bought in France, with a pair of Taslon fabric overshorts.

Since you started long distance cycling, have you noticed that you wear out equipment much faster?
mmm ... well, for me, the point where I started doing more distance riding coincided with when I stopped riding bikes with low-end components. It was also around that time that I really started paying attention to maintenance and would do things like, you know, clean my chain more than once a year.

so, for me, doing centuries, tours and brevets was a moment when I began to care about my bike and not treat it like some disposable lifestyle accessory. Naturally, all of my gear lasted longer.

With that said, I am still occasionally surprised by some some failures. Earlier last winter, I had an aluminum bottle cage snap off my frame just due to metal fatigue. It's just one of those things that nobody thinks about, but it's subject to wear and tear like everything else. Still, most of my distance gear is less than four years old, so I haven't seen anything fail yet, and two years was usually the time when I'd need to overhaul the entire drivetrain on my old hybrids.

The Ultegra brifter lasted about 24K miles. The right one started not giving me a full shift in the middle of the cassette. Probably where the most wear was. A new brifter fixed the problem with no other changes. Same thing happened to a buddy's Ultegra brifter. It's not just me. The left one is still OK, as it doesn't get much use. Though I've broken the left one twice from slamming shifts during uphill sprints while wearing winter gloves. Not rando wear, though. Next time I'll have to go to a 10-speed drive train and I'm not looking forward to that!

I think the largest share of expense is in expendables: weird bike food and tires. A friend dropped over $1,000 at Hammer Nutrition last year, and she doesn't use any of their pills, just the "food."

Middle rings, cassettes, freehubs, chains, cables, tires, tubes, shorts, rims . . . I don't mind the rest of it, but I hate wearing out rims. PITA. The Ultegra brifters were expensive, too. Hard to believe one can wear out a frame. Maybe aluminum. Get carbon. A guy I ride with rode 32,000 miles last year. His frame is fine. Kind of puts the century/month club in perspective, doesn't it? He has two kids and a job. He says his kids are a big help, and that cheese has the most calories per dollar.

Spray the rims with simple green or your favorite cleaning solution and give the braking surfaces a good wipe down after every wet ride. This helps your brake pads and rims last much longer.

Tires, chains, brake blocks and sprockets. On 3rd chain, 2nd cassette and fourth set of brake blokes this year. Lost count of tyres.

Cables seem to go forever - but that's just 'cause I use bar end levers, I reckon.

BTW, Steve A rides on steel frames, because of the longevity issues (don't think he can afford Ti).

I'm keeping it simple by riding a single speed (actually two speed) most of the time and staying off the brakes as much as possible. Rim wear has got to be the most frustrating and makes me want to go with a disc setup. I split my riding between five bikes but its not cheap to replace parts.

And yet some of the stuff -- the French rando bikes come to mind -- has lasted for decades. It seems to me that we've traded some longevity for performance, or at least the illusion of performance. I've got Campagnolo Nuovo Record equipped racing bikes that put in a decade of hard service followed by several more decades of pleasure riding, and the only things that have been replaced are consumables like brake pads and chains.

To me, things like shifters that wear out every few years, or 10-speed chains that have to be replaced every 1500 miles, are actually kind of shocking, especially considering how much these things now cost. Reassures me that I took the right route in finding 9-speed stuff and downtube levers, anyway...

BTW, I can't help but believe that frequently wearing out steel frames means either A) frames that are much too light, B) a rider that is obnoxiously abusive and performs zero maintenance, or C) an active imagination.

Though I guess there's the time-honored D) "I just wanted another new frame". :)

I'm still choking over my brifters last year. I've never in my life replaced any sort of shifting mechanism before ... it had never occurred to me that such things would ever need replacing ... and then I had to fork over more than I paid for some of my bicycles just for shifters!

One reason I'm leaning towards simple downtube shifters. That and I kinda like them anyways. Been a very long time since I had a big equipped with them, but I still remember the simplicity and clean look.

Good thing about do-it-yourself. I build my own wheels so I save lots of dough there. I've paid as little as $25 for Velocity Deep V hoop and $99 for a DA rear hub. Nice sturdy wheel, cheap. Got 11,000 miles out of the rear wheel on my training/beater bike wiht not as much as a budge out of true. I've had wheels built at a high end shop that didn't las the first 40 mile ride.

I damaged the Ultegra rear drailleur on a century (stupid mistake leaning bike on curb at reststop) but the brifters wore out. The shop wanted $600 to upgrade the components to DA. I found sales then did it myself for $300 including the tools. DA Brifters for $199 and DA rear derailleur for $64 no tax sale.:D

I no longer trust the shop with failure diagnosis. I've paid for adjustments that turned out to be worse than when I took in the bike. My buddy had a nice Italian rig with Ultergra. He took it in for a rear adjustment. The guy at the shop said it was the best he could do, that's why they made Dura Ace!:eek:.....I adjusted it for him on the road in less than 3 minutes. No problem since. I'd bet half the repairs/stuff people pay for is not needed.

When you guys say the freehub wore out, wha do you mean? I've never had a problem with hubs and I'm a heavy rider. Maybe from rain and snow? Don't have that weather problem here. I have hubs from '98 with no issues. Can't they be repacked with new bearings?

Did have the tandem wheel hub overhauled with new grease and bearings about a year ago on a '98 tandem. But that was only $12!

Never any problems with the internal mech's on a hub though.

I recently switched back from bar enders to down tube shifters on my Surly Trucker bike and I like them very much.........simple, clean and less available to constantly shift with. This actually puts a more relaxed pace to my rides and I find myself standing to climb small rises or otherwise modulating my cadence instead of trying to switch gears like a obsessed fanatic. :eek:

Shimano, for some insane reason, is still making downtube shifters for nine and ten speed. I'm apparently the only one on the planet who's buying them, but for sixty bucks vs. three or four (or five or six) hundred bucks for brifters, I'm feeling like I can do without the quarter of a second per shift gained by the brifters.

Especially when it turns out that the brifters need to be replaced every couple of years...

I no longer trust the shop with failure diagnosis. I've paid for adjustments that turned out to be worse than when I took in the bike. My buddy had a nice Italian rig with Ultergra. He took it in for a rear adjustment. The guy at the shop said it was the best he could do, that's why they made Dura Ace!:eek:.....I adjusted it for him on the road in less than 3 minutes. No problem since. I'd bet half the repairs/stuff people pay for is not needed.

That's what annoyed me about Machka's bike. The adjustments we sooooo botched, I couldn't believe it. And while it took a little bit of fiddling to take it all back to scratch, the job didn't last more than 30 minutes, including the test ride.

I have a very strong feeling that there wasn't anything really wrong with the brifters, but it made more financial sense for the shop to declare them dead and sell her a new set.

But still, this was the bike shop I went into while I was in Canada and asked if they stocked fixed-gear sprockets... and the guy just looked at me with a dumb look on his face.

FWIW, I have older Tiagras, and they are still going OK, coming up to six years after purchasing the bike. Hence my comment about mid-range components being probably a bit more economical in terms of longevity.

As to the freehubs, in the sorts of conditions Machka has ridden, it's a wonder other things don't go amiss. The hub in question is a Formula, and while I love the run of sealed bearings, the weakness with these appears to be the exposure to water that gets into the pawls and spring and finally corrodes them into submission. It's probably one case where regular maintenance would help extend the life of the freehub, deaspite the "fiddliness" of the job.

Shimano, for some insane reason, is still making downtube shifters for nine and ten speed. I'm apparently the only one on the planet who's buying them, but for sixty bucks vs. three or four (or five or six) hundred bucks for brifters, I'm feeling like I can do without the quarter of a second per shift gained by the brifters.

Especially when it turns out that the brifters need to be replaced every couple of years...

You're not the only one... ;)

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x248/cyclaholic_album/surly1.jpg

This is my commuter and long distance ride (before lights & fenders were fitted), she does about 12000 miles a year. I've only replaced tires, the chain, casette, bartape, and one shifter cable. I'm about to replace the rear rim which is pretty badly beaten up and cracked, but that's from fairly agressive urban commuting. I can't imagine this frame ever wearing out.

Thanks for the response Rowan. I wouldn't be surprised if there is one happy shop dude sporting used/free brifters on his new build!:D

I had to throw on Sora on my bike in a pinch. Brifters and rear derailleur. I put 8,000 miles on them and they were still perfect after 2 years on the bike. I actually believe they worked just as well as my Ultegras.

Formula? Yeah, I've only used Shimano hubs but I don't face the same conditions as Macha.

I think there is something satisfying about keeping and using something until it wears out. I get the impression that it's a feeling most people aren't familar with these days.

I think there is something satisfying about keeping and using something until it wears out. I get the impression that it's a feeling most people aren't familar with these days.

Oh, I keep my freehubs until they wear out! And my tires, and my chains, and those middle chainrings ... Trouble is, they're worn out in 2 or 3 years. That's the thing I'm finding with this long distance cycling. My first year in it, I went through 6 tires ... worn to the threads. I'd never gone through 6 tires in a year before ... I'd rarely gone through more than 2 tires. My first thought was that I'd gotten a bad batch of tires, but then I realized I was putting on 2 or 3 times the distance.

The thing is, Steve, who I mentioned in my first post, logs an incredible number of miles each year ... if I'm not mistaken I think it's somewhere in the 25,000 to 30,000 mile range. Well, I do a lot of miles, but it takes me 4 or 5 years to do that ... so it wouldn't surprise me if he burns through equipment in a year or less while the rest of us (even though we ride long(ish) distances) burn through it in a few years.

The thing is, Steve, who I mentioned in my first post, logs an incredible number of miles each year ... if I'm not mistaken I think it's somewhere in the 25,000 to 30,000 mile range.

I'm not sure it's that far. I'll ask him.

He only rides fixed gear these days, so that reduces the wear on rims and brake pads a lot. None of those gear thingies to wear out, either. He was seriously contemplating doing RAAM on fixed, but decided he couldn't afford it. He did a 25mile 24hr ride in 2007 (on fixed). Steve only rides steel frames, as I said before, so takes a while to wear out a frame.

Shimano, for some insane reason, is still making downtube shifters for nine and ten speed. I'm apparently the only one on the planet who's buying them, but for sixty bucks vs. three or four (or five or six) hundred bucks for brifters, I'm feeling like I can do without the quarter of a second per shift gained by the brifters.

Especially when it turns out that the brifters need to be replaced every couple of years...

I use down tube shifters on my Surly LHT, too.

Yeah, stuff wears out. The whole "metal fatigue thing" really hit home for me while I was riding Ragbrai in 1983. I was riding a Motobecane Grand Tour and looked down at the chain set and noticed how easy it was for me to cause the chain wheels to deflect as I pushed on bigger gears.

That evening, a good buddy "Rick@OCRR" looked at my bike and discovered that my seat tube had begun to crack at the bottom bracket and most likely going to fail if I didn't take it easy the rest of the ride. (in a side note this was the year Scott Dixon was riding the infamous exo "powercam" crank set...)

I never felt the same way about riding bicycles after that day. Later that year, I had set of handlebars crack and fail right at the stem. I was going down a hill on a city street and coming to a red light. It was just luck that the bars gave way slowly and I had the ability to shift my weight off of the broken side as it gave way. I was able to ride to a bike shop and get the bars replaced without incident.

I was genuinely spooked for several months after but never took "metal fatigue" seriously enough to inspect by bikes as well as I should have. About 15 years later, I was riding several blocks from home when a crank arm failed at the pedal spindle while I was applying pedal pressure. I crashed big-time and "wrenched" my back and shoulder muscles badly. I was screwed up for months.

I've had more things happen since. Live and learn.

I'm still choking over my brifters last year. I've never in my life replaced any sort of shifting mechanism before ... it had never occurred to me that such things would ever need replacing ... and then I had to fork over more than I paid for some of my bicycles just for shifters!

When my 105 brifters were stolen off a Trek 5000 some years back (along with the handlebars and IIRC the stem) and I found out the cost of replacement, I just sold the remains of the bike.

You can save a lot of money using separate shifters and brake levers, plus you only have to replace whichever one is worn. I don't know why plain ol' levers wouldn't last virtually for a lifetime if not abused. However, I've come to greatly prefer brifters to downtube shifters (never tried bar ends), so I guess the cost is just the way it goes.

Yeah, stuff wears out. The whole "metal fatigue thing" really hit home for me while I was riding Ragbrai in 1983. I was riding a Motobecane Grand Tour and looked down at the chain set and noticed how easy it was for me to cause the chain wheels to deflect as I pushed on bigger gears.

That evening, a good buddy "Rick@OCRR" looked at my bike and discovered that my seat tube had begun to crack at the bottom bracket and most likely going to fail if I didn't take it easy the rest of the ride. (in a side note this was the year Scott Dixon was riding the infamous exo "powercam" crank set...)

I never felt the same way about riding bicycles after that day. Later that year, I had set of handlebars crack and fail right at the stem. I was going down a hill on a city street and coming to a red light. It was just luck that the bars gave way slowly and I had the ability to shift my weight off of the broken side as it gave way. I was able to ride to a bike shop and get the bars replaced without incident.

I was genuinely spooked for several months after but never took "metal fatigue" seriously enough to inspect by bikes as well as I should have. About 15 years later, I was riding several blocks from home when a crank arm failed at the pedal spindle while I was applying pedal pressure. I crashed big-time and "wrenched" my back and shoulder muscles badly. I was screwed up for months.

I've had more things happen since. Live and learn.

I had an alloy quill stem crack from fatigue. It was pure luck I happened to take it out to be able to notice it before it completely failed because the crack began inside the tube. I also cracked a crank arm off just above the bolt hole. And I was a light rider back in those days.

I had a similar experience with a high mileage car. Some part of the steering mechanism gave out and the steering wheel just spun totally free like an amusement park kiddie ride! Lucky it happened while I was parking. A few thousand miles later a steel pulley just snapped off the engine block and I concluded then it was enuthanasia time.

Cost of riding is surprising in terms of expendables for the bike alone, though for most people
the cost of riding is mostly depreciation in the value of the bike, a matter of concern for those
who are compelled to get a 'new bike' every 2-4yrs.
Simple calcs based on my experience (really lousy with the most expensive part: Shimano brifters,
where I rarely get above 10 kmiles out of a R hand brifter and have had 2 8spd and 3 9spd R
brifters go bad on me in the course of ~50 kmi of riding the past 10yrs.)

Tires Cost all over the map $12-50, life average 3000mi Cost/mi 0.4 to 1.5 cents
Tubes nominal but cerca 0.05 - 0.1 cents per mile depending on how much you patch.
Chains: cost $12-40 depending on 6-10spd etc aver life 6000mi cost/mi 0.2- 0.65 cents
cassettes $12-60 depending on 6spd -10spd ave life 10000mi cost/mi 0.12- 0.6 cents
chainwheel: $30-50 life ~ 16000mi cost/mi 0.2 - 0.3 cents
cleats: $25 +/- life 8000 mi cost/mi 0.3 cents
BRIFTERS: $150-450 (8-10sp) life (me) 12000 cost/mi 1.3 - 3.8 cents

So older bikes with conservative equipment, barend or down tube shifters
would come in at $0.01-0.015/mile with a futz factor for rim, cables, housing and
pads. High zoot bikes will run upwards of $0.07/mile. With luck you can
have longer lasting brifters and cut expenses by a penny or two per mile
but the rest won't change much. Depreciation is in addition, as is the
occasional frame failure. Deraillers last a lot longer and are relatively cheap
as long as you stay away from CF, Red, DA etc so will not add a lot to
per mile costs. There is very little info as to how long a Campy Record
RD will last but 30 kmi seems conservative so 0.5 cents per mile could
be thrown in, ditto for other hi priced der. Lube and cleaning are regarded as nominal.

He did a 25mile 24hr ride in 2007 (on fixed).


About 400 missing?

Cost of riding is surprising in terms of expendables for the bike alone,...High zoot bikes will run upwards of $0.07/mile...

This is very interesting. Thank you for posting this.

This is very interesting. Thank you for posting this.

Looking at my bike expenses since 1/1/2004, I've spent an average of 53 cents per mile over nearly 29000 miles. This doesn't include event fees, most food items, or hotel/travel fees. And for the most part it doesn't include the major capital expenses of buying the bikes themselves but does include a ton of minor capital expenses for things that should continue to last for many years (e.g., wheel w/Schmidt hub + E6, panniers for touring, saddles, saddlebags, handlebar bags, clothes, etc.).

If I get rid of the most obvious of those "minor" capital expenses, the per mile cost drops to 43 cents per mile. During this period, I became a randonneur, and there is a lot of experimentation that I expect will not require repetition, but that results in a bunch of spare parts, etc. that are not easy to separate out.

Still, even at 43 cents per mile, this is a less expensive way to live than commuting by car and then paying for a membership to some sort of gym (that I likely wouldn't go to). And there are tremendous health benefits to bike commuting + randonneuring.

QUOTE=Richard Cranium;5938744]That evening, a good buddy "Rick@OCRR" looked at my bike and discovered that my seat tube had begun to crack at the bottom bracket and most likely going to fail if I didn't take it easy the rest of the ride. (in a side note this was the year Scott Dixon was riding the infamous exo "powercam" crank set...) I've had more things happen since. Live and learn.[/QUOTE]

Yes, and thanks for the reminder!:)

I'd pretty much forgotten about that incident. Of course, that was a long time ago, and your name wasn't "Richard Cranium" then, and I don't think you'd even gotten your Reynolds 753 yet (speaking of metal fatigue) . . . You did have a thing for "corn fed Iowa girls" but I guess this is the wrong forum for that!

Rick / OCRR

Looking at my bike expenses since 1/1/2004, I've spent an average of 53 cents per mile over nearly 29000 miles. This doesn't include event fees, most food items, or hotel/travel fees. And for the most part it doesn't include the major capital expenses of buying the bikes themselves but does include a ton of minor capital expenses for things that should continue to last for many years (e.g., wheel w/Schmidt hub + E6, panniers for touring, saddles, saddlebags, handlebar bags, clothes, etc.)...

Yikes!!!!

What kind of wear do you folks get on rims? I typically have to replace front rims after 15,000 miles or so. I rarely use the back brake so rear wheels last indefinitely.

About 400 missing?
lol

We brits specialize in ultra-slow riding and amazing trackstands.;)

I've just done a cost-per-mile figure - I think I've spent 14us cents per mile, but that included a new (2nd hand) bike and shoes that I expect to last for years. If I just subtract the bike and shoes, then I've spent about 7c per mile.

I recently had the joy of replacing the bearings in my hubs. I had over 15000 miles on them and read somewhere that you can replace them. Ball bearings are pretty cheap and it turned out to be easier than I thought.
I had a cable fray to the point of near failure inside the shifter. Then theres the tires, my current pair are amazing me with over 3000 miles on them and I am just waiting to wear one out but am not seeing any threads.
I have over 15000 miles on my rims and they are still going strong (Mavic Open Pros).
My right shifter is on it's last legs with about 19000 miles on it, there is little rubber left around the hood and the shifter has to be pushed just right to get it to shift. I am scanning ebay for a suitable replacement, I may drop to tiagra don't know (current is 105).
Oh, I also wore out a bottom bracket (can't change out the bearings in those anymore).
When you figure in Gas savings from bike commuting I actually made money including all my Long Distance hobby expenses.

If you are putting in that many miles maybe a deraileurless bike would last longer. Of course that depends on your route if its real hilly. My own two speed works quite well for me with a 51 and 65 inch gear. If I get a uber steep hill I just walk up but everything less than a freeway off ramp I'm fine with.;)

When you figure in Gas savings from bike commuting I actually made money including all my Long Distance hobby expenses.
Yep! 10 years without owning a car in Australia gives me ... oh... around $30,000 that I have frittered away on bicycles and trips across the world and other important (and less important indulgent) things. :D

I use Campy Record 10sp equipment and have had good luck with it. I’m getting ready to rebuild the rear, right, brifter, cost $40 for parts (through my LBS) and my labor…free. I usually get around 15,000 miles from the rear and 25,000 miles from the front. I’ve rebuilt my Campy hubs at a fraction of the cost of buying new ones. I got all the parts from my LBS, seals, cones, bearings and races. I was a lot easier than I thought to rebuild them.

I use Campy Record 10sp equipment and have had good luck with it. I’m getting ready to rebuild the rear, right, brifter, cost $40 for parts (through my LBS) and my labor…free. I usually get around 15,000 miles from the rear and 25,000 miles from the front. I’ve rebuilt my Campy hubs at a fraction of the cost of buying new ones. I got all the parts from my LBS, seals, cones, bearings and races. I was a lot easier than I thought to rebuild them.

Campy brifters are rebuildable? That is one very good reason to go Campy even if it is a bit more expensive.

I'm still choking over my brifters last year. I've never in my life replaced any sort of shifting mechanism before ... it had never occurred to me that such things would ever need replacing ... and then I had to fork over more than I paid for some of my bicycles just for shifters!


If you're irate about disposable Shimano brifters, I strongly recommend you consider the Campagnolo brifters. The Campy brifter can be easily rebuilt with a small parts kit that is < $20. You can keep these shifters going for a lot longer, plus they are more compatable with handlebar bags than Shimano's.

I use Shimano cassette and chain with Campy Brifters and deraileurs and it works perfectly. This way you get rebuildability of Campy, and the cassette and freehub availability that Shimano is good for....round the world (ie if your Shimano freehub fails 1/2 through the RM1200, it will be a lot easier to find its replacement than the Campy equivalent !!).

If you're irate about disposable Shimano brifters, I strongly recommend you consider the Campagnolo brifters. The Campy brifter can be easily rebuilt with a small parts kit that is < $20. You can keep these shifters going for a lot longer, plus they are more compatable with handlebar bags than Shimano's.

I use Shimano cassette and chain with Campy Brifters and deraileurs and it works perfectly. This way you get rebuildability of Campy, and the cassette and freehub availability that Shimano is good for....round the world (ie if your Shimano freehub fails 1/2 through the RM1200, it will be a lot easier to find its replacement than the Campy equivalent !!).

Well, if I can't pick up a cheap 9spd Shimano 105 on ebay what is the Campy Equivalent? I figure if you can just replace the shifter and the derailleur then that is a no brainer.

Well, if I can't pick up a cheap 9spd Shimano 105 on ebay what is the Campy Equivalent? I figure if you can just replace the shifter and the derailleur then that is a no brainer.

Recommend you search for Campy Veloce. Also check for closeouts from online retailers - 9sp stuff may be heavily discounted.

Yep! 10 years without owning a car in Australia gives me ... oh... around $30,000 that I have frittered away on bicycles and trips across the world and other important (and less important indulgent) things. :D

+1

Not having a car for 7 years has allowed me to travel as much as I have, and return to University to get my degree. Plus a custom-built bicycle. :)